Here‘s What the Media’s Missing in the Gen. Petraeus/Robert Gates Libya ‘Joke’
- Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:18pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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TV cameras picked up an interesting exchange between Gen. David Petraeus and Defense Secretary Robert Gates during Gates’s surprise trip to Afghanistan today, and the media’s jumping all over it. But there’s some interesting information missing from the “joke” that gives it much more context and could quickly quell the media storm.
TV cameras picked up an interesting exchange between Gen. David Petraeus and Defense Secretary Robert Gates during Gates’s surprise trip to Afghanistan today, and the media’s jumping all over it. But there’s some interesting information missing from the “joke” that gives it much more context and could quickly quell the media storm.While exchanging pleasantries on the tarmac, ABC’s Jake Tapper quotes Petraeus and Gates as having the following exchange:
“Welcome back, sir,” Petraeus said to Gates. This is Gates’ 13th trip to Afghanistan as Secretary of Defense.
The two men began walking.
“You returning to normal, you gonna launch some attacks on Libya or something?” Petreaus joked to Gates.
“Yeah, exactly,” Gates joked back.
Jake Tapper is an outstanding reporter, and we have praised him many times on this site. However, Tapper may have missed something here. Below is video of the exchange, which includes closed captioning. See if you can pick out the difference:
Did you catch it? Where Tapper quotes Petraeus as saying, “You returning to normal” during the first half of the controversial line, the video quotes him as saying, “Flying a little bigger plane than normal?”
Prima facia, that may not seem like a big deal. But it is.
The way Tapper quotes Petraeus, it makes the first part of the line insignificant. But the way the video quotes Petraeus, it makes the first part of the line possibly the most significant part of the whole quote. That’s because it gives context: the subject of the quote shifts to the size of Gates’s plane and away from Libya. This, then, was more about Petraeus jabbing his boss about taking such a big form of transportation (bombers are rather large) rather than using Libya and its people as a pawn in a good-ol’-boys joke.
To be fair, Politico is still running a story with the wrong quote. To ABC’s credit, it did post the right quote in its video. Others did too. But what they all need to understand is that this isn’t as big of a story as it seems.
And how about this for irony: the president announced today that the U.S. could start military action against Libya via NATO.
What a joker.
UPDATE:
A newly-released photo from the Associated Press shows the plane Gates flew in on rivals the size of Air Force One:
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Comments (67)
virgie morgan
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 9:05pmhownowbrownmao
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 7:04pm
I thought it was just my liberal commie soros sierra club van jones union terrorist-sympathizing gay marraige abortion-for-all hedonistic socialist illegal-immigrant food-stamps gm driving anti-semitic closet-**** marxist long haired atheistic tax-raising ……….inability to recognize a truly relevant article.
____________________________________________
LOLing my behind off :p
Report Post »virgie morgan
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 9:02pm@Lucy Larue
If you are Military you KNOW this is not going away. But nobody asks the soldiers.
Sadly Blazers…, your military is busy in Afghanistan and Iraq taking “SENSITIVITY CLASSES” about “Don‘t Ask Don’t Tell”That is what is PRIMO IMPORTANTE for this Administration.
This is what you may not know Blazers. Your Military is weary! They’re tired!They’re fighting for you. Both the soldiers AND their spouses. Too much sacrifice for what?
I hope this country makes it to 2012. If we DO make it….,I hope that the spoiled, smug, clueless Americans who voted for Barry Dunham in 2008 ,to include dead people, multiple ACORN votes,yaddas,yadda,do NOT outnumber the American Sane.
We may survive four years of Barry Dunham. I do not think we can survive eight.
Another post from Wonderland…,down is up , up is down, and we’re painting the roses red!
