With the very rare media spotlight that shone upon Latvia during President Bush's visit last week, the fascinating President Vaira Vike-Freiberga was in the news. In researching her background, I discovered that she has a steely reputation. In following MSM's coverage of her, I saw her prove that her reputation is well deserved.
ABC's Terry Moran branded her an "instigator" simply because Vike-Freiberga refuses to equivocate on Latvia's cruel post-WWII fate at the hands of the Soviet Union. Here's a revealing excerpt from his interview:
Moran to Vaira Vike-Freiberga: "So is the Russian government today, then, lying about that history?"
Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President, Republic of Latvia: "Yes."
Moran: "Yes, they're lying?"
Vike-Freiberga: "Through their teeth."
Moran: "That's an extraordinary thing for the head of state to say about another government."
Vike-Freiberga: "Well, these are facts."
Simple, direct, straightforward, and fearless. There wasn't much more for truculent Terry to say, was there? Vike-Freiberga has been called "Latvia's Iron Lady" with good reason. She survived a war-torn childhood, the occupation of her homeland, exile, imprisonment, and escape to an unknown land to build a very successful and distinguished new life. Is it possible that there is anything the insipid Terry Moran could ask that would rattle her?
Only one who has suffered and triumphed through such horrific pain and loss as Vike-Freiberga has can be so comfortable in speaking the truth. Moran should have set the network's talking points aside and done a bit of research on what actually happened to the Latvian people after World War II before he questioned her.
A master of the snobby sneer, Moran may have thought he was going to corner the Latvian president and watch her backpedal, right there on his broadcast. How unprepared our abrasive MSM reporter must have been to be flattened by the Iron Lady's steamroller of honest answers.
Atbildet labi, Madame President. Good answers.
