Hugh Hewitt on CNN

I watched CNN on purpose last night (I had to hunt for the channel), because Hugh Hewitt said he'd be on as part of a panel discussing the MSM's coverage of the war. It was Anderson Cooper's show (transcript here), and he gave plenty of time to Hugh and to Michael Yon, a reporter who was embedded with Deuce Four in Mosul last year. Also on were a British reporter, Nic Robertson, and Michael Ware, an Australian writing for Time, who was embedded some of the time with the terrorists and wrote articles about their perspective.

Michael Yon's satellite feed was lost midway through what he was saying, but they showed his photos of Deuce Four, and they were stunning. Without Michael Yon, though, Hugh became the star (here's his post about the show). He praised the writing of the two MSM reporters and said his issue isn't with their writing, but with the MSM's attitude toward the American people.

He pointed out that the media's reporting is sending the message to the terrorists that all they have to do is hang on a little longer, and America will give up and leave Iraq to them. And America does not like seeing that message every day in the news. Here's what Hugh said at one point:

That's what I've heard echoed time and time again, is that the American media is getting Americans killed. [The American people] don't care to understand the insurgent point of view. They're terrorists. They don't care to understand what the Baathist or rejectionists believe. They are people who kill civilians and innocent. They certainly don't give a damn about what Zarqawi thinks because he's a cold-blooded killer.

I think this is the message that the media does not get out or is missing.

The American people have contempt for the mainstream media that shows such contempt for the American people. And the mainstream media doesn't understand this simple point.

Hugh, you ruled the show.