“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US!” Pogo
Report Post »————————————————————-
I agree with you wholeheartedly….but I don’t think we are gonna survive the first 4 years of barry. Nobody seems to care that our military are the ones suffering the most and who are the only thing protecting us at the moment. These politians that love to send them to war wouldn’t make a pimple on a soldiers behind. Bring back the draft and see how many congressmen vote for war when it‘s their kids’ life on the line. And what do these yahoo’s do while our kids are dying for this country and the lives of people in other countries?…they honor them by opening up the border to let the enemy in the back door and bow down and appease the very enemy our kids are fighting against. They make everything political. They are frozen in a infinite election season where everything is about winning the next election. They have paralyzed the government for fear they won’t be elected again. They can‘t make a simple decision on anything without asking if it will or won’t be politically good for “them”…What this country needs is to get rid of the politicans and elect businessmen and women, mom’s and dads, and then put all the lawyers out of work by giving away free law degrees to illegals, then deport them, and then having all politicians barred or put behind bars.
dabbo
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 8:46pmYea, this misquote is terrible….I hope they didn‘t hurt poor little Moammar’s feelings.
Report Post »Obama should call him and appologize….then fire Patraeus
RightPolitically
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 8:29pmDear Jonathon Seidl, why do you guys always feel a need to qualify your statements whenever you go after a liberal news person for either fabricating something or hearing only what they choose to hear or, in this case, think they heard? I don’t get it. It is disingenuous to say the least because you most certainly know that Tapper and the others are partisans who work against truth EVERY CHANCE THEY GET.
Report Post »Thing
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 8:22pmLucy Larue
I totaly agree with you
Report Post »Sam Waite
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 8:05pmNot a bomber. But the USAF E-4B Advanced Airborne Command Post (aka NightWatch) strategic command and control aircraft. Built on a Boeing 747 airframe. Notice no windows. The hump on the back is the MILSTAR satellite communications antenna. This bird is big. Substantially larger than most commercial airliners that fly military personnel into Afghanistan’s airfields.
Report Post »JoeInMaine
Posted on March 8, 2011 at 3:34pmYou got it Sam. I cannot imagine a situation where an E-4B would be used for VIP transport. What other reason might they want that asset in theater?
Report Post »jeff.cooper
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 7:40pmI see what is going on now…Tapper misquotes the Secretary by quoting him, “…return to normal” which is what he didn’t say. So what gives and why lie? Clearly a purposeful mistake was made but in the Internet age you can’t slip that by us.
Report Post »CARBON HOG
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 7:10pmthere must be a Charlie Sheen article somewhere i haven’t read yet, i’m going to look, ’cause this story sucked.
Report Post »Bluebonnet
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:52pmGet along now, nothing going on here.
Report Post »Alvin691
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:50pmOfficials fly bigger planes when there is a threat of being fired upon.
Report Post »avgconservative
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:41pmPolitico corrected the misquote. But, I could hear the groaning from here as they corrected it. :D
Report Post »mrsmileyface
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:24pmA Jew, a Muslim, 3 Catholic priests, President Obama, Robert Gates, Mumar Quadiffi, Kim Jong Ill, and the cast of Glee all walk into a bar……… I have nothing to finish it, I just thought it would be more interesting than this piece of crap they posted here.
Report Post »hownowbrownmao
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 7:04pmI thought it was just my liberal commie soros sierra club van jones union terrorist-sympathizing gay marraige abortion-for-all hedonistic socialist illegal-immigrant food-stamps gm driving anti-semitic closet-**** marxist long haired atheistic tax-raising ……….inability to recognize a truly relevant article. huh………..
Report Post »nostromo
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:05pmThey have to dirty up Petraeus a bit just in case he retires and runs for prez.
Report Post »conservativeheeler
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:17pmI know I’d vote for Petraeus. He would be our modern day Eisenhower.
Report Post »Realist
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:58pmNow the mainstream media will start calling these guys war mongerers and insensitive to Libyas plight.
