Internet reporting, like TV news reporting, is all about attracting eyeballs. So Pajamas Media decided to try a stunt to do that — it hired purportedly average-guy Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, AKA “Joe the Plumber,” to be a war correspondent. They sent him to Gaza and this is what he decided:
I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think journalists should be anywhere allowed war. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what’s happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I think it’s asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for ’em. Now everyone’s got an opinion and wants to downer, ah, down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers.
I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting. You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, “Well look at this atrocity,” well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.
From the ever-quotable Winston Churchill: “The biggest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter.”
The amusing part will be watching the spin and rationalization of the comment.
Wow. This is shocking. Surprising. Who would ever have guessed that dropping a loudmouthed plumber into the most complicated political mess on earth would result in drivel? I was sure we’d be looking at Pajama’s first Pulitzer.
Elites are again looking down their noses at the average man in the street, which includes our GIs.
I’ve nothing against the GIs — either our or Israel’s and I take strong issue with your insinuation that I sneer at them. That goes for Israel’s soldiers, too; Wurzelbacher is not “reporting” from a zone in which U.S. forces are engaged in combat and I think I’ve been clear that Israel are the good guys, Hamas are the bad guys, and while it sucks that civilians are caught in the crossfire, the moral blame for that rests with the bad guys.But Wurzelbacher has proven himself to be both remarkably inarticulate and lacking in any real insight or understanding of what’s going on around him. There’s plenty of right-wing bloggers who do great work from war zones — Michael Yon, to pick an obvious example. Wurzelbacher isn’t in the same league as Yon in terms of ability as a wart correspondent.
That should be “war correspondent.”
If we are going to compare him to Michael Yon, into his first week on the job. Why stop there maybe we should compare the all the broadcasters to Eric Sevareid and the journalist to Ernie Pyle.The GI remark was supposed to be directed at the Elites. I don’t consider all attorney elites (-: