Kyra Phillips to Joe Darby: Do You See Yourself As A Traitor?

I had CNN on in the background at work today and was modestly interested in catching Joe Darby being interviewed on CNN by midday anchor Kyra Phillips.

Mr. Darby was the American soldier responsible for exposing the scandal at Abu Ghraib. He had inadvertently been given a CD containing the incriminating photos and, after some soul-searching, reported them.

For his trouble he got outed by Donald Rumsfeld, while he was still with his unit, and came home to the scorn of his neighbors. It got so bad for him that he had to leave his home.

Darby is back in the news because of a piece on him that is going to run in GQ next week. He is scheduled to appear with Anderson Cooper later this evening.

During the course of the interview, Phillips brought up the troubles that Darby faced for having the courage to expose what happened at Abu Ghraib. She then asked Darby the following question: "Do you see yourself as a traitor?"

My jaw dropped. I was dumbfounded.

Normally, the question would be, 'do you see yourself as a hero,' or perhaps, 'what do you say to those who have called you a traitor and questioned your patriotism?'

But this person, who passes for an anchor at a major news network, deliberately worded it to put Darby on the defensive.

Not knowing much about Phillips I checked out Media Matters and found that she had been singled out previously for alleging that Karl Rove was being smeared as part of an organized campaign.

Not really surprising then that she demonstrated such a high level of insensitivity. I suppose she is a partisan GOP hack, after all. Hopefully, somebody will take her to task for her highly offensive question.

It is precisely because of episodes like this that I find CNN almost as hard to digest as Fox. After all, isn't another anchor there Limbaugh's ex, Daryn Kagan?