Report Post »It will give the media an excuse not to call Qadaffi the animal that he is or to tell it like it really is that if it was left to Gates and Patreous they could have that Libya issue handled in record time if Obama was not in the way.
simple thought
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:58pmthe MSM (except fox) and our president hate our militery,
Report Post »thank GOD we have gates as there boss, he stands his ground for the troops.
obama_binpharteen
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:51pmDuh! Winning..
Report Post »Jimbo96
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:50pmPolitical bias, from the usual suspects…
Report Post »Pelling1020
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:48pmGlenn is off for “dialog” with Roger Ailes. Seems like NYT has pushed this to a head. Huh????
Report Post »jordy2010
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:41pmI don’t get it…….. I must be a blond!!!!!!!!
Report Post »felina g
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:44pmHave you noticed the potato chip bag has no chips in it anymore ? Coffee grounds look like puffed rice.
Report Post »CrazyJ
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:34pmactually the General does mention the plane so this blaze article is wrong. there is no context for “returning to normal” and “going to bomb Lybia” . There is if he mentions a plane instead of “normal”. Nice try at a cover up though Blaze.
Report Post »Jaycen
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:53pmCRAZYJ
I know you probably skipped the “reading part”, but scroll up above, and look at what the article says. Tapper, a reporter for ABC, misquoted the general in his report. The video gets it right.
Man, I know you’re rabid, but you might consider reading twice before posting. Good luck.
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:56pm@Crazyj The way I understand it is if returning to normal WAS the first part of conversation, THEN the BIG EMPHASIS IS ON ASSAULT ON LIBYA. If FLYING IN A BIGGER PLANE THAN NORMAL, then it takes the emphasis off assaul on Libya. May be wrong but that is what I understand
Report Post »CrazyJ
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:26pmi understand the emphasis and context portion of this joke i can and do read. the blaze seems like it is trying to just gloss over the joke as if to say it doesn’t matter or they are not saying what you hear them saying. they did make the joke about bombing libya in a large plane. it was a ribbing between some good ol boys plain and simple. im sure the issue people take with that joke is it will in reality be costing people their lives so is this a matter in which these major decision makers should be joking about on an official trip? Im thinking, no.
Report Post »Ed Kidon
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:30pmSomehow I knew the story was being distorted. Thanks for the clarification, I respect those two men and knew in my gut there was something wrong with the story….KUDOS! twitter.com/ekidon
Report Post »jordy2010
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:30pm??????? duh…..
Report Post »Robert-CA
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:28pmBoring ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Report Post »grandmaof5
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:24pmThe MSM that can’t seem to get it right ought to be kept out of the loop until they do. Unfortunately, their networks (not ABC on this one) seem to condone this behavior so we will continue to rely on FOX for honest reporting.
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:41pmHello Grandma,,,, How are the Kitties? How many did you say you have?
Report Post »Showtime
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:21pmWhen it becomes plain to everyone that Politico is liberal, it sort of takes the smell out of the rat.
@Grandmaof5 and SissyKatz ~ Hi, feline friends.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:58pmHi to Grandmaof5, to SissyKatz and to Showtime…
Once again this shows the left will distort reality in the way we all have come to expect, and when they have to appologize, they do so in the smallest space possible.
Grandmaof5, hope the kitties are well, and the weather fine in Fl this evening your time. It is getting very warm here and windy now. Do not let the squirrels chase off the salesmen unless the kitties are watching now.
Also, I do not know if you seen my one post of a new sketch I have up on my sight; it is one doodle of a young human girl I did a few weeks back. Thought you might like to see it. It is a bit cartoonish though.
Hope today has been good for everyone.
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 10:00pmHi back at ya Show Grandma and Snow or “Litter Mates” you were right Show I thought that about the Sand box was hilarious.
Report Post »GeneralBeasley
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:22pmI Don’t Get IT!!!!!!!
GeneralBeasley
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:26pmand on a side note where the hell is glenn?
