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| NBC’s Banfield Chided Over Criticisms | ||
| 2003-04-29 | ||
| Meet your new anchorwomen, Channel 62, Cheyenne, Wyoming! NBC News president Neal Shapiro has taken correspondent Ashleigh Banfield to the woodshed for a speech in which she criticized the networks for portraying the Iraqi war as "glorious and wonderful." Al Jazeera awaits. She could be their poster girl. Banfield delivered her remarks Thursday at Kansas State University. "She and we both agreed that she didn't intend to demean the work of her colleagues, and she will choose her words more carefully in the future," an NBC spokeswoman said Monday. Other sources inside NBC said Banfield promised, in effect, not to do it again and to check her facts before making public statements in the future. Banfield had criticized NBC in the speech for closing its bureau in Kabul, Afghanistan, a statement that the network said was untrue. Really good when you have to remind ace reporter to "check her facts". Does wonders for her credibility. Sources said Shapiro "bawled her out" for what were perceived as criticisms over the war coverage of all of the networks, including NBC and MSNBC. In her speech, Banfield said the networks had portrayed the Iraqi war as "glorious and wonderful" because they had failed to show the bloody horrors of the battles. Bloodthisty wench, isn't she? There was no indication whether Shapiro was upset over the entire speech — Banfield also lambasted Fox News Channel and MSNBC talk show host Michael Savage — or just the elements that were critical of the networks' war coverage. NBC insiders said few people took Banfield's comments seriously because of her lack of experience — she is largely working for MSNBC these days, and her primetime show on the network failed last summer. "I don't think people look to Ashleigh Banfield to set the standards of journalism," one person said about the reaction inside the department. "People were sort of rolling their eyes." Sounds like the clock is ticking...
Which is the whole idea. Kill them before they even see you if possible. Sorry they couldn't reenact Gettysburg for you Ashleigh. Banfield, who was stationed Stateside during the war, is Now we know why she's pissed. No book deal for her. Correspondents who have returned from the front have all raved about the embedding system that placed them with troops as well as the overall network coverage of the war. "On a more macular level, there's some sort of demystification here — not only for the media but for the military and what the other institution is about," CBS News correspondent Mark Strassman said after returning from the war. "This vague process is a new step that will always continue to evolve. And all that's for the better. They have a story worth telling, and we have a story that we want to tell, and all that is for the good." Gee, they had guns and big tanks and...EVERYTHING! Lost in much of the controversy is that Banfield actually had praise for NBC News in her KSU speech, saying the network had never censored her when she covered the Arab point of view. A major theme of her speech was that both Americans and Arabs need to be educated about each other's culture and points of view in order to begin a dialogue that would lead to peace. She said that can't be done if television networks abandon overseas coverage. The Arabs know about our culture. That's why lots of them want to kill us. But much of Banfield's criticism was aimed at television audiences who would prefer to watch stories about murder victims and missing girls than international relations — unless there is a major crisis. Yeah, you'll turn down the sniper trial or the Laci Peterson trial won't you? Sure you would. "It's crucial to our security that you are interested in this," she said. "Because when you are interested, I can respond. If I put this on right now, you'll turn it off."
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| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #7 Anyone think it's an accident that Banfield didn't get an overseas assignment for the war? After all, she was in Pakistan, and a bit of Afghanistan, during the Afghan war. It's no accident, no way. Ashfield is Madonna with an MSNBC mike. She has very limited intelligence or perspective or reporting skills. She tries to cover it up with her Garafolo "intellectual" glasses and her semi-radical comments. But in the end, she's like Madonna: an inarticulate, poorly educated, "pretty" face. |
| Posted by: R. McLeod 2003-04-30 03:35:56 |
| #6 The amazing thing about this woman is that she takes herself seriously. She'd get more attention if she changed her name to "Assly Bunghole". |
| Posted by: anon 2003-04-29 18:16:06 |
| #5 I might be interested in purchasing a video of her getting spanked behind the wood shed, however. |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2003-04-29 11:51:49 |
| #4 Ever since she lost her show (due to bad ratings) and Savage got one, she's been quite the shrill little harpie, and this was just the latest "Look at meeeeeee" tantrum. Sorry Ashleigh, you aren't getting Katie Courics chair (which is what she has been after all along). Being Perky and Liberal isnt enough anymore. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2003-04-29 11:08:13 |
| #3 How could it be? I mean she had the cool glasses thing going and all, do they expect her to have a clue too?? picky bastards |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-29 10:07:24 |
| #2 Seems Ashleigh isn't too brilliant. |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-04-29 09:40:06 |
| #1 "Sorry they couldn't reenact Gettysburg for you Ashleigh. " 140th anniversary of the battle this July. Plenty of folks will be gathering in Pennsylvania who are quite capable of reenacting the battle. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-04-29 08:28:12 |