Posted on 05/15/2005 1:05:08 PM PDT by WayneLusvardi
The Theatre of the world is packed with Muslims, and Newsweek has shouted "FIRE!" by the Pasadena Pundit
"The theatre of the world is packed with Muslims, and Newsweek has shouted "FIRE!" Lightman - blogger at FreeRepublic.com (5/14/2005)
In the May 9 issue of Newsweek reporters Michael Isikoff and John Barry write that they "had found that interrogators had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7693889/site/newsweek/. This unconfirmed report has spread like wildfire across the Muslim world resulting in protests and deaths. (see Protests across Muslim world over 'Koran desecration', 16 dead by Reuters http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=46740 The article insinuates that a prison guard provocatively flushed pages of the Koran down a toilet as a method of psychological torture similar to those reported at abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. However, it is more likely the U.S. military may merely have left copies of the Koran near toilets and the prisoners flushed pages down the toilets to stop up the drains, a frequent protest tactic used by those in prisons. This unconfirmed report would be more credible if it had not come from Newsweek, whose online webpage is loaded with negative reports about the two war fronts in the Mid East. Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker has apologized for the error contained in the story http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7857154/site/newsweek/. Unfortunately, this is too late now as the story has a life of its own.
Lee Harris has discerned the significance of this act of irresponsible misreportage in his column at TechCentralStation.com (On not getting the Koran - Lee Harris http://www.techcentralstation.com/051205C.html. Harris warns of the danger of fabricated cliches:
"Meanwhile all we can do is to watch and wait helplessly as the rumor of the Great Insult spreads through the Muslim world, and hope that it is not the harbinger of that vicious form of People Power called mob fanaticism. Pundits and schoolmarms may work hard to try to vanquish clichés -- but clichés have a surprising life to them, often because, I suspect, they are the most convenient method of referring to a persistent and nagging reality that, like the cliché itself, simply won't go away, no matter how many times we tell it to depart from us. It sometimes seems as if reality never learns."
As a Vietnam Veteran, this writer remembers the cliche "we had to destroy the village to save it," which apparently was created by journalist Peter Arnett from an unconfirmed source. Arnett was later apparently duped by the Iraqi government in Gulf War I in his infamous report of the "Baby Milk Plant" in Iraq that was later found to be a chemical weapons factory defended by surface to air missiles, painted with camoflage paint, cordoned off with a security fence and guards http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Arnett Sociologist W.I. Thomas's apt phrase that "if a situation is perceived as real, it is real in its consequences" seems to apply to journalistic created rumors. Such widespread rumors are why in the Jewish religion it is a violation of religious law to spread a rumor. For the viscious consequences of historical rumors one only has to read "A Rumor About the Jews: Antisemitism, Conspiracy, and the Protocols of Zion" by Stephen Eric Bronner. The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is a crude pamphlet meant to convince that Judaism is a worldwide conspiracy dedicated to the destruction of Christian, and Islamic, civilizations. The Protocols are considered as historical fact in many parts of the world; just as the conspiracy theory that 9/11 was a joint conspiracy of Israel and the United States is widely believed in not only the Mid East but Greece, Turkey, and elsewhere.
In her new book Don't Believe It! How Lies Become News, journalist Alexandra Kitty provides a list of questions on how to detect journalistic war propaganda http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-5052461-4883018:
1. "Is this story reported from a war zone? 2. Is the reporter likely to have been censored by government or military officials? 3. Does the reporter rely on interpreters from one of the warring sides? 4. Does the story demonize one warring side while supporting its enemy? 5. Does the story rely on prejudice and stereotyping? 6. Are eyewitness accounts too similar, even in phrasing? 7. Does a story of atrocities spark immediate anger? 8. Do the reporter or eyewitnesses rely on overkill to tell the story? 9. Is one side portrayed as a faceless enemy? 10. Is one side protrayed as ruthless killing machines that all behave in the same way? 11. Do the stories have chronological or logical holes? 12. Is there any forensice evidence to support the claims? 13. Does one side rely on a conspiracy theory to explain the lack of evidence?*** 14. Does one side get credited with having superhuman strength? 15. Do the cultural or ethnic idiosyncracies seem plausible? 16. Does the story encourage reaction over reflection? 17. Do the stories appeal to survival fears, such as fear of cold, hunger, torture or death? 18. Is one side seen as reproducing and expanding at the detriment of the opposing side? 19. Are women used to both sexually arouse and invoke pity on the part of the audience? 20. Is the enemy of a small nation portrayed as someone who is bent on world domination? 21. Does one of the warring sides seem to have media training or have hired a public relations firm?"
