CNN reporter conflated “pro-military” with “pro-war”


On the December 1 edition of CNN's Live From..., CNN correspondent Deborah Feyerick conflated being “pro-military” with being pro-war while discussing the comments Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) made on October 10, 2002, regarding her vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq.

From the December 1 edition of CNN's Live From...:

CLINTON: Any vote that might lead to war should be hard. But I cast it with conviction.

FEYERICK: That was then. Senator Hillary Clinton, voting to authorize the war in Iraq, positioning herself as a pro-military Democrat.

Feyerick's statement falsely suggests that being “pro-war” and “pro-military” are the same thing -- and that being “anti-war” is the same as being “anti-military.”

Media Matters has previously noted that news outlets tended to describe Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) as a “pro-military Democrat,” which falsely implies that most Democrats are not “pro-military.”