Newsbuster's Matthew Balan did a great job of monitoring the news, and an even greater job of reminding us that our freedom--including freedom of the press--is not free. But let him tell the tale:
CNN decided to not to break away from its almost non-stop coverage of the California wildfires as President Bush formally awarded a Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan the Medal of Honor, as its competitors Fox News and MSNBC aired the ceremony at the White House live.
The Medal of Honor went to Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue, New York, who died in the line of duty in 2005 during operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Murphy received the first Medal of Honor awarded from Operation Enduring Freedom...
The ceremony started at 2:23 pm Eastern, and both of CNN’s rivals carried President Bush’s remarks, as well as the presentation of the medal to the deceased SEAL’s parents. It wasn’t until 2:43 pm Eastern, eight minutes after its rival networks concluded its live coverage of the award ceremony, that CNN aired a 3-minute long segment featuring some of President Bush’s remarks and a story by CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr on the 2005 battle in which Lt. Murphy was killed.
I guess CNN was too sick with worry about trees getting burned up, and maybe some extra CO2 going into the atmospher, to be concerned about a "mere" American hero.
But The Cable Gamer urges all of us to take a moment of silence, to honor the glorious memory of Michael Murphy.
And then, after a respectful interval, a raspberry to CNN!
