Thread: New Yorker Wins Medal of Honor, NY Times Ignores

New Yorker Wins Medal of Honor, NY Times Ignores

It will be interesting to see the New York Times try to wiggle an excuse to get out of the consequences of this, if they even have the decency to try. It will be interesting to watch the backlash and the apologists. It is interesting, but sadly not shocking.

This doesn’t need much added to it: http://www.nypost.com/seven/10132007..._to_print_.htm

Every major daily paper in New York took note of President Bush’s decision to bestow the first Medal of Honor of Operation Enduring Freedom on Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy - a Long Islander who gave his life for his country and his fellow SEALs.

Every paper but one, that is.

And it shouldn’t be particularly hard to guess which one.

Indeed, it wasn’t hard to guess. Every chance they get to reveal our secrets to the enemy, they have delivered. Every chance they get to destroy moral, report negatively on the war efforts, or defame our troops, they go page one. I stand with the New York Post in awarding the Times the Medal of Dis-honer.

What do you think the New York Times focus on instead?

What did the paper of record focus on yesterday? No fewer than three stories reported on how Americans had killed innocent Iraqi civilians.

It makes me sick.

AJ Strata says there will be backlash: http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4542

The man died in the service of his country, receives one of its top commendations and the NY Times impugns him by turning their back on his life story. Well, that will create a backlash as most Americans will now be returning the favor to the NY Times and turn their backs on it. I would bet this just may be the moment the NY Times went out of business. Optimistic? Harsh? I’m not so sure. How else do you honor the man and all those who died or were injured fighting for us? Even if you don’t agree with the war or how we got in it, most people would find this an even worse infraction in simple human decency. You honor them by making clear the contempt and disgust we hold for such a petty act. And no pretend excuse will save them from their just desserts. In fact it may make the matter even worse.

Dan Riehl: http://www.riehlworldview.com/carniv...w-low-tim.html

Almost shocking and certainly sad. It’s a wonder New Yorkers don’t run the paper right out of town for this one. But then perhaps it mirrors at least a majority of New Yorker’s sentiments, too?

Urban Grounds: http://urbangrounds.com/2007/10/13/n...ates-military/

The writer of this article from the New York Post assumes that anybody working at the al Qaeda Times of New York™ has any idea what the word valor means…

Jammie Wearin Fool: http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.co...ores-hero.html

We figure if Lt. Michael Murphy was alleged by John Murtha to have gunned down innocent civilians, the New York Times would have noted the story; in all likelihood, on page one.

But the fact a local hero was bestowed with the Medal of Honor doesn’t even merit a mention in the alleged paper of record is disgraceful.

Prarie Pundit: http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/20...and-times.html

There is more. You can bet that in not one of the stories about civilian casualties was the enemy’s war crime of camouflaging himself as a civilian mentioned, not his war crime of using human shields. However, Murphy’s story was fascinating as was the story of his wonderful parents who live on Long Island. The in gratitude of the NY Times for their sacrifice shows the real heart of the liberal and it is a black hole.

MacRanger: http://www.macsmind.com/wordpress/20...ance-of-honor/

I’m calling this act willful because they cannot claim that they didn’t know as they received the same press release all the other area papers received. It’s willful because the decision not to print the story comes from an editor who decided that the item is simply not “newsworthy” enough.

In journalism we offen say, “If it bleeds, it leads”. Obviously the New York Times is uninterested in the blood of a fallen American hero.

Hot Air: http://hotair.com/archives/2007/10/1...w-york-crimes/

If Lt. Murphy had been accused of war crimes, you can bet where the NYTimes would have placed the news. Front and center.

http://stoptheaclu.com/archives/2007...times-ignores/

In honor of Lt. Michael P. Murphy
Meet an American hero

Navy SEAL from NY to receive Medal of Honor from the president
By FRANK ELTMAN
4:45 PM EDT, October 11, 2007

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - A Navy SEAL from Long Island who was killed while leading a reconnaissance mission deep behind enemy lines in Afghanistan will receive the nation's highest military award for valor - the Medal of Honor, President Bush announced Thursday.

Lt. Michael P. Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, is the first armed forces service member to receive the Medal of Honor for combat in Afghanistan, the Navy said Thursday. The medal is the nation's highest military award for valor in action against an enemy force.

Two Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously in the Iraq war: Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who was killed in 2004 after covering a grenade with his helmet; and Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, who was killed in 2003 after holding off Iraqi forces with a machine gun before he was killed at the Baghdad airport.

