The Insufferable Katie Couric

Good ol' Katie Couric....on location in Iraq.

KATIE COURIC: Well I was surprised, you know, after I went to Eastern Baghad. I was taken to the al-Alawi market which is near Haifa street which was the scene of that very bloody gun battle back in January and you know this market seemed to be thriving and there were a lot of people out and about. A lot of family owned businesses and vegetable stalls and so you do see signs of life that seem to be normal. Of course that’s what the U.S. military wants me to see so you have to keep that in mind as well.

Since she seems obligated to point out dastardly Pentagon propaganda (Heck, that market was probably a set, just like in The Truman Show or Capricorn One) I guess it would be too much to ask that when CBS news reports bad news out of Iraq, that their talking heads be obligated to say "Of course that’s what Al Qaeda wants us to see so you have to keep that in mind as well". At least that would be more honest....

It just amazes me how much Couric's generation distrusts the military, such that they will take news events manufactured by our enemies without question or analysis, but cannot overcome their cynicism long enough to appreciate an honest attempt to point out actual good news.

The funny thing is, if you read Couric's own words on why she wanted to go to Iraq, she says:

"You can't help but get a very detached perspective when you're not there and you're not witnessing things firsthand," Couric told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I'm curious about very basic questions regarding living conditions, about how much fear there is in the street, about how the soldiers really are doing."

Hmm, so she went there to find out the truth about how things were on the street, but when she finds that the street is calm, "thriving", and "normal", she can't help to assume that it is somehow a Potemkin Village that the Pentagon "wanted her to see".

So cynical, and so sad......

UPDATE: It is also nice to see that she will be spending time in Syria as well. I can't imagine what her angle will be from there.... Think she will say "Of course that’s what the Syrian government wants me to see so you have to keep that in mind as well"?? Don't hold your breath....

UPDATE II: In my original reading I was not privy to the sentence "But I think there are definitely areas where the situation is improving" that immediately followed the egregious statement of distrust. It really doesn't help her cause in my eyes....