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:32pmvacation……all week
watch reruns to prevent withdrawal lol
Report Post »rhulburd
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:45pmGlenn’s in Israel this week…
Report Post »CowboyExpat
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:47pmSince when is a 747 refered to as a bomber?
Report Post »cheezwhiz
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 5:59pmThe spelling is wrong.
Its not L Y B I A ..
its L A …
Showtime
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:24pmGreat job, Jon Seidl!
When they’re out of bounds and you catch them, they deserve to be brought before the public to have a finger shaken at them.
Nice work. Thank you.
Report Post »J.C. McGlynn
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:31pm1) Missing the first part would make people believe that Gates is on a clandestine bombing mission.
Report Post »2) A 747 could carry one heck of a bomb load, if modified correctly.
3) I would believe that Gates usually flies in a smaller aircraft. The sound of the sentence makes me think of a size comparison between a 727 and 747.
cheezwhiz
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 6:42pm@ J.C. McGlynn
Report Post »I like your point # 3 about size comparison.
Now it all makes sense.
Lucy Larue
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 7:28pmGeneral Beasley ,
Let me explain! We are engaged in World War III!!!!!
WWIII began on September 11, 2001.
The administration that is currently occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the worst thing that this nation needs at this time. They do not recognize the war. They do not! They appease.
Hello Vichy. Hello Chamberlin. UGH!
Where is Churchill?!
If you are Military you KNOW this is not going away. But nobody asks the soldiers.
Sadly Blazers…, your military is busy in Afghanistan and Iraq taking “SENSITIVITY CLASSES” about “Don‘t Ask Don’t Tell”That is what is PRIMO IMPORTANTE for this Administration.
This is what you may not know Blazers. Your Military is weary! They’re tired!They’re fighting for you. Both the soldiers AND their spouses. Too much sacrifice for what?
I hope this country makes it to 2012. If we DO make it….,I hope that the spoiled, smug, clueless Americans who voted for Barry Dunham in 2008 ,to include dead people, multiple ACORN votes,yaddas,yadda,do NOT outnumber the American Sane.
We may survive four years of Barry Dunham. I do not think we can survive eight.
Another post from Wonderland…,down is up , up is down, and we’re painting the roses red!
“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US!” Pogo
Report Post »oceandove
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 9:11pmDid Glenn mention this vacation during the Friday show, if so, I didn’t catch it. If Glenn is not on, at least let Stu Varney host the show.
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 10:13pm@Lucy Larue
You tell it like it is Lady… thank you for your sacrifice and your service to OUR Country…God Bless you and those you love.
Report Post »jblaze
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 10:34pmLUCY LARUE
Report Post »I felt a bit sad when I read your post! I got the feeling you are in the military or close to someone in it! It seems this Administration has done nothing but tare down and trample on everything that is sacred and honorable. I can’t tell you how much those in the military are honored by those that understand and truly appreciate your service! The Military men and women are the best this county has to offer! I pray for your safety, your strength and your protection from the enemy within and without! May God bless you and keep you and your family. Don’t let those scumbags win!
younonothing
Posted on March 8, 2011 at 2:27amHello any there!!!!
Report Post »Sinista MACE
Posted on March 8, 2011 at 9:26amWe aren’t engaged in WW3.
That’s hogwash.
We haven’t even declared war on anybody or any country, but an ideology (War on Terror, War on Drugs, War on Poverty, War on YOU), which cannot be defeated militarily.
This entire charade is a farce fabricated by the military industrial complex.
Al-CIA-Duh didn’t exist until the Feds MADE them.
They called themselves Mujahideen.
We propped up Gaddafi, Saddam, and Mubarak.
We trained Bin Ladin and the Taliban.
Our government is WORKING WITH the Taliban.
Our military is working WITH the corrupt leaders of Afghanistan to move heroin.
Our military and Feds are working WITH the Drug Cartels in Mexico, moving guns and drugs.
Our government is infiltrated and corrupted by an elite band of criminals.