Matt Lauer of “The Today Show” got straightened out by some of our finest, as the Media Research Center recounts, when he showed a little skepticism about troop morale in Iraq. Captain Sherman Powell said on yesterday’s program:

“Sir, if I got my news from the newspapers also, I’d be pretty depressed as well.”

Here’s more of the exchange from the segment:

Lauer: “What don’t you think is being correctly portrayed?”

Powell: “Sir I know it’s hard to get out and get on the ground and report the news, and I understand that, and I appreciate that fact. But for those of us who’ve actually had a chance to get out and go on the patrols and meet the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police, and go on patrols with them we are very satisfied with the way things are going here and we are confident that if we’re allowed to finish the job we started we’ll be very proud of it and our country will be proud of us for doing it.”

Lauer: “Perhaps we deal with the insurgency so often that we don’t spend enough time talking about the average Iraqi citizen that perhaps welcomes you here with open arms. What kinds of experiences have you had in that area?”

Sergeant Jamie Wells: “Pretty much every day we go on patrol. Everybody is really psyched to see you shouting ‘mista, mista.’ ‘Americans,’ come here. Everywhere you go, the kids just adore you. They’ll do anything to get chocolate from you and say hi. If you have a camera you’re a freaking God to them.”

Hooah!