But radical terrorists need not hire a public relations firm if they have the mainstream media continually feeding propaganda to the public. George Orwell's novel 1984 was evidently partly wrong. We find more incendiary propaganda coming from so-called liberal mainstream media than we do from Big Brother government, at least at this moment in time. U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson is often quoted during WWI as saying that "the first casualty of war is truth." Ironically, whether Johnson ever said this is not known for certain due to the obscurity of journalistic reporting. Today it might be added that the first casualty of war is journalistic truth.
And .. THEY DID IT TO SMEAR THE BUSH ADMIN - AND IT HAS TURNED BACK AGAINST THEM AND I HOPE IT BITES THEM VERY BADLY.
They never check their sources - as long as the sources say something bad about Bush or the military. When are these idiots going to learn ..??
When our country is in flames, but, by then it will be too late.
ping
Maybe they should put Newsweek magazine on toilets and flush them down.
Then Muslims and I would finally have something in common, we would not give a sheite.
I wonder what happens to the Bibles that are confiscated when Christian churches are broken up in Saudi Arabia.
When our country is in flames, but, by then it will be too late.
Who cares? It'll be just our cities burning.... The folks who voted for their own death.
The folks who look down on us so condescendingly.
Let 'em fry in their own grease.
Bite them badly?
Ha! To them, it's Mission Accomplished.
You think the rioters and clerics are going to believe their "retraction?"
The damage (to the USA) has been done.
We have soldiers/Marines on trial for shooting the enemy in a war zone.
The spread of the Koran rumor that resulted in at least 16 deaths is certainly more atrocious and intentional than soldiers doing their duty in a war zone.
Officials responsible at Newsweek should be prosecuted for causing those deaths.
Maybe these same rioters can start using Newsweek for toilet paper instead of their usual hand.
The stupid stupid idiots. They are working toward their own destruction.
The U.S. didn't have a big enough problem with all of the Islamic nuts in the world, Those geniuses had to throw more gasoline on the fire.
Thanks for nothing Newsweek. May a member of your corporation be the first to experience the anger you have stoked.
The liberal media has spent the last 5 years slandering America just so as to embarrass George W. Bush.
"Officials responsible at Newsweek should be prosecuted for causing those deaths."
Their heads should be offered to Zarqawi.
To the editing and writing staff of Newsweek,
Congratulations on your publication in Periscope concerning Korans being flushed down toilets by U.S. interrogators and your subsequent apology, stating that this story may have not been supported by fact. Congratulations again, for the deaths and rioting resulting from your due diligence and journalistic integrity in reporting this story. Congratulations for providing the Moslem world with more fodder, which will be used to recruit more jihadists to kill the infidels. Congratulations for any future deaths of Americans and others in the world that will result from your loose-lipped arrows of truth. Congratulations on your apology, which comes after arrow has left bow and the damage that results cannot be undone. Thank you so much for being sorry. You, of all people should know that words are a powerful weapon, and once they have been unleashed, they cannot be called back no matter how sorry you claim to be. Aside from the deaths and riots your journalistic work has already accomplished, congratulations also for this:
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- A group of Afghan Muslim clerics have threatened to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it hands over military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Quran.
The warning on Sunday came after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 hurt last week in the worst anti-U.S. protests across the country since U.S. forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.
The clerics in the northeastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted U.S. President George W. Bush to handle the matter honestly "and hand the culprits over to an Islamic country for punishment."
"If that does not happen within three days, we will launch a jihad against America," said a statement issued by about 300 clerics, referring to Muslim holy war, after meeting in the main mosque in the provincial capital, Faizabad.
It’s fun to play God. Don’t you agree?
Jonh Major
El Dorado, CA
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