President Bush will present the Medal of Honor to Murphy's parents at a White House ceremony on Oct. 22. "His sacrifice reminds us of the dangers the men and women of our Armed Forces face in order to defend our nation," said Rep. Timothy Bishop, a Democrat from Long Island. "I can think of no one more deserving of this medal today. It can never make up for his loss, but it extends the honor which he and his family so well deserve."

According to a Navy citation, Murphy and three fellow SEALs were searching for a terrorist in the Afghan mountains on June 28, 2005, when their mission was compromised after they were spotted by locals, who presumably reported their presence and location to the Taliban.

A fierce firefight ensued, with more than 50 anti-coalition militia firing on the outnumbered SEALs.

Despite the intensity of the firefight, Murphy _ already wounded _ is credited with risking his own life to save the lives of his comrades by moving into the open for a better position to transmit a call for help.

While continuing to be fired upon, Murphy provided his unit's location and the size of the enemy force. At one point he was shot in the back, causing him to drop the transmitter. Murphy picked it back up, completed the call and continued firing at the enemy who was closing in.

Murphy then returned to his cover position with his men and continued the battle.

By the end of the two-hour gunfight, Murphy and two of his comrades were dead. An estimated 35 Taliban were also killed. The fourth member of their team managed to escape and was protected by local villagers for several days before he was rescued.

Murphy's heroics have been widely recognized on Long Island, with the post office in his hometown of Patchogue renamed in his honor. "The family is absolutely thrilled by the president's announcement," his father, Daniel Murphy told Newsday.

"I think it is a public recognition of what we knew about Michael, of his intensity, his focus, his devout loyalty to home and family, his country and especially to his SEAL teammates and the SEAL community."

A 1994 graduate of Patchogue-Medford High School, he attended Penn State University, where he graduated with honors with bachelor's degrees in both political science and psychology. He was accepted to several law schools but instead accepted an appointment to the Navy's Officer Candidate School in September 2000.

Murphy is the fourth Navy SEAL to earn the award and the first since Vietnam.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...,5695008.story

---

By the end of the two-hour gunfight, Murphy and two of his comrades were dead. An estimated 35 Taliban were also killed. The fourth member of their team managed to escape and was protected by local villagers for several days before he was rescued.

The names of those other SEALS might ring a bell. They were Danny Dietz and Marcus Luttrell.

I read Lone Survivor a couple months ago. I’ve never been so deeply shaken by any war account. Mike Murphy, Matt Axelson, Danny Dietz and Marcus Luttrell are giants among men. Their story is one of the most powerful testimonies to the American spirit I’ve ever read. It’s fitting that all received Navy Crosses. And LT Murphy’s MOH is well deserved. God bless them all.


Blackfive has blogged Lt. Murphy’s heroism for quite a while. Check out all the background links. http://www.blackfive.net/main/2007/1...eal-lieut.html

Leave a message at Lt. Murphy’s Legacy.com page. http://www.legacy.com/GB/GuestbookVi...sonId=14469233

Here is a link to a webpage on the official school district site about a United States Navy Parachute Team show and ceremony at the high school.
( http://www.pat-med.k12.ny.us/Schools...phy/index.html ).

The NYTimes finally gets around to mentioning Lt. Michael P. Murphy, whose parents will be presented with his Medal of Honor today by President Bush at 2:30m pm Eastern. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/us...in&oref=slogin


A Protector as a Child, Honored as a Hero
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: October 22, 2007

In June 2005, Lt. Michael P. Murphy and three fellow members of the Navy Seals were on a mission in the mountains of Afghanistan when they were pinned down by a swarm of enemy fighters. Trapped in a steep ravine, they were unable to get a radio signal to call for help.

With the Americans suffering injuries, ammunition running low and roughly 100 Taliban fighters closing in, Lieutenant Murphy made a bold but fateful decision: He left the sheltering mountain rocks into an open area where he hoped to get a radio frequency.

He managed to make contact with Bagram Air Base, calling in his unit’s location and the size of the enemy force, even as he came under direct fire, according to a declassified Navy account of the battle.

He also was shot several times and died.

Today, President Bush will award Lieutenant Murphy, a team leader from Patchogue, the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award. Mr. Bush will present it to Lieutenant Murphy’s father and mother, Daniel and Maureen, in a ceremony scheduled to take place in the East Room.

Mr. Murphy said his son’s action in battle was typical of the sort of selflessness he displayed even as a child, recalling an episode when he got into a scrap with three bullies in middle school who tried to shove a disabled student in a locker.

