American Spectator's Yost: Journalists are “somewhat embarrassed ... by people who do incredibly heroic things”

Written by Simon Maloy

Published

On Fox News' Your World, guest host David Asman stated that journalists covering the Iraq war are “not going to report on a lot of heroism.” In response, American Spectator contributing writer Mark Yost claimed that he had been told that people are “somewhat embarrassed by people or feel lesser of themselves by people who do incredibly heroic things,” and that “they don't make a big deal of it, because they themselves know that maybe, perhaps, in the same situation they wouldn't have done the same thing.”

Appearing on the May 15 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, American Spectator contributing writer Mark Yost, in response to guest host David Asman's statement that journalists covering the Iraq war are “not going to report on a lot of heroism,” claimed that he had been told that people are “somewhat embarrassed by people or feel lesser of themselves by people who do incredibly heroic things,” and that “they don't make a big deal of it, because they themselves know that maybe, perhaps, in the same situation they wouldn't have done the same thing.”

From the May 15 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:

ASMAN: But Mark, you know -- I don't think I'm divulging anything secret here -- you were a former Navy SEAL. You know that that's not at all unusual for these secret missions. But, somehow, the story gets out, and it's not getting out here. Do we in the media have any blame for that?

YOST: I think it does have to do with the media, David, in terms of -- I think that the coverage of the war from both Iraq and Afghanistan has been largely negative. And these are, you know -- and the point I try to make to people who are against the war is that you can be against the war and still celebrate these people.

ASMAN: Well, that's what the folks who are against the war say, but the question is if your heart and mind -- if the heart and mind of the people fighting the war is not in the war, as is the case with a lot of journalists covering the war, then they're not going to report on a lot of heroism.

YOST: Well, that's true. And as I mention in the article, even with reporters and with everyday people -- I had a retired Marine tell me that a lot of times people are reluctant, they're somewhat embarrassed by people or feel lesser of themselves by people who do incredibly heroic things, and sometimes it's better off that they quietly acknowledge it, but they don't make a big deal of it, because they themselves know that maybe, perhaps, in the same situation they wouldn't have done the same thing.

ASMAN: Yeah.