Posted on 12/08/2004 5:49:09 AM PST by gab1279
To the extent that the left is still vibrant, I am suggesting that it has mutated into something else. If what used to be known as the Communist International has any rough contemporary equivalent, it is the global media. The global media’s demand for peace and justice, which flows subliminally like an intravenous solution through its reporting, is — much like the Communist International’s rousing demand for workers’ rights — moralistic rather than moral. Peace and justice are such general and self-evident principles that it is enough merely to invoke them. Any and all toxic substances can flourish within them, or manipulate them, provided that the proper rhetoric is adopted. For moralizers these principles are a question of manners, not of substance. [snip]
Because the media confuse victimization with moral right, American troops in Iraq have had occasionally to contend with unsympathetic news coverage, which in an age of mass media has concrete tactical and strategic consequences. Last spring, I accompanied the first United States Marines into Fallujah. After several days of intense fighting, the Marines — reinforced with a fresh new battalion — appeared on the verge of defeating the insurgents. A cease-fire was called, though, snatching defeat from victory. No matter how cleanly the Marines fought, it was not clean enough for the global media, famously including Al-Jazeera, which portrayed as indiscriminate killing what in previous eras of war would have constituted a low civilian casualty rate.[snip]
While U.S. policy was guilty of incoherence — ordering a full-scale assault only to call it off — the Marines were defeated less by the insurgents than by the way urban combat is covered by a global media that has embraced the cult of victimhood.
(Excerpt) Read more at policyreview.org ...
He said: The piece highlights the media's similarities to medieval times. They act to impede progress, and make it harder and harder for politicians to take chances.
The media has mounting power that narrow opportunites for policy makers, they are forced to talk about policy in only the most sanctimonious terms to satisfy the media.
This country's greatest enemies are within it's gates. Our war against terror will be lost by stabs in our backs.
Marvelous! Worth the read, Thank you for posting, I emailed it out on my list.
The global media is within our gates? I think you are confusing our media with the globe's. The author makes the same mistake only in the opposite direction. He is projecting our leftist media autoarky outside the gates onto the world. The anglosphere has some fine conservative press in the UK and Australia.
bump
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