Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
You'll recall that last week McCain accused the media of not covering the improving conditions in Baghdad, saying that there are many streets in Baghdad where an American could walk down the street and be perfectly safe. A CNN reporter in Baghdad, Michael Ware, immediately scoffed at that, said that McCain was living in Neverland and essentially invited McCain to pick a street and take a walk. So brave man that McCain is, he took him up on that offer, flew to Baghdad and walked through a market. Afterward he told reporters that this showed that one could "walk freely" in many areas of Baghdad. Except...
NBC's Nightly News provided further details about McCain's one-hour guided tour. He was accompanied by "100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead."
And the rest of the time?
The delegation was accompanied by heavily armed U.S. troops when they were not in the Green Zone, site of the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government. They traveled in armored military vehicles under heavy guard.
But here's the real kicker, from Newsweek's blog:
In the interest of presenting the full picture then, I think it should be pointed out that McCain and his fellow senators were accompanied to the market by a small army, upwards of 50 soldiers according to a source who accompanied the group on the stroll. Just another day at the market. And even though McCain cited a drop in violence, Agence France Presse on Sunday quoted an Iraqi official who reported a 15 percent increase in violence across Iraq in March. According to their tally, 2,078 civilians, cops and soldiers were killed last month, 272 more fatalities than in February.In any case, it didn't take the insurgents long to send their reply. Less then 30 minutes after McCain wrapped up, a barrage of half a dozen mortars peppered the boundaries of the Green Zone, where the senators held their press conference.
Neverland is calling.
Comments
What happened to the McCain that was at least a little bit respectable? What a hack.
Posted by: Robert | April 3, 2007 9:27 AM
Robert - Republicans wouldn't buy his brand of politics in 2000, so he looked at the product they were buying (i.e. "brand Bush") and repositioned himself to be more like that. A tragic marketing mistake if ever there was one. Alternatively, he's always been a bit of a hack who has picked up on "congressional responsibility" issues (such as campaign finance reform) to "atone" for his culpability in the Keating Five Savings and Loan Scandal in the 80's.
Posted by: NonyNony | April 3, 2007 9:47 AM
Posted by: Mustafa Mond, FCD | April 3, 2007 9:49 AM
McCain has spent the last six years systematically whoring his sould for the presidency. There's nothing left of the POW in Vietnam who was a stunning example of courage and honor. Except a name.
Posted by: Barry | April 3, 2007 9:50 AM
I was never going to vote for John McCain, I never bought the moderate straight talker pose and the media kid-gloves treatment of him frustrated me endlessly...
But this is just the saddest thing in a long time. Watching him dissolve, it's just depressing.
For the first time I've started to wonder if Alzheimer's is setting in. I'm not a doctor, of course, but it's sad.
Posted by: Lettuce | April 3, 2007 10:07 AM
Wow. McCain missed a GOLDEN marketing opportunity here! He *could* have been captured by Moslem insurectionists, and been the First Candidate To Be a POW in 2 Wars! His handlers have to be kicking themselves at the missed opportunity.
Posted by: J-Dog | April 3, 2007 11:02 AM
Even when a MSM outlet like Newsweek is forced to tell the whole story, they still spin it as best they can to support their agenda.
An entire company of a hundred heavily armed personnel - some in armored HumVees - became an innocuous sounding "upwards of 50 soldiers" (I suppose they want us to think is was like a parade or something).
Three Black Hawk helicopters and two Apache gunships circling overhead became... well, apparently they became invisible and undetectable, because they're not even mentioned in the Newsweek story.
Newsweek wasn't alone in promoting this alternate reality, of course. For example, MSNBC's original on-air coverage of McCain's stroll featured tailored graphics and carefully cropped and edited video(minimal views of soldiers, no mention of helicopters) that were obviously designed to support McCain's statements. The overall coverage of McCain's subsequent news conference was just laughable.
I won't even comment on the usual partisan media suspects.
One of the problems that the MSM is having in covering this story is that they appear to be going after the same shrinking segment of the market that the right-wing media is catering to(the war supporters). While some individuals probably want to present an accurate picture of what is going on, there are always those who insist on catering to that segment.
Posted by: Poly | April 3, 2007 1:34 PM
Reason's Hit & Run blog linked to this article from Yahoo news. Some money quotes from the street vendors:
"They were just making fun of us and paid this visit just for their own interests. Do they think that when they come and speak few Arabic words in a very bad manner it will make us love them? This country and its society have been destroyed because of them and I hope that they realized that during this visit."