“He just jumped in,” Mr. Murphy said, noting that it was the kind of action that led him and his former wife to refer to their oldest son as “the Protector” when he was a boy. “That was Michael’s way.”

Lieutenant Murphy, who was 29 and engaged, is the first member of the military to receive the medal for service in the war in Afghanistan. The war in Iraq has produced two Medal of Honor recipients, most recently in January when Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, a recruit from upstate New York, received the award posthumously.

Early in his life, Lieutenant Murphy appeared to possess the qualities that would make him the kind of candidate sought by the Seals, an elite Navy unit known for daring, physical toughness and mental acuity.

He was a member of the National Honor Society in Patchogue-Medford High School, a lifeguard and a solid athlete. He attended Pennsylvania State University, where he played hockey and graduated with two bachelor’s degrees, in political science and psychology.

His options after graduating in 1998 were wide open, and he was accepted into several law schools. He chose to join the military and train to become a Navy commando. He attended the Navy’s Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Fla., and then completed the Seals’ harsh training program and became a member of the Seals in April 2002.

It was a significant achievement for Lieutenant Murphy, who was not quite 6 feet tall, slight compared with the physically imposing members of the Seals. Each year, 50 to 200 sailors graduate from the training program. The dropout rate is 74 percent, according to the Navy.

His final mission was on June 28, 2005, when he led a four-man Seal unit searching for a Taliban leader behind enemy lines. The Americans were spotted about 24 hours after being dropped in a mountainous stretch of eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar Province, according to the Navy. A firefight erupted. The Americans, vastly outnumbered, took cover in the steep slopes as the batted raged for more than two hours.

But then, according to Hospital Corpsman Marcus Luttrell, the unit’s only survivor that day, Lieutenant Murphy made his way toward the exposed ridge between the mountains, making him an easy target. “I was cursing at him from where I was,” he recalled in an interview. “I was saying, ‘What are you doing?’ Then I realized that he was making a call. But then he started getting hit. He finished the call, picked up his rifle and started fighting again. But he was overrun.”

The call placed by Lieutenant Murphy led American commanders to dispatch a small rescue force that included an MH-47 Chinook helicopter with eight Seals members and eight Army special operations soldiers. But a rocket-propelled grenade struck the slow-moving helicopter as it approached, killing all 16 men aboard. Lieutenant Murphy and two others in his unit were killed in the firefight. Corpsman Luttrell escaped, and took refuge in a village until he was rescued several days later.

Corpsman Luttrell and the other two men who were killed, Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Danny P. Dietz and Sonar Technician 2nd Class Matthew G. Axelson, all received the Navy Cross.

Mr. Bush approved Lieutenant Murphy’s nomination for the medal on Oct. 11, more than two years after his commanders recommended him for an award to recognize his actions in battle.

Since the medal was created during the Civil War, it has been bestowed on more than 3,400 soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

Lieutenant Murphy is the first member of the Navy to receive the medal since the Vietnam War, a Navy spokesman said.

In an interview, Daniel Murphy said that he was not surprised to learn about his son’s actions. “What Maureen and I always worried about was that he would put himself in danger to help someone else, which turned out to be true,” he said.

The AP has this at the bottom of its wire dispatch this morning:

Murphy, who died before his 30th birthday, is the fourth Navy SEAL to earn the award and the first since the Vietnam War. Two Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously in the Iraq war: to Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who was killed in 2004 after covering a grenade with his helmet, and to Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, who was killed in 2003 after holding off Iraqi forces with a machine gun before he was killed at the Baghdad airport.

Murphy’s heroics have been widely recognized on Long Island, where he graduated in 1994 from Patchogue-Medford High School.

To his fellow SEALs, he was known as “Murph,” but as a child, his parents nicknamed him “The Protector,” because of his strong moral compass. After the 2001 terror attacks, that compass eventually led him to Afghanistan, where he wore a patch of the New York City Fire Department on his uniform.

“He took his deployment personally. He was going after, and his team was going after, the men who planned, plotted against and attacked not only the United States, but the city he loved, New York,” said his father. “He knew what he was fighting for.”

And here’s more on the NYTimes’ lack of coverage of Lt. Murphy compared to its preferred war narratives : http://www.yorknewstimes.com/stories...dalhonor.shtml


Thursday, October 18, 2007
Medal of Honor Winner Ignored
By Brian Bresnahan

Next week the Congressional Medal of Honor will be posthumously awarded to Navy Lieutenant SEAL Mike Murphy from New York. The medal will be presented to his family by the President at the White House.

This will be the first Medal of Honor awarded for the fight in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and the third during the war against terrorists.

Lieutenant Murphy's heroism is detailed in the book "Lone Survivor" written by Marcus Luttrell, the only member of Lieutenant Murphy's four man reconnaissance team still alive after a fight with over 100 Taliban in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Not surprisingly, The New York Times didn't even mention the awarding of our nation's highest honor for valor to a home state boy.

Their neglect of this remarkable story is to be expected. After all, as the icon of liberal mainstream news, why would they ever report something positive about the military?

After dozens and dozens of front page stories about Abu Ghraib, they have no room, ideologically, for reporting the extraordinary heroism of one of the world's most elite warriors.

But, it also seems appropriate that they didn't cover the story. After reading Marcus Luttrell's account of Lieutenant Murphy's final day, I have doubts that Lieutenant Murphy or Luttrell would have wanted the bastion of liberal media to cover it.

On that fateful day in 2005, while conducting a reconnaissance mission in the Hindu Kush, their four man team was accidentally happened upon by three Afghani goat herders.

What ensued was a discussion among the four SEALs about what to do with the three Afghanis. The rules of engagement weren't specific enough for them to decide whether they should kill, detain, or release the men.

During the debate, Lieutenant Murphy pointed out that if they killed the three men, "The media in the U.S.A. will latch on to it and write stuff about the brutish U.S. Armed Forces. Very shortly after that, we'll be charged with murder."

At that point, Luttrell confessed that even though he wasn't afraid of the Taliban, he was "afraid of the liberal media back in the U.S.A."

As the discussion continued, Lieutenant Murphy again stated that "Éthe liberal media will attack us without mercy" if they killed the three.

The four SEALs weighed the strategic, tactical, safety, legal, and religious implications on the rules of engagement as best they could.

Unfortunately, these men served during a time with a biased liberal media, bent more toward an ideology, less toward honest and accurate news reporting, and one with an eager willingness to publicly sacrifice members of the military, often without proof. In this environment, Lieutenant Murphy had to consider the impact of the press against his men, the mission at hand, and the strategic blow the press was likely to deal the mission in Afghanistan.

In the end Lieutenant Murphy decided to let the men go. The three immediately alerted the Taliban who then attacked them en masse.

The four fought valiantly, making one fighting withdrawal after another down the side of a mountain. When all other options failed, Lieutenant Murphy moved to an open area where his satellite phone would work, exposed himself to heavy gun fire, made a call for a rescue, was shot in the back during the call, but finished and continued to fight until his death.

Sadly, as I read through this account, I couldn't keep the blaring headlines of Haditha out of my mind. I could hear John Murtha screaming "cold-blooded" murder as he did about our Marines at Haditha. Similar treatment would have befallen the four had they made a different decision that day.

Their story flashed back through my mind as I read through the recent, relevant words of General Sanchez about the press:

"Unscrupulous reporting solely focused on supporting your agenda preconceived notions of what our military had done no regard for the 'collateral damage' you will cause tactically insignificant events have become strategic defeats for America unjustly destroyed the individual reputations and careers of those involved"

Lieutenant Murphy became a hero that day through his courage, fighting spirit, unselfish decision to expose himself to mortally dangerous gunfire, and his decision to err on the side of strategic victory by letting three innocent civilians live despite the personal danger.

Unfortunately he had to weigh the bias of our press in his decision.

Given that, maybe the New York Times, or other decidedly anti-military news organizations, shouldn't cover the stories of such heroes. They somehow don't seem worthy enough to print their names or their deeds.


Recon mission. Goat-herders would reveal their position. These men had to choose to allow the three to live, and possibly jeopardize their own lives, or kill them and face the war cry from our socialist press.

No win situation.

They made their choice, and more than likely paid the ultimate price for it when those goat-herders turned them in to Afghani rebels.

That SeAL teams have to make these kind of political calculations in their heads while on patrol, or under fire, IS THE PROBLEM.

It’s like playing a game of football, after you hand the other team your playbook and a script of your first hundred plays, and starting with a 50 point handicap. Oh, by the way, the referees (aka the press) will be watching to make sure you follow your script so the enemy has the most advantage possible.

With this attitude, we never would have made it to the beach at Normandy.

