the awesome/terrifying freedom

well this has pretty much become a blog about television. and seeing as how we will really only have another week of clay aiken gay speculation (hey, that's a mini poem), let's talk about some other things.

remember jessica lynch? the heroic blonde beauty who went down in a hail of bullets, firing bravely, even after she had been hit.. and then was held and forced to endure inhuman tortures until u.s. forces finally, valiantly, broke down the doors, shot several people, and performed her rescue with 'surgical accuracy'? remember her?

boy, jayson blair at the new york times aint the only one makin shit up.

the bbc reports that there were, in fact, no soldiers at the hospital lynch was being 'held' at, and that when the u.s. soldiers broke down twelve sets of doors, they fired blanks into the air and screamed 'go go go!' for the benefit of military cameramen following the operation.

the toronto star goes further to report that her 'inhumane treatment' included being given one of the only good hospital stretchers available, and being attened constantly by khalida shinah, one of only two nurses at the hospital, who befriended lynch. lynch supposedly told khalinda she wanted to take her back to america with her.

in addition to these 'atrocities' the hospital staff even tried to return jessica to u.s. forces in an ambulance, but were fired upon when they tried to drive towards the u.s. base and had to return to the hospital.

the story goes on and on.. jessica had no bullet or stab wounds, only broken bones from when her vehicle turned over. dr. mudhafer raazk is quoted as saying 'you do realize you could have just knocked on the door and we would have wheeled jessica down to you, don't you?'

it all stinks of white house spin. the need for a good story. anyone remember 'wag the dog?' dustin hoffman's producer character concocts 'old shoe joe,' a fictional soldier left behind in battle. at the time, we laughed. but now the lines between news and entertainment are truly blurred. when jerry bruckheimer is advising the pentagon on the tv show 'profiles from the front line,' he is not doing it as a miltary advisor. he's doing it as an entertainment advisor. he's instructing the military on how to provide the public with a simple, clean message of good versus evil, complete with an ejaculatory, guns blazing (whether the guns are necessary or not) payoff.