"They were laughing and talking to people as if there was nothing going on in this country or at least they were pretending that they were tourists and were visiting the city's old market and buying souvenirs. To achieve this, they sealed off the area, put themselves in flak jackets and walked in the middle of tens of armed American soldiers."
Gee, you think some people living there are pissed off? Who wants to continue this clusterfuck?
Posted by: Shawn Smith | April 3, 2007 1:36 PM
One of the progressive blogs (forget which) did a story on McCain's walk in the park, titled--after the Monty Python bit--'Brave, brave Sir John'. ROFLMAO, as the young folk say.
Posted by: VIB | April 3, 2007 1:58 PM
Even when a MSM outlet like Newsweek is forced to tell the whole story, they still spin it as best they can to support their agenda.
So what forced NBC to not spin the story as best they can? If you read the linked article, you would note that NBC originally reported on the military's claim that one hundred troops and five helicopters were involved.
So what forced the AP to not spin the story as best they can? As far as I can tell, the original source for the armored vehicle quote came from an AP article.
Posted by: Sean | April 3, 2007 4:40 PM
McCain has been a tool for years; it just becomes more obvious with his grasping.
It's all a part of the big lie that goes on and on and on... Gen. McCaffrey is f*cking apoplectic with his hair on fire asking how the US public could have walked away from the brave troops overseas. He has a vested interest in the outcome.
Lie. Lie. Lie. They talk one last effort, but
Meanwhile, Bill Arkin reports that four new command headquarters are being deployed to Iraq.
later in the same article:
Eh, burn rate is now around $9B a month according to administration loyalists -- which actually probably means more. We can afford it. Probably indefinitely.
F*ck McCain and his trip to the market.
Posted by: Ted | April 3, 2007 9:54 PM
McCain walking around with protection..... is he in favour of condoms now?
Posted by: wobert | April 4, 2007 1:35 AM
Sean wrote:
I don't know - maybe NBC didn't get the spin memo. It seems that NBC Nightly News was the only source to report even these details at the time. None of the other news sources reported them or, as you can see from the Newsweek article, even picked them up later on. One swallow doen't make the summer. One outlier report doesn't change the fact that the MSM, in general, did try to spin the story to the benefit of McCain and the Republicans.
Sean continued:
You are mistaken. The original AP report - by Kim Gamel on 1 April - only mentioned that the McCain party traveled in armored vehicles. It left out important details about their protection at the market - in fact, the very details that NBC was reporting at the time. Not to mention other important details that NBC didn't report. Leaving all those details out changed the tone of the story considerably. That's what spinning is all about.
Posted by: Poly | April 4, 2007 12:55 PM
The McCain quote was sad -- yes, I think, sadly, that the Corkscrew Express may be suffering from the earlier stages of Alzheimer's. The sequel to the story is here (from THE CARPETBAGGER REPORT)
"Remember the Baghdad market John McCain was bragging about? The one that was a model for safety and security in Iraq? Horror struck the same market yesterday: "A newborn baby was one of at least 14 children and adults killed when a suicide bomber detonated a lorry laden with explosives close to a primary school in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk yesterday. The latest massacre of Iraqi children came as 21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital. The victims came from the Baghdad market visited the previous day by John McCain.""
But for those who like a shot of wry with their breakfast the following comes by way pf Glenn Greenwald, quoting an NPR report:
Rep. Mike Pence was so impressed by the visit, though, he compared Shorja to a summer market in his home state of Indiaina: "One gentleman tried to refuse our money when we were purchasing rugs - he kept touching his heart - said thank you, no, no - I was deeply moved."
NPR went to Baghdad's Shorja market after the visit, and spoke with the carpet seller, Ahmed al Krudi: "I didn't accept the money. I said to myself, they must be guests, so I must give them a good impression of Iraqis. After all, we are occuped by these Americans, and they are accompanied by a lot of U.S. security."
Al Krudi says he is angry at the insurgents who bombed the market in February, killing dozens, but he doesn't like the American presence here either:
We are not against the resistance. We are with them. However, the resistance must fight the occupiers, not the Iraqi people. A huge number of U.S. forces came yesterday. Why didn't they shoot at them, instead of harming us?
Posted by: Prup aka Jim Benton | April 5, 2007 11:13 AM