Media Madness (Ollie North)

GOP USA ^ | 3-3-06 | Oliver North

[smoothsailing]

Media Madness

By Oliver North

March 3, 2006

The geniuses who run the Fourth Estate in American have gone nuts. This week, the commander in chief visited U.S. troops fighting a war in Afghanistan, paid a state visit to the largest democracy on earth, closed a deal on nuclear cooperation and met with the man most likely to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Big news, right? Not for the potentates of the press.

The masters of the media could have focused in-depth on one of the most important overseas trips President George W. Bush has made during his tenure. His meetings with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf are likely to produce long-term benefits for the U.S. economy and the Global War on Terror.

Apparently the network and newsroom royalty found all of this beyond their ken. So the barons of bombast chose instead to devote countless column inches and hours of air time to the "civil war" in Iraq, recriminations over a hurricane that hit Mardi Gras city six months ago, a Playboy centerfold sashaying into the Supreme Court; Jane Fonda and Babs Streisand blathering about "impeachment," and a Hollywood flick about homosexual cowboys. And they call this stuff news?

Those who wonder why fewer and fewer Americans are buying newspapers or tuning into network "news" need only look at this week's coverage to see why. "Hard" news stories are harder to come by every day, and those events and issues that do get coverage carry more than just a "tinge" of bias, ignorance or both. A few recent examples:

The violence in the aftermath of the bombing of the Golden Mosque -- a major Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraq -- was immediately branded as "the long-feared civil war" by major networks, newspapers and magazines. The cover of this week's TIME magazine features a gaggle of screaming Iraqi supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr with the breathless headline, "Iraq: BREAKING POINT." Despite the fact that not one Iraqi or American official in Baghdad has described the upsurge in violence as a civil war -- and pointedly refused to depict it as such -- the press has deemed it to be so.

It's the same with the flap over "Arab ownership of American ports." Every editor, publisher and broadcast news director in the country knows that Dubai Port World isn't going to "own," "operate," "control" or be responsible for "providing security" at any U.S. seaport. Yet, all of those words and phrases are still being routinely used to describe the DP World purchase of several container-handling facilities at six American ports.

Three weeks ago these courageous media moguls decided not to show any of the Danish newspaper cartoons that precipitated violence, pillage and murder in more than a half-dozen Islamic countries. These are the same indomitable characters who "bravely" determined that it was "right" to expose a highly classified National Security Agency (NSA) program to intercept overseas calls to and from suspected terrorists. They also resolved that the NSA effort should be described as "domestic surveillance" -- thus ensuring maximum political impact.

Those who bemoan the demise of America's proud newspaