I was interviewed by a NY Times reporter at the march today

[proud2BlibKansan]

She said she had been to a protest recently and she saw the protesters spitting on soldiers. She wanted to know what I thought about that. I said anti-war protesters? She said yes. I told her those stories about soldiers being spit on when they returned from Vietnam were false. She said yes she know that but she had actually seen this soldier being spit on. I told her I didn't believe it, that we were protesting the war so the troops can come home, and that I had been part of the peace movement for many years and I had never met anyone who was angry at the troops or wanted to spit on them.

I told her that the troops were actually being disrespected by the president who was putting them in danger. And those of us who want them to come home are doing more to support them than anyone who condones this war.

Then her phone rang and she said just a minute. She walked away to talk and never came back to finish the interview.

So I will be most interested to see what the NY Times says about the march.

And for the record, I saw no one spitting on anyone at the march today. :)

[Proud2BAmurkin]

1. I think she's full of shit

and why would she ask you that?

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I don't know why she asked that

but I sure thought it was a strange question.

[philosophie_en_rose]

11. She wants a response to validate her question.

She doesn't have to have seen a damned thing.

"How do you feel about all those soldiers being spit on."

"That's not good." --> supports her assertion that it happened.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. She said she had seen this soldier being spit on.

[philosophie_en_rose]

22. Could have been anyone spitting -- like a Phelps supporter.

Even if what she said was true (and not just bait to get you to make comments she could twist), I hope she digs into who did the spitting.

[Joe Chi Minh]

61. If true, it would have been a neocon fifth-columnist. Petty you didn't say to her,

I've never yet met an MSM journalist who wasn't a liar. And I'm supposed to believe you?

Anyway, you told her point-blank you didn't believe her. Well done.

[annabanana]

48. You should have grabbed her and demanded

"Who?.. Who spit on a soldier?.. Lemme at 'im.. I'll tear him apart"

[blue cat]

29. She may have been told

to go out and find that story. That is why she brought it up. She could have asked you a hundred other questions that would have been of interest when interviewing someone at a protest.

[coffeenap]

2. Doesn't sound like an NYT reporter--did you get her name?

I would like to write to her if she really is one. Thanks so much for being there today!

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. No I didn't get her name but I did see her ID badge

I also told her I had been interviewed on the phone yesterday by another NY Times reporter. I told her his name and she claimed she knew him.

[coffeenap]

12. That is indeed bizarre. Wish we could find out who it was and

notify her editor. (I wouldn't put it past certain groups to fake a name tag, but of course, I have no idea if that was the case.)

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

20. Stringer.

She gets Times ID, but she does reporting piecework for them. Sort of a contractor.

[coffeenap]

27. Likely, but stringers are registered still, right? Guess there would be

too many to figure out who that one was. (I was a stringer in my youth, btw.)

[orleans]

39. my guess was going to be that she really works for the ny post. n/t

[orleans]

41. i just googled and this is the only thing i found on google news

and the google link doesn't work:
"war protesters hold silent vigil for fallen troops"
"North County Times, CA - Jan 2, 2007
"They are not spitting on them. If you don't agree with them you don't agree with them but don't make them out to be bad people. I just retired from the Navy ..."

google link:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=protest+spitting+anti-war

but the north county times link:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/03/news/top_stories/1_00_111_1_07.txt

however google web (for protester spitting anti-war) has a faux article up about a protester spitting on a troops from december. fuck them--i'm not even putting a link up for their CRAP

[Olney Blue]

3. I think I saw a reference to spitting in one of stories today.

[devilgrrl]

14. I bet it was freepers spitting on the anti-war vets

wouldn't surprise me a bit.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. I had planned on asking her that

but then her phone rang.

[TahitiNut]

34. Yep. Everyone knows that anti-war people have no saliva.

:eyes: The mere choice of being anti-war dries the mouth.

[cui bono]

37. And don't forget they're all pot smoking libruls

with cotton mouth. And if they tried to spit all that would come out would be the little pieces of granola they're constantly munching on.

[devilgrrl]

50. Oh, okay, so you buy the "reporter's" story then?

I bet the soldiers were called baby killers too. :sarcasm:

[TahitiNut]

53. You're getting sarcastic with the wrong Viet Nam veteran.

I was spat at, once. I was called a 'baby killer,' twice over the years Anyone who doesn't believe me can go fuck themselves.

[devilgrrl]

54. Some say there were WMD's in Iraq...

you buy that one too?

Some say...

[TahitiNut]

55. Some say ...

... only a brain-dead ideological zealot believes just what they want to believe. You buy that one?

[Name removed]

56. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cabcere]

69. I'm really sorry

to hear about that, TahitiNut. :( It makes me sad when people treat soldiers like dirt for any reason. I respect the men and women in the military, regardless of whether I agree with their political views, and to hear about people from either side of the political spectrum spitting on troops and calling them names just about makes me sick. :( (I realize this probably sounds hypocritical and cheesy, but I really don't know how to find the words to fully express how I feel. I hope you understand.) :hug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

64. Yes it is in the NY Times story

Sorry I am not a subscriber so I can't post a link. But I bought a copy and the story is in the paper.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=61772&mesg_id=68861

[GenDem]

4. It sounds like she was baiting

[aaronbees]

35. Yep, that's it

It's a loaded, leading question that has nothing to do with Saturday's protest. Absolutely irrelevant, and any reporter on the beat and getting observations about an on-the-spot event like this has better things to do than that. It's a false attempt at "getting the other side" and giving blah blah blah equal time to making the protesters look bad. It's crap journalism.

[FogerRox]

62. Baiting, yes.

[derby378]

5. Glad you made it to the rally!

Wish we could have made it, but ginbarn and I are both under the weather.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Sorry to hear that

It was a great march. Tonight they are telling us there were 1.2 million.

[derby378]

19. Say WHAT?!?

Congratulations!!!

:applause::woohoo::bounce::headbang::grouphug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. It was definitely LOTS bigger than NY last April

[Fovea]

7. I hope you all had a great time.

I watched on CSPAN.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Yes it has been a great weekend

We had a meetup last night and met so many DUers I can't remember them all. Then today, we marched together with the DU banner.

[Blue Fire]

8. She wasn't an ugly bitch with long blond hair and answered

..."Hello this is Ann Coulter..." when her phone rang, by any chance?

[The_Casual_Observer]

10. That was a freeper bullshitter you ran into.

Anybody real would have make an idiotic remark like that.

[hatrack]

13. Proud, this sounds like 100% bullshit

If she HAD been to a protest and HAD seen soldiers being spit on and WAS a NYT reporter, don't you think this would have been on page 1 of the NYT - and every RW rag in the country within 20 minutes?

Put-up job. She was probably a frustrated Freeper or a Lucianne denizen or (at best) a stringer for the Washington Times or Newsmax - if you can even imagine being so shitty a reporter that the Washington Times or Newsmax wouldn't hire you full-time.

Glad you could be there! My Dad's birthday, so we were kind of close to home - but say "Yo!" to Evilbastard for me, OK?

:toast:

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. She had an ID badge

I was smart enough to ask to see it before I even let her interview me.

evlbstrd is downstairs drinking beer in the hotel bar.

I am using his laptop now. Should I play a dirty trick on him? LOL

[cynatnite]

15. Do you really think she was a reporter?

I'm suspicious.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. She had an ID badge

[cynatnite]

30. I wonder if she witnessed a freeper spitting on a soldier or vet...

who was protesting the war?

[devilgrrl]

51. I'm thinking it's another case of "Some say..."

eom

[eShirl]

31. and teenagers get into bars on fake IDs (n/t)

[133724]

40. Next time take it away from her.... n/t

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

21. Did you ask her name?

[proud2BlibKansan]

65. Yes and I saw her badge

She is mentioned as contributing to the article in the NY Times today.

[blue cat]

28. Good question to ask her

How does she feel about so many soldiers dying over there when we could bring them home.

[Junkdrawer]

32. "Well, the organizers of this March insisted we all attend Soldier Spitting Training"...

"Now, you may think that spitting on soldiers is something that comes natural to peace activists, but it is actually a very hard-to-learn skill that requires expert instruction. It is, after all, the most important activity of any Peace March."

