Representative Patrick Kennedy denounced the “despicable” US media on Wednesday, charging that it was snubbing a House debate on Afghanistan while lavishing attention on a congressional sex scandal.
In an unusually angry outburst on the floor of the House of Representatives, Kennedy, the son of late Democratic icon Ted Kennedy, blamed reporters for the US public’s cynicism and disengagement from public affairs.
“It’s despicable, the national press corps right now,” he thundered, taking aim at coverage of fellow Democrat Eric Massa, who resigned his House seat under an ethics cloud and allegations he sexually harassed male staffers.
“Cynicism is that there’s one, two press people in this gallery. We’re talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV! We’re talking about war and peace, three billion dollars, 1,000 lives and no press! No press!” railed Kennedy, pointing to media seats that overlook the House floor.
The US public is angry at Congress “because of the press. The press of the United States is not covering the most significant issue of national importance, and that’s the laying of lives down” in the Afghan War, he said.
Kennedy’s comments came as the House debated a resolution calling on US President Barack Obama to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan within 30 days or, if he deems that too dangerous, by the end of the year.
Witnesses to Kennedy’s speech said there were perhaps 12 lawmakers on the House floor at the time.
Reporters often track congressional debates via the specialized C-SPAN television network, including on televisions in workspaces just meters from the seats overlooking the floor.
They also use specialized Internet sites, e-mailed statements and other means that do not require sitting in the chamber.
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with the police about the boy, who officials said might have been radicalized online A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said yesterday. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night. The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters. “There are indications he had been radicalized online,” Cook told a news conference, adding that it appeared he acted alone. A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back.