Media Ignore Tenth Anniversary of Cindy Sheehan’s Protest of George Bush in Crawford, TX

The news media, which promoted leftist protester and Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan all during the month of August 2005 when she staged a weeks-long protest against then-President George W. Bush and the Iraq war, has ignored the tenth anniversary of Sheehan’s protest.

mother sheehan

Cindy Sheehan Crawford Media 2005 Marooned in Marin
Media surrounds Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, Texas, August 2005. Image via Marooned in Marin.

A Google News search shows there were no tenth anniversary splashes in liberal publications honoring Sheehan, no TV interviews, nothing–just a handful of impersonal mentions buried in the AP’s daily ‘This day in history’ blurbs during the month of August.

August 6:

“Ten years ago: Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier-son, Casey, was killed in Iraq, began a weeks-long protest outside President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch.

August 17:

…”Hundreds of anti-war vigils were held nationwide, part of an effort spurred by Cindy Sheehan’s protest near President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch in memory of her son Casey, who was killed in Iraq.”

and August 23:

“Ten years ago: President George W. Bush said he understood the anguish of war protester Cindy Sheehan, but said fulfilling demands like hers to withdraw from Iraq would weaken the United States.”

Newsbusters noted in 2014 that during the month-long period from August 9, 2005 to September 9, 2005, the big three networks devoted at least 100 stories to Sheehan.

…”in the summer of 2005 when anti-Iraq war mom Cindy Sheehan camped out in front of George W. Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch the networks flooded their evening and morning shows with 100 stories (ABC 37, NBC 33, CBS 30) in the first month (August 9 through September 9) of coverage alone.”

Cindy Sheehan was the media’s star weapon to attack President Bush that August of 2005–with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews telling Sheehan she should run for Congress.

The media protected Sheehan from uncomfortable truths such as when in her debut interview in Crawford with CBS News White House reporter Mark Knoller, Sheehan called jihadists crossing Iraq’s borders to join Al Qaeda in Iraq in killing Americans, “freedom fighters.”

Knoller and the rest of the media did not inform the American people that Sheehan had called terrorists killing Americans in Iraq ‘freedom fighters’ It fell to this writer at Free Republic to inform the public on August 23rd of Sheehan’s statement that was made on August 6th. (Sheehan’s interview with Knoller can be seen here at 5:30 in a copy of a 2005 Veterans for Peace video posted to YouTube in 2007 by leftist activist Michael Moore.)

“Surrounded by reporters with notepads, tape recorders and video cameras, Mrs. Sheehan spoke freely in response to a question by CBS News’ Mark Knoller.

“Mr. Knoller asked, “You know that the president says Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism, don’t you believe that?”

“Mrs. Sheehan replied, “No, because it’s not true. You know Iraq was no threat to the United States of America until we invaded. I mean they’re not even a threat to the United States of America. Iraq was not involved in 9/11, Iraq was not a terrorist state. But now that we have decimated the country the borders are open, freedom fighters from other countries are going in and they (America) have created more terrorism by going to an Islamic country, devastating the country and killing innocent people in that country. The terrorism is growing and people who never thought of being car bombers or suicide bombers are now doing it because they want the United States of America out of their country.””

Sheehan’s claim for publicity was that she just wanted a meeting with President Bush while he was on vacation at his Crawford, Texas ranch so he could explain to her why her son Army Spc. Casey Sheehan was killed in Iraq the year before in April of 2004.

Sheehan failed to tell the media that she and her family already had a meeting with President Bush in June of 2004 just two months after Casey Sheehan’s death in Iraq. It was FReeper research that discovered a report in Sheehan’s local paper, The Vacaville Reporter, on the meeting and it was this writer, again doing the media’s job for them, who informed the press about the meeting in which Sheehan praised Bush for his compassion. Sheehan was against the Iraq war back then, but her meeting with Bush went well.

““‘I now know he’s sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,’ Cindy said after their meeting. ‘I know he’s sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he’s a man of faith.’

“The meeting didn’t last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son’s sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.

““The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.

““For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.

“For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.

“‘That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,’ Cindy said.”

George W BushKissing Cindy Sheehan WND
A photo of President George W. Bush kissing Cindy Sheehan at meeting on June 18, 2004 was posted to Sheehan’s blog but was taken down. A thumbnail image was saved by World Net Daily.

Sheehan was strongly supported in Crawford by leftist anti-American agit-prop groups, especially Veterans for Peace and Code Pink.

A report by Byron York at the National Review published at the end of August 2005 exposed one of the organizers behind the scenes of Sheehan’s Crawford protest as one Lisa Fithian.

Fithian, who was already an experienced beind-the-scenes leftist agitator went on to help organize the Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter protest movements.

Sheehan is still around, but her efforts to protest President Barack Obama were not supported by the left and the media as Counter Punch reported in 2009.

“Cindy Sheehan will be at Martha’s Vineyard beginning August 25 a short way from Obama’s vacation paradise of the celebrity elite but very far from the Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iraq where the body bags and cemeteries fill up each day as Obama’s wars rage on. She will remain there from August 25 through August 29 and has issued a call for all peace activists to join her there. For those of us close by in the New England states and in New York City, there would seem to be a special obligation to get to Martha’s Vineyard as soon as we can.

“A funny thing has happened on Cindy Sheehan’s long road from Crawford, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard. Many of those who claim to lead the peace movement and who so volubly praised her actions in Crawford, TX, are not to be seen. Nor heard. The silence in fact is deafening, or as Cindy put it in an email to this writer, “crashingly deafening.” Where are the email appeals to join Cindy from The Nation or from AFSC or Peace Action or “Progressive” Democrats of America (PDA) or even Code Pink? Or United for Peace and Justice. (No wonder UFPJ is essentially closing shop, bereft of most of their contributions and shriveling up following the thinly veiled protest behind the “retirement” of Leslie Cagan.) And what about MoveOn although it was long ago thoroughly discredited as principled opponents of war or principled in any way shape or form except slavish loyalty to the “other” War Party. And of course sundry “socialist” organizations are also missing in action since their particular dogma will not be front and center. These worthies and many others have vanished into the fog of Obama’s wars.”

Of late, Sheehan has been helping her cancer-stricken sister Dede Miller, which she wrote about last month at her blog, Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox.

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Kristinn Taylor has contributed to The Gateway Pundit for over ten years. Mr. Taylor previously wrote for Breitbart, worked for Judicial Watch and was co-leader of the D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com. He studied journalism in high school, visited the Newseum and once met David Brinkley.

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