[133724]

42. I Attended that training & I will practice on her...

[Hekate]

33. Write what you experienced in a LTTE to the Times...

... point out the "reporter with badge" bit, and her question, and say that the only people we know for a FACT who spit on soldiers are the Phelps Family against the active duty (and the dead, for gods'sake) and Freepers against anti-war veterans.

Not us. Not nohow. Everywhere I have been, every group I have been in, we have made a point of opposing the policies, not the troops. And I know it's been the same for you.

This person is baiting the hook, is bogus, is lying, or has confused Phelpses and Freepers with those of us who want our troops to come home now and in one piece.

Please, please follow through.

Hekate

[proud2BlibKansan]

67. It's in today's NY Times

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=61772&mesg_id=68861

[Hekate]

73. All the more reason to dispute their version of it. nt

[nam78_two]

36. Judith Miller still works for the times??!!!

:wow:

[rman]

57. probably a clone

:shrug:

[GreenZoneLT]

38. I always wondered about that

I mean, how much range can you get on spit, anyway? I can see somebody spitting AT me, but spitting ON me? Without getting punched in response? Seems difficult from a physics standpoint. And where do they find all these soldiers to spit on? Try spitting on a soldier at the Atlanta airport; the families waiting to meet them will beat you to death with their "Welcome Home, Hero" signs.

I'm sure there ARE "protesters" who would spit on soldiers. Heck, those black-bloc anarchist kids are trying to get in a fight with police most of the places they go; why wouldn't they spit on soldiers, too? We are, after all, Tools of the Capitalist State That Must Be Smashed By the Socialist Revolutionaries. Idiots.

[OneBlueSky]

43. "stories" like that are just plain bullshit . . . the troops are the reason we protest . . .

they, more than anyone, are the victims of this war, both during their deployment and when they return home (if they do) only to find services to veterans badly lacking . . . we demonstrate, in large measure, on behalf of these individuals, so there's no reason whatsoever that we would disrespect them in any way . . . I doubt that this reporter was from the Times, but if she was, she should be ashamed of herself . . .

[many a good man]

44. Protesters should spit on REPORTERS, not soldiers

They bear a great deal of the blame for getting us into this mess.

[madokie]

45. she's as full of shit as a christmas turkey

it was only figuratively speaking to begin with, not literally. thats my first thought when someone starts that crap, they don't know shit.

:hi:
some folks don't understand what peace means I guess

[n2doc]

46. Here is the reference in todays NYT

snip:

There were a few tense moments, however, including an encounter involving Joshua Sparling, 25, who was on crutches and who said he was a corporal with the 82nd Airborne Division and lost his right leg below the knee in Ramadi, Iraq. Mr. Sparling spoke at a smaller rally held earlier in the day at the United States Navy Memorial, and voiced his support for the administration’s policies in Iraq.

Later, as antiwar protesters passed where he and his group were standing, words were exchanged and one of the antiwar protestors spit at the ground near Mr. Sparling; he spit back.

Capitol police made the antiwar protestors walk farther away from the counterprotesters.

“These are not Americans as far as I’m concerned,” Mr. Sparling said.

Another counterprotester, Larry Stark, 71, a retired Navy officer who fought in Vietnam for five years and was a prisoner of war, said, “We never lost a battle in Vietnam but we lost the war, and the same is going to be true in Iraq if these protesters have their way.”

The protesters on Saturday were undermining troop morale, Mr. Stark said, and increasing the likelihood of a premature withdrawal.

“It’s like we never learn from the past,” he said.

from
Protest Focuses on Iraq Troop Increase
By IAN URBINA
Sarah Abruzzese and Suevon Lee contributed reporting
Published: January 28, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/washington/28protest.html

[many a good man]

47. "never learn from the past"

How poignant.

"Win every battle and still lose the war." That is Iraq's parallel with Viet Nam. But we "lost" only because we withdrew? That sounds like bush's lesson from Vietnam. Freeper logic beguiles me. Despite "winning" every engagement, if you lose the people you are supposedly fighting for, you have already lost the war.

[wildflowergardener]

49. Sounds like

It's possible she did not really see this incident and the right wing person protesting the protest told her this happened, and it didn't to make the protesters look bad.

Curious to know what words were exchanged if something like this actually did happen.

Meg

[n2doc]

52. One other thing

The part I posted is the very end of the article. I think they were trying to leave the reader with the RW spin point.

[TahitiNut]

58. There are assholes across the political spectrum.

At the same time, there's absolutely nothing that says everyone in the crowd, even if carrying a sign, was there to genuinely protest the war. Protests attract ALL KINDS of people!

Is it possible this report is (largely) accurate? Yes. It's even more likely than not, imho.

I've seen posts on DU expressing every bit as much animosity and disdain toward military service 'volunteers' as is described in this article, especially any serviceman who supported this war.

It's the height of folly and delusion to pretend this ugliness doesn't exist all across the ideological spectrum. It's also delusional to buy into "guilt by association" with anyone who pretends to be an ally.

Politics is messy. Blind ideological zeal, among other things, can cause wars. Deal with it. Don't defend abominable behavior out of some misguided sense of 'loyalty' to someone who may not, in fact, share your values!

[n2doc]

59. I didn't say it was a lie

I wasn't even there. So save your sanctimonious BS for someone who chares. All I did was point out where in the NYT this particular incident was printed.

[TahitiNut]

60. I quote: "RW spin point"

So, save your faux outrage for someone who buys that shit, thank you very much.
Outthankingstanding. :eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

70. I am the DUer this reporter interviewed

and she told me she saw the spitting incident and the protester spit ON the soldier. Then in the story, she reports the protester spit at the ground in front of this soldier. That is quite different from what she told me.

And did you see this?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x67909

[proud2BlibKansan]

68. Thanks for posting this!

[proud2BlibKansan]

63. Update

In the article in today's NY Times, she tells the story of the spitting incident. According to her report, a protester spit on the ground in front of a soldier and the soldier spit back. She told me the protester "spit AT" the soldier. That's quite different from spitting on the ground.

It is still not okay, IMO. But her story in the paper was a bit different from what she told me. I pictured an incident like the one where the guy spit on Jane Fonda last year.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

66. Read KoKo01's thread on this guy: suspicious for "Parlockery" IMHO

It's the same soldier who got a "kid's crayon pic" telling him to go die. What a coincidence, eh?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x67909

[proud2BlibKansan]

71. Thank you thank you thank you

I am pissed now. I think I should write a letter to the NY Times.

[blogslut]

72. I bet this is FR trickery

Note: Another DUer posted about an FR thread wherein regular, Kristinn, complains to the board that only 40 showed up for their pro-war counter demonstration. Kristinn also claims that one of the veterans among the FR group was spat upon.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=68230&mesg_id=68230

My guess is that the FR folks probably provoked the saliva shot. I wonder if the NYT stringer bothered to find out what happened before the slobber hit the dirt?

I read a page of that FR thread. I feel like I need to bathe in bleach now.

[n2doc]

74. Do It Do It Do It!

Your story, together with the background on this guy, would be an essential counterpoint to the NYT article. If they print it. Keep it short and to the point and I'll bet they will.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

75. Looks like the soldier who was 'spit on' has a history

from wikipedia:

Joshua Sparling, (b. 1981- ) is a Private First Class in the U.S. Army from Port Huron, Michigan, who was wounded in the War in Iraq. In December 2005, while recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Sparling claimed to receive what he thought was a Christmas card, which turned out to be anonymous hate mail expressing the wish that Sparling would die.

Sparling underwent multiple surgeries to treat his wounds. Media coverage of the story triggered an outpouring of over 20,000 cards and gifts to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed.In Spring 2006, his father described how Pfc Sparling claimed that he was insulted at an airport while in a wheelchair.The security guard said, “You are no different than any other passenger with no boarding pass - no go.” My son started to cry uncontrollably and told the guard to go to hell. Saprling's father then claimed that another lady spoke up and said, “That’s what you get for fighting in a war we have no business in.” Madder and very emotional I asked, “Can’t you remember 9-11?” She responded that was just our excuse to be in Iraq when we should not be there and we deserved whatever we got. That is when my son really lost it. Three WWII vets were coming off flights into DC, gave my son a hug, and stood up to the lady and security guard. They stayed with my son until he flew out.On 27 January 2007, at an antiwar protest at Washington DC, Sparling claimed that a passing protestor may have spit near him, according to the New York Times.