Tim Blair

She has earned the coveted "Cheney Response". If she doesn't understand it, perhaps the esteemed Senator Leahy could explain.

Since I am sheltered and lazy, could somebody help me clarify the Cheney response ? Was it:

1. F U

2. F Off

3. Shut the F Up

4. FOAD

5. Other ____________

(sorry for being indirect, this is a Family Blog doncha know)

Is there some "Dealing with asshole reporters 101" course that they send many of the military on?

Carl,
As I recall (via Drudge) it was a straight 'F U'.

(sorry for being indirect, this is a Family Blog doncha know)

What???

Attila, there are "media confrontation" courses for the military. Especially for senior officers. I've sat in on a couple of interviews (as a fly on the wall), and their "interrogation" techniques can be very manipulative.

In a leftoid sort of way, I mean.

That interview is a perfect example of why the media are loathed by the ADF.

Carl,

I believe it was "Go F yourself".

Carl, I am sheltered and lazy too, but that didn't prove an obstacle when I clearly heard on either Olberman or Scarborough (US cable TV news magazines) that the expletive used was the second on your list, i.e. FO. That may have been incorrect, but I remember it because it happens to be my personal favorite.

On the other hand, it's great to hear someone so positive about Iraq, the people and the country's future. His optimism and commitment shine through, despite her manipulative questioning. He sounds a fine type of representative for Australia over there.

I heard it was "go fuck yourself"

What difference does the actual quote make, since Leahy didn't go F himself? Too bad.

We haven't heard such eloquence from a public figure since General Anthony McAuliffe's celebrated reply to the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge.

A dignified response:
When an exasperated rival shouted at him; "You, Sir, will die on the gallows or of a venereal disease." Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli replied, "That, Sir, will depend upon whether I embrace your politics or your mistress."

Mojo, it was John Wilkes (1727-1797), libertine, pamphleteer and parliamentarian (a kind of 18th century Tim Blair). Disraeli, like Churchill, Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde, suffers from being a personage to whom people will attribute clever quotes which have lost their true provenance. He was also too genteel to make such a scandalous retort.

If that quote was attributed to me, I would accept it :)

BTW I think it was "your principles or your mistress".

For those that don't want to sit through it, here is Eleanor's way of 'interpreting' a speaker:

Brigadier: "There was a single, a single bullet penetrated the Hercules and unfortunately a one in a million chance it actually hit the American passenger inside and you know the unfortunate result of that."

...

Dumb Reporter: "Why, then, are you so certain that there will be no casualties? Why are you saying that it was a one in a million chance that that Hercules hit this morning, when there is a lot of violence against foreign troops, other foreign troops in the country?"

Anybody with half a brain can see that he meant that it was a one in a million chance that the single bullet that penetrated the airframe of a huge aircraft just happen to hit the passenger. I can assure you that there is nothing in the paragraphs i have left out that contradict this, nor contain a statement by him that he is certain there will be no casualties.

Question, is she stupid, or just desperate to twist it to the desired angle?

Attila, if you substitute "and" for "or" you will have the complete answer.

There is one way around all of this, and I believe the ADF used it in East Timor. It's called:

Pool Reporting

It was the ADF's story to give away to deserving reporters. I just don't know why they keep going back to reporters like these who they know will misreport it.

Brigadier Hutchinson was probably ordered to be the ADF spokesman on this incident, and is duty bound to be polite to the "interviewer"

Any of the other ranks would have belted the brainless drone in the mouth.

I agree with Gaz, I am not surprised the military detest anyone connected with the media.

Trouble is, a dignified response requires a dignified — or at least literate and stylish — instigation.

"Brigadier Hutchinson was probably ordered to be the ADF spokesman on this incident, and is duty bound to be polite to the "interviewer" "

I'm sure the above is why the Brigadier was so polite. The military can't say "F U" and get away with it as easily as a politician can. Too bad.

I would love to know the thoughts going through his mind during the interview and also to have been a fly on the wall when he was talking about it later with others in the ADF.