Must See TV: UPI reporter Pamela Hess

Check out this video from Pamela Hess, UPI reporter who covers the Pentagon. Rarely do you see such raw emotion, honesty and perspective from a journalist. This is tremendously moving video. We need more journalists like Pamela Hess.

Jules Crittenden and Blackfive have more.

8 Responses to “Must See TV: UPI reporter Pamela Hess”

1. Refugee says:

   March 13, 2007 at 12:17 am

   “American national security–we can take care of ourselves; but somebody needs to take care of these Iraqis.”

   What will we find if we turn over the rotted log of Iran? Syria?

   North Korea?

   Very moving report. It is shocking and sinful that this story is not coming out over NPR, ABC, CNN, Reuters, AP….
2. Brad says:

   March 15, 2007 at 11:15 am

   “It is shocking and sinful that this story is not coming out over NPR, ABC, CNN, Reuters, AP…”

   It is sinful but I no longer find it shocking.
   I fully expect a horrific smell when I see a dead skunk in the middle of the road.
   The mainstream media outlets clearly have an agenda where Iraq and the Bush Administration is concerned. They are run by treasonous scum.
3. Barry McGhan says:

   March 15, 2007 at 3:08 pm

   I’ve seen Ms. Hess on C-SPAN several times. She always seems credible, sincere, and insightful.

   However, the segment of her interview depicted here has troubled me since I first saw it. I don’t think Iraqis have a higher acceptance of violence than Americans. They are simply stuck with a dysfunctional society where violence reigns. They have no choice but to go on with their lives as best they can. Consider the American families in rough sctions of our cities who sleep on the floor every night to avoid drive-by gunfire.

   She says US soldiers are facing Real Evil and feel like the saviors of ordinary Iraqis every day. Her descriptions of real evil are truly ghastly. But we didn’t send our soldiers there to unleash chaos on Iraqis so they could later feel a little like superheros as they try to control the chaos. Soldiers are stuck with finding a way to rationalize putting their lives on the line. While we honor their sacrfice we can’t allow their reasons to become ours.

   Those who might want to get a different slant on the Iraq mess and war-in-general are encouraged to read War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by war correspondent Chris Hedges
4. Administrator says:

   March 15, 2007 at 3:25 pm

   Barry,

   Chris Hedges?? The man suffering from a severe case of Bush Derangement Syndrome. The guy booed off the stage during an anti-Bush graduation speech/rant a few years back? The author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America…no thanks, I’ll pass on paying any attention to him whatsoever.

   Kevin
5. Chris Aable says:

   April 30, 2007 at 3:18 pm

   Kevin, I would want to pay attention to anyone who gets a standing ovation from hundreds of readers at this past weekend’s book fair at UCLA. But heck, what do they know? They’re ed-cha-ma-cated. You might want to acquire a better education about international law, initiating aggression on the grounds of false pretext and the Bush administration who thinks not in terms of unity between nations, but thinks that we are above all other nations. Bush need not wonder why this nation is now more hated than any other time that I and many of my elders can recall.

   “The best way to love life, is to love many people and things, because life consists of many people and things.”
   - Chris Aable
   In the upcoming book “What is Self-Evolution?”
   (plug, plug)
6. Ron says:

   August 13, 2007 at 1:57 am

   Wow! A standing ovation at the LA book fair. Impressive! All those “ed-cha-ma-cated” people. Yeah those book fairs are real think tanks aren’t they? All of those military and geo-political experts. Anyway, I’ll end the sarcasm here and say to Barry that it is a little shortsighted, and simply inncorrect, to accuse our soldiers of unleashing the chaos in Iraq. I’m pretty sure that our military is not responsible for the constant death and misery due to suicide bombings, IEDs, and the indiscriminate killing, kidnapping and torture of Iraqis and other civilians.
   Furthermore, if our troops are in fact controlling the chaos and protecting lives, then what difference does it make why they were initially sent there? Our military did not initially enter WWII for the purpose of stopping the Holocaust but that was a consequence of our involvement. Did lack of prior intention make that any less noble or worthy of pride?
   Also, there is no sin in rationalizing the reason for doing anything if that rationalization is at least ethical (i.e. not harmful to others) and supported by objective reality. Ms. Hess’ reporting suggests that to some degree it is. So does a recent report by the Brookings Institute (an actual think tank) that can be read at http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/ohanlon/pollack20070730.htm.
   Finally, I think that Chris, like many others, exaggerates the extent to which we are actually hated. Millions of people from around the world go to our schools, visit, and engage in commerce with our nation each year. Moreover, being hated is not a sin either if, in the long run, you are on the right side of the struggle or arguement, as the Cold War demonstrated.
7. Chris Aable says:

   September 4, 2007 at 5:47 pm

   Unlike yourself, Ron, I never stated that everyone at the book fair were well-educated. Education and intelligence is all a matter of degrees and I’m sure there were some thoughtful and intelligent people at the UCLA book fair as one might expect at any book fair. So I won’t stoop to the “sarcastic” generalizations and stereotypes that you have about an entire crowd of people at UCLA. No doubt there were at least a few students of World Politics and a few professors of Political Science in the crowd. But I suppose you know more than all of them combined ?

   Speaking of which, where is your sense of self-respect when you publicly state that someone “exaggerates” the extent to which the Bush administration is hated around the world? No one knows for sure because it is not easily measurable and is certainly fluid, so I never made a case for how extensive it is (or as you apparently want to believe - isn’t). No person can honestly claim that I “exaggerated”, let alone how much the “exaggeration” is.
   Your biases are showing brightly, because those “think tanks” you seem to cling to consists of imperfect individuals who have their biases also.
8. Jason Ross says:

   October 20, 2007 at 2:49 am

   Well stated, Chris Aable. Anytime someone states “everybody” they are no doubt lying, and for Ron, above, it seems to be second nature and habitual.