Newspaper Page Text
4A
♦ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2006
Houston flailti .^Journal
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans
Managing Editor Editor Emeritus
Who to trust?
Former Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger was quoted as saying this
past weekend that victory is no longer
possible in Iraq.
Granted Kissinger, winner of the Nobel
Prize in 1973, is a phenomenal expert on
foreign policy. His list of accomplishments
in that regard are endless.
Maybe he’s right. Maybe all those who
have echoed the same sentiments over and
over and over again are all right.
Still, there is the question of whether or
not he is any longer that much in the know.
And, that statement especially applies to
all those so-called experts around the world
that continue
to plaster our
newspapers,
TV and radio
with their
thoughts on
the subject.
In real
ity, we have to
ask just how
much they
really know?
What are they
basing their
decision/judg
ments on? Is
it other media
reports around
the world? That’s scary.
In the case of Kissinger, he no doubt knows
some people in very high places.
But, does he know the right people any
more?
And even if he does that mean he has
access to classified information? The gov
ernment doesn’t just go around passing out
top secret information to anybody. They
wouldn’t just give it to Kissinger. They sure
wouldn’t give it to the media.
The government bases dissemination of
classified information to those who have
a clearance for it and, more importantly:
“The need to know.”
Does Kissinger have the need to know? Do
the newspapers, TV and radio?
So, what are they all basing their decision/
judgments on?
Their opinions is what we would surmise.
The problem with our media mainstream
these days is they HAVE to produce. Having
to produce typically means - take CNN for
example - pulling some retired general out
of the woodwork and “voila” he’s now the
talking head for the organization.
But, he’s basing his information on what?
The way things were when he was in the
service?
The world may have turned significantly
since then.
Here’s our advice. There’s really only two
sources of information you can trust these
days in regard to Iraq.
One, is those currently in the field. Those
who are getting shot at. Those who put their
lives on the line every day. Those who know
because they’re “right there.” And, did
you know they, those with decision-making
authority, get an intelligence briefing every
day? So they know!
Two, is the president and/or those cur
rently within his cabinet (ditto we would
imagine on the intelligence briefing - and
there’s no telling how often he’s updated on
the situation).
Oh, we know. There are plenty out there
who no longer trust the president in this
matter.
But, what’s the alternative? Kissinger?
The media?
Call it the lesser of two evils if you will
but we would much rather put our trust in
those who we at least “know” Have direct
access to what’s going on rather than those
who may be either speculating (Kissinger)
or acting on the need to keep their job (the
media).
Still, there is the
question of whether
or not he is any longer
that much in the know.
And, that statement
especially applies to all
those so-called experts
around the world that
continue to plaster
our newspapers, TV
and radio with their
thoughts on the subject.
Some kids lose in name game
My wife called me at work
Friday, not to ask what time I
was coming home or what did
I want for supper, but: “Do you mind if
I use the chain saw?”
I was flopping around at my desk,
gasping for breath for about four
minutes when I finally calmed down
enough to ask: “Why?”
“There are some trees I want to cut
down. Are you still there, Glynn?
Glynn? Oh, never mind. I’ll do it
some other time.”
As she hung up the phone, my mind
was playing the title from a 1940 s
movie called I Wake Up Screaming.
I’ve never seen that film, but its name
is funny and scary at the same time
and really applies to my life.
Names are like that: funny and scary.
Take mine, for instance.
Most people with my name spell it
Glenn or Glen, although, to be honest,
my version of it is pronounced slightly
differently because of the “y.”
More of a “Glin,” which is the way
one fellow class clown in my high
school wrote it in my yearbook.
It could have been worse; Glynn is a
legitimate name, used by humans for
centuries. Nowadays, parents roll the
dice when the stork arrives.
Babies come out of the hospital
wearing monikers such as Lexus and
Tequila and Sledgehammer and, for
"Do I have a reservation? Oh, I've got lots of reservations!"
'lpOlo J
Lott avenges media double standard
It’s funny how political missteps can
destroy some people, while leaving
others standing, even smiling.
Thank goodness Republican
Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott - one of
those once nearly destroyed - proved
this week that media’s plunging, twist
ing knives can be extracted.
No, I’m not a “neocoii” - a term I
despise - for defending Lott against 4-
year-old charges of racial insensitivity.
I’m just being fair.
So fair that I’m even understanding
of a far more virulent verstatement
presented recently by some civil rights
icons. I point out this contemporary
gaffe to make my point about media
character assassinations by way of
comparison.
Just days before the recent elections,
Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) and
former Congressman, Ambassador and
Mayor Andrew Young lent their voices
to a radio ad designed to promote the
African-American Democratic candi
date for chairman of Fulton County,
Georgia’s largest.
The ad partly said and partially hint
ed that should the Republican candi
date be elected, blacks would see their
lives returned to the days of being fire
hosed in the streets, among other Jim
Crow-type sufferings.
Lewis himself warned voters - mostly
black ones targeted by ads on predomi
nantly black radio stations - that their
“very lives” depended on their support
ing the Democratic candidate.
