During a live press conference in Bagdad, Senators McCain and Graham were heckled by CNN reporter Michael Ware. An official at the press conference called Ware’s conduct “outrageous,” saying, “here you have two United States Senators in Bagdad giving first-hand reports while Ware is laughing and mocking their comments. I’ve never witnessed such disrespect. This guy is an activist not a reporter.”
Senators McCain and Graham flew into Iraq and drove into Bagdad, making stops at an open market and a joint Iraq/American military security outpost before appearing at the press conference.
This is not the first time Michael Ware has taken issue with Senator McCain’s comments about early progress in Iraq. Last week, after Senator McCain told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he needed to catch up on the news coming out of Iraq, Michael Ware responded, saying:
“I don’t know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad.”
Michael Ware has also publicly expressed his views on the war last year in an interview with Bill Maher, saying, “I’ve been given a front-row ticket to watch this slow-motion train wreck … I try to stay as drunk for as long as possible while I’m here … In fact, I’m drinking now.”
I posted on Ware’s appearance on Maher’s show about a year ago and had this to say at the time:
Here we have Time Magazine’s Baghdad bureau chief (Michael Ware) appearing on Bill Maher’s show - visibly drunk, slurring words and claiming to be drinking alot to forget about his odds of survival - engaging in some good old fashioned, wink-and-a-nod liberal hate of both the President and the mission in Iraq. This man, who is supposed to be a professional and objective observer in Iraq, sits there and cooperates with Maher as they both spread innuendo about massacarring civilians and U.S. troops mistreating Iraqi women and then sits back and laughs with Bill as the sycophants in the audience applaud the stupid, half-baked defeatist talking points being bandied about.
This is an example of the sort of people we’re supposed to get our news of Iraq from? This is someone whose reporting we are supposed to be basing our political decisions on here at home?
Give me a break.
And we wonder why we can’t get any balanced or fair coverage of the war in Iraq. With “objective” reporters like Ware bringing us the news, who need enemies?