"...designed to discourage American support for the war effort," says history book author Michael S. Class. "War correspondents of the past knew better." Class is reacting, of course, to the CNN sniper video from Iraq which aired last week.
Class, author of Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame, a history book aimed at kids, in which Class's own son Anthony travels back in time to learn the stories of everyone from Jonas Salk to Babe Ruth. Now Class adds legendary war correspondent Ernie Pyle to his roster of historical figures whom he has painstakingly researched before his son "visits" them.
So when Class writes about Pyle, the American reporter who died covering US combat forces in the Pacific in 1945, he knows his subject: "Ernie Pyle made it clear which side he was on. Ernie Pyle never glorified war, but he explained combat in terms of the sacrifices that American soldiers made on behalf of the people back home. Pyle wrote of the American warrior with a heart-of-gold, fighting the good fight against evil, fighting for a just and moral cause."
But now things have changed: "I Can't Watch CNN! Ernie Pyle, I Miss You!" And indeed, Ernie Pyle, up there somewhere, would miss the old style of American journalism. When American journalists rooted for America.
