A court martial on Wednesday acquitted a US Marine for his role in the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha in Iraq in 2005, the sixth man to be exonerated in the affair. Prior to investigation or charges, Rep. John Murtha said publicly of the Marines at Haditha “they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” He has issued no apology for his statement. When will Rep. John Murtha apologize? When will the leftwing mainstream media report the facts instead of acting like elitist talking heads who are fortunate to get paid millions of dollars to spew their anti-American opinions? Via NewsBusters.org:
The same network newscasts that hyped the 2005 “alleged massacre” by U.S. soldiers in Haditha are so far ignoring the acquittal on all charges of Lieutenant Andrew Grayson on Thursday.
Grayson was accused of attempting to cover up details of the events surrounding a raid that lead to the death of 15 Iraqis. However, Grayson’s acquittal was skipped by ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CBS’s “Early Show” and NBC’s “Today” show. (CNN’s “American Morning” covered the story only as a news brief.)
In contrast, the morning shows seemed much more interested in the subject back when dark allegations were made about the actions of U.S. solders in Haditha. On Memorial Day 2006, then-GMA host Charles Gibson intoned, “America honors its fallen war heroes, but troubling new information about Marine misconduct in Iraq. A new eyewitness on what could be a mass murder of civilians. Was there a cover-up?” On the March 20, 2006, “Nightly News,” host Brian Williams touted the “disturbing new allegations” made by Congressman John Murtha about Haditha. (It should be noted that, so far, five of the eight originally charged with murder or cover-up have been acquitted.) On May 25, 2006, referencing the massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in 1968, “Nightline” host Terry Moran speculated, “Will Haditha be the My Lai of the Middle East?” On June 7 of that year, reporter Andrea Mitchell opined on “Today” that Haditha was a “black eye for American policy.”