The ad aired late in the campaign.
Maybe that’s why local and national
media hardly noticed its excess, even
though some of the most liberal local
reporters covering the campaign were
shocked that few watchdogs noticed
the ad. But many who heard it called
the ad pure race-baiting. The text and
subtext of the radio spot insinuated
that a band of 1950 s thug policemen
and vigilantes would find a way to beat
OPINION
all I know, 89-2-Mer.
Instead of passing along revered fam
ily names to their offspring, parents
are branding them with troublesome
titles that will cause them much more
grief than a simple alternate spelling
will do (which is trouble enough; I get
plenty of business mail to Ms. Glynn
Moore).
Because Thursday is Thanksgiving
Day, I looked up a list of the passengers
who landed on the Mayflower nearly
400 years ago. There were some solid
names there, people such as John,
Priscilla and Miles (remember that
triangle?), along with Mary, Edward,
Eleanor, William, Ann, Richard and
Sarah.
Now, I’m not saying the Pilgrims
didn’t have their fits of freakiness.
There was a girl named Remember
and a boy named Love (whose broth
er was Wrestling). There were quali
ties such as Humility, Constance and
Desire.
Glynn
Moore
Columnist
Morris News Service
Matt
Towery
Columnist
Morris News Service
the daylights out of listeners if the
Republican were elected.
Again, let’s be fair. People who actu
ally know John Lewis, Andrew Young
and current Atlanta Mayor Shirley
Franklin, who also contributed to the
ad, will attest that they’re all hon
orable, experienced public servants.
Lewis may continue to indulge in the
notion that he is still being beaten on
the infamous Edmund Pettis Bridge in
Alabama during a historic civil rights
march decades ago, but nevertheless,
he is kind and goodhearted. Mayor
Franklin works well with all ethnici
ties and races in her diverse city, most
notably the white business community.
And Young is far too worldly to pur
posely participate in racial harangue.
In truth, this ad was a patchwork
of comments that were edited into a
distasteful final product - so we could
declare it without malice and move
on.
Such a balanced assessment wasn’t
afforded Trent Lott in 2002, however,
when he tried to flatter 100-year-old
Sen. Strom Thurmond at his birth
day party by saying America would
have been better off had Thurmond
been elected president when he ran in
1948.
Instead, ravenous, righteous media
reminded us that Thurmond had run
as a segregationist.
Never mind that it had been 54 years
previous. It might as well have been
54 days. A pound of flesh was exacted
by the liberal inquisition. Worse, many
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
Resolved’s brother was Peregrine
(although, to be accurate, Peregrine
was born after the ship landed).
There wasn’t a Glynn among them,
though, so don’t judge them too harsh
ly-
I pity today’s kids every time they
sign tbeir names, because what they
write looks like a Scrabble game has
thrown up.
They get no breaks, either, when
their names are said aloud. I’ve always
thought no one should be allowed to
bestow a name they couldn’t say aloud
in public without cringing:
“Have you met my kids? This is
Clophrenius, and our girl Kaffeine. Oh,
and the baby, Junior III.”
When your name is out of the ordi
nary, you’re forever having to explain
it. I once knew a Bettie who gave up
trying to correct people when they
spelled it Betty. You never have to
explain Bill, but you do Byll.
We could end a lot of the heartache if
we let people name themselves.
Parents, just call your youngsters
“You” until they’re old enough to pick
a name they like.
Sure, they might come up with Kal-
E 1 or Brangelina, but it will be their
own doing - and their own undoing.
They won’t have anyone else to blame
- my mother, for example.
of Lott’s colleagues abandoned him
and ran for cover. He had to resign as
majority leader of the Senate. It was
the most despicable railroading of a
public official I’ve ever witnessed.
Now I read media reports of Lott’s
return to power. He has scored an
upset win over Sen. Lamar Alexander
of Tennessee to become minority whip
of the U.S. Senate.
One report this week paraphrased
Lott’s 2002 Thurmond comments as
having said the nation would be “bet
ter off had it elected Strom Thurmond
president in 1948, when he ran on a
segregationist platform.”
The quotation marks encase the
journalist’s words, but those words
might as well have been attributed
directly to Lott.
This characterization is like too many
others. They take what was meant to
be harmless praise to a very old man
and turn it into a sort of verbal Klan
ride. Lott never even mentioned seg
regation.
We will never end the media men
tality that takes causal leaps to con
nect Republican or conservative stum
blings with abominable intentions. Nor
will we ever see liberal misstatements
treated in a like manner.
The sweetest redemption for having
been lynched by opportunistic media
is renewed success. Way to go, Trent
Lott. You beat them all.
Matt Towery served as the chairman
of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s
political organization from 1992 until
Gingrich left Congress. He is a for
mer Georgia state representative, the
author of several books and currently
heads the polling and political infor
mation firm Insider Advantage. To
find out more about Matthew Towery
and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate website at www.
creators.com.