To you they were goat herders. To the guy on the ground, who make a decision regarding life or death, they are scouts. And as we now tragically see they were indeed scouts who relayed the SEALs position to the Taliban which ultimately resulted in the death of a dozen of them.
War is not what is portrayed in Hollywood movies. You need to watch the new Ken Burns documentary “The War” and see some of the things the greatest generation did. There is one story of a unit fighting on one of the south Pacific islands who captured some Japanese, and because of the terrible losses they had inflicted on the Marines they took the Japanese into the jungle and killed them.
I will pass no judgment on any man’s actions in a war zone and neither should anybody else unless they have some first hand knowledge of the subject.
I do know that the assertion that the liberal media has cost us lives in this war is in fact truth. Whether it is through the reporting of vulnerablilties of our body armor which enable the enemy snipers to better target our men or the armor weaknesses of our vehicles which allow the enemy to build better and more effective IED’s to attack them or simply plastering every misstep on the front page our media has been the biggest propaganda tool and moral booster for the enemy since Tokyo Rose.
Lt Murphy made the decision not to engage and it cost us and the families of the men lost that day dearly. It was a decision not made out of military considerations, beyond the harm it would cause in the media.
I do have one exit question. What happens when the men and women on the ground finally say it doesn’t matter what we do we will be persecuted so why not go ahead and do it and consequences be damned? You can only kick a dog so long before he fights back.

Medal of Honor ceremony at White House
By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 35 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - President Bush publicly honored a fallen Navy SEAL Monday by presenting his grieving parents with the Medal of Honor — and privately honored their sacrifice by wearing a dog tag they'd given him moments before.

The president posthumously awarded the nation's highest military honor for valor to Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue, N.Y. — the first given for combat in Afghanistan.

Before the emotional White House ceremony, Murphy's parents Dan and Maureen Murphy met with Bush and gave him a gold dog tag in tribute to their son.

"What we were most touched by was that the president immediately put that on underneath his shirt, and when he made the presentation of the Medal of Honor, he wore that against his chest," said the father.

After the ceremony, Dan Murphy said, Bush told the family: "I was inspired by having Michael next to my chest."

The father, who fought back tears during the ceremony, said they were "deeply moved" by Bush's gesture.

"It was very emotional on everybody's part," said Maureen Murphy.

Bush presided over a solemn ceremony honoring their son's battlefield decision to expose himself to deadly enemy fire in order to make a desperate call for help for his elite combat team.

"While their missions were often carried out in secrecy, their love of country and devotion to each other was always clear," Bush said. "On June 28, 2005, Michael would give his life for these ideals."

Murphy's parents both cried at points in the ceremony as they stood next to the president and listened to their son's heroism recounted. Vice President Dick Cheney also attended, as did a handful of previous recipients of the Medal of Honor.

"There's a lot of awards in the military, but when you see a Medal of Honor, you know whatever they went through is pretty horrible. You don't congratulate anyone when you see it," said Marcus Luttrell, the lone member of Murphy's team to survive the firefight with the Taliban.

Murphy, Luttrell and two other SEALs were searching for a terrorist when their mission was compromised after they were spotted by locals, who presumably alerted the Taliban to their presence.

An intense gun battle ensued, with more than 50 anti-coalition fighters swarming around the outnumbered SEALs.

Although wounded, Murphy is credited with risking his own life by moving into the open for a better position to transmit a call for help.

Still under fire, Murphy provided his unit's location and the size of the enemy force. At one point he was shot in the back, causing him to drop the mobile phone. Murphy picked it back up, completed the call and continued firing at the enemy who was closing in.

He then returned to his cover position with his men and continued the battle. A U.S. helicopter sent to rescue the men was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, killing all 16 aboard. It was the worst single-day death toll for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

By the end of the two-hour gunfight, Murphy and two of his comrades were also dead. An estimated 35 Taliban were also killed. Luttrell was blown over a ridge and knocked unconscious. He escaped, and was protected by local villagers for several days before he was rescued.

Murphy, who died before his 30th birthday, is the fourth Navy SEAL to earn the award and the first since the Vietnam War. Two Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously in the Iraq war: to Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who was killed in 2004 after covering a grenade with his helmet, and to Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, who was killed in 2003 after holding off Iraqi forces with a machine gun before he was killed at the Baghdad airport.

Murphy's heroics have been widely recognized on Long Island, where he graduated in 1994 from Patchogue-Medford High School.

To his fellow SEALs, he was known as "Murph," but as a child, his parents nicknamed him "The Protector," because of his strong moral compass. After the 2001 terror attacks, that compass eventually led him to Afghanistan, where he wore a patch of the New York City Fire Department on his uniform.

"He took his deployment personally. He was going after, and his team was going after, the men who planned, plotted against and attacked not only the United States, but the city he loved, New York," said his father. "He knew what he was fighting for."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071022/...0ed2WW8F6s0NUE