Friday, December 21, 2007

KNS Coverage On Charlie Wilson's War From Brian's Blog Correspondent

You would think that local media, specifically KNS reporters, would have a hard time outdoing themselves these days when it comes to saying and writing inaccurate and humiliating junk, as your earlier posts on Sandra Clark describes, but you and I would be wrong.

In today's KNS review of the movie Charlie Wilson's War, Betsy Pickle makes the following outrageous comment:

"Charlie Wilson's War" tells how a Texas congressman ended the Cold War and inadvertently opened the door to an even bigger mess.

I guess Betsy never paid attention in social studies or world history class. Perhaps she wasn't old enough to see and understand why East Berliners were dancing on the Berlin Wall nearly twenty years ago. Maybe she can't do the math and know how many people lived under repressive regimes in the former Soviet Union, the East Bloc countries, and their international allies like Vietnam.

I guarantee she's never read The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, written by European and French scholars who estimate the number of deaths caused by Communist governments during the Cold War to be at or near 100 million.

If ignorance is bliss, too many people in the media must be really, really happy.

5 comments:

SteveMule said...

Ms. Pickle was describing a movie not the actual history of the late 20th century.
Ms. Pickle's description of the movie was accurate whereas the movies depection of factual events in history was ... a little "hollywooded"
No where does she say that Communism was good, or that it should have continued.

SteveMule

Brian Hornback said...

It is so good to see that Democrat Cheerleader SteveMule has become the Main Cheerleader and Defender for the Democrat newspaper the Knoxville News Senseless.

Rob Huddleston said...

Brian -

I don't trust Betsy Pickle for insight into movies, much less historical context.

If there's a worse film critic out there, I haven't found him/her.

Cheers,

Rob

SteveMule said...

Robb,
THANK YOU! Besty reviewed a movie, not history. I haven't seen the movie so I can't comment on whether her review was bad or good. But to bag on a movie reviewer because their review doesn't line up with someones view of history is ... well, tacky. And that was my only point.
Brian,
I wasn't defending the KNS, I was objecting to BBC's (Brian's Blog Correspondent) comment. That's all.
However, to go further than I did at fist, Betsy's comment does have some, some, validity. We did (thru Charlie Wilson) help defeat the USSR in Afganistan which did precipitate the USSR's downfall - we should have done that and I fully suported our nations efforts when we were engaged in that. What we did after that was ... nothing - we left a vacuum that the Taliban filled with the results we see today. We should've stayed engaged in Afganistan and supported the good people that were there. Instead we just left.
Just becuase something has unintended consequences doesn't mean it shouldn't have been done (as BBC insinuates) it just means that something wasn't planned for, considered, thought about, whatever. If anything it is simply an indication of a lack of long term planning. And in all fairness, this often isn't known until it's too late.
Finally, let me say that despite the unintended consequences of Charlie Wilson's War I still suport what we did in Afaganistan and what it did to the USSR. The world is better off. Perhap's we could've/should've done a better job afterwards but at the time who knew?
No one.

SteveMule

walker said...

Read Drudge..the Pickle sure does! Oh and often local movie reviews are nothing more than talking points issued by the studios.

Upside is the film is tanking at the box office. Anyone notice how
the public is catching on to agenda movies and flocking AWAY from them in droves?

Again, leave the Pickle out of it she is just what she is and her cred as a movie critic is about as good as anything posted on the local "liberal" blog.

Have a wonderful CHRISTMAS Eve and day!