Quote Of The Day: On Jill Carroll’s Statement
Conservative blogger Ed Morrissey on Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll’s statement confirming that the propaganda statement she made was done under coercion. Carroll had come underfire and lambasted by some conservative bloggers for it, and some of their earlier posts questioned whether she was a victim or not. Morrissey was NOT one of them. In, fact, in his earlier posts, Morrissey had taken her at her word and noted that even POWs were expected to make these kinds of verbal bargains to stay alive.
On Carroll’s statement:
Had the Iraqi Army released a video like this during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom with Jessica Lynch, all of us would have immediately understood it to be nothing more than a cheap propaganda trick. Why did so many in the blogosphere not understand that the same dynamic was at work with Jill Carroll? Was it the widely-distributed picture of her wearing traditional Muslim garb and severe glasses that made us forget that she had been the victim of a kidnapping and kept under threat of force for almost ninety days? Now that we have a new picture of hers to use, does the initial reaction seem a lot less understandable?In this event, we gave the terrorists their talking points by jumping to an unfair conclusion. The reaction of people to her statement gave the terrorists credibility that they never would otherwise have had and ensured that their propaganda got the maximum amount of play. The real story is contained in this statement, made when she finally got out of the war zone — and it will never get the amount of play that her initial report did.
Finally, for those who blamed her for being in Iraq in the first place, let me remind you that we have continually harped on the media for being balcony reporters — for not getting outside of the Green Zone and trying to get the true stories of Iraq. Well, that’s what Jill Carroll tried to do, and she got unlucky enough to get kidnapped for her efforts. We need reporters to take those kind of chances, and we should have been more supportive of her all along. Now that she’s home, let’s hope we remember that with the next reporter unfortunate enough to find themselves the victim of violence and not victimize them a second time when they cooperate enough to be set free.
This only the last three paragraphs. Read it all.
3 Responses to “Quote Of The Day: On Jill Carroll’s Statement”
Good for Ed for coming clean on this. I didn’t read Ed’s earlier posts on Carroll, but Ed is clearly a very influential blogger in the right blogosphere, and his willingness to call out fellow conservatives for misreading Carroll’s initial statements is a good thing.
Yes. It shows that you can’t dismiss all conservative as part of the echo chamber. There are highly thoughtful people out there and even if you disagree with them they are working through the issues by seriously thinking them through rather than just moving their fingers as fast as they can on their keyboards so they can write things that attack and denounce people. Not all conservatives have been attacking Carroll. He deserves praise not just for what he said but the way in which he said it.
With all due respect to those who got it wrong, I was one of the bloggers who correctly stated that Jill Carroll’s early statements were a product of duress and urged that she be given time to find her own voice again before criticizing her:
Give Jill Carroll a Little Time Before Condemning Her Latest Statements
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TITLE: Jumping To Conclusions Is Not Good Exercise
BLOG NAME: Captain’s Quarters
Jill Carroll has released a statement through the Christian Science Monitor, now that she has safely left Iraq and the clutches of her captors, that repudiates the video that the kidnappers forced her to make: During my last night in…
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TITLE: Premature Articulation: The REAL Jill Carroll for Jimmy Carter Geraghty and Others w/Reading Comprehension Deficiencies
BLOG NAME: Debbie Schlussel
By Debbie Schlussel Here’s a note to you bloggers–especially the suddenly blind conservative ones–who want Jill Carroll to be what she is not. Please read it VERY CAREFULLY and S-L-O-W-L-Y, as some of you seem to have premature articulation and…
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TITLE: Suspicion (FURTHER UPDATED)
BLOG NAME: All Things Beautiful
UPDATE IX: The London Telegraph attacks the right wing Blogosphere in a major way….Embittered’, the ever hateful and bitter Mahablog, who cannot string two words together without spitting out venom, who calls me “ever-brainless” and a “dimwitt”
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TITLE: Suspicion (FURTHER UPDATED)
BLOG NAME: All Things Beautiful
UPDATE IX: The London Telegraph attacks the right wing Blogosphere in a major way….Embittered’, the ever hateful and bitter Mahablog, who cannot string two words together without spitting out venom, who calls me “ever-brainless” and a “dimwitt”
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TITLE: ysldlzwwvc
BLOG NAME: rjviqtfmyw
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