A Mother’s Grievance
Exploiting Dead Soldiers
By Daniel Muniz

I had absolutely no intention in wasting time in writing any type of article about Cindy Sheehan and the exploitation of her son Casey when his unit was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire in Baghdad. It is a non-issue and has almost no journalistic merit to the press. However, a slow news cycle at the end of summer along with a woman who is willing to trash the president on a daily basis does have an intrinsic value to the media.

The press loves extremes. And they love adversaries who are ideologically far apart in which at least one side will hurl invective after invective while the other side cannot degrade itself by responding to the polemics, like the president. And the more insults, the better especially since they can be displayed around the world and endlessly written about in newspapers.

Cindy Sheehan's, like other such individuals, are simply creations of the media. The press made them and they respond magnificently when someone sticks a television camera in front of them. Then surround them with a groupie and TV news crews along with sympathetic columnists and now this individual has a movement.

And that is what happened with Cindy Sheehan. Her son, a soldier who willingly volunteered in the United States army, was killed in combat. But that small part called volunteering is almost missing from the enormous coverage that this mother has acquired from the press.

In fact, the media covers every insult she throws at George W. Bush.

It is one thing to have a protestor upset at the president. Every president has them and some even live in cardboard abodes near the White House so they can protest every day. But it is another thing that almost none of these cardboard protesters get this kind of press coverage that Cindy Sheehan has received.

Part of it is the moral outrage that parents have over our fallen servicemen because it is almost impossible for government officials to respond to them without themselves appearing callous. Regardless of what is said from family members, it is inappropriate to respond to anyone who is grieving over a loved one lost in combat. In essence, that is sacred no matter what they say or feel.

And the other part to this circus is how well Sheehan responds to the media.

This almost makes it a match made in television heaven because here is an articulate mother of a dead soldier who can fling these daily slanders without ever having to worry about any repercussions. The administration is not going to respond to her, she knows it, and the media knows it. As a result, the press can incessantly barrage the public with this coverage since they can always portray her as a grieving mother even though she is exploiting her son’s death for political purposes.

But Sheehan’s mouth is also a double-edged sword.

The media can edit out some of the unflattering coverage of her but it still cannot remove all the salacious morsels, especially the ones that make her look anti-Semitic. In blasting Iraq, which is good for Democrats, she has also blasted Israel, which is bad for the very same Democrats.

Sheehan is increasingly showing her anti-Semitic side and her hatred for Israel in the rallies that she stages.

By hurling her invectives at the president as well as at Israel, it will be interesting to see how the media portrays this firebrand. So far, the press has been quite mute over her anger over Judaism while covering every insult that she has for George W. Bush. And that is what makes the intense coverage an outrage.

But perhaps the most outrageous thing is that Sheehan is getting a free ride on just about anything negative without much scrutiny paid to her negative Israel remarks. At this point, she is no longer the grieving mother but another protester who gets free media attention.

And worse, she can effectively play the role of ventriloquist and put any words in her son’s mouth because he cannot dispute them since he is dead. The press knows this but they don’t care since they get what they want out of it.

Other family members of her son have asked her to tone down her rhetoric but to no avail. She will continue to exploit her son as long as she continues to get a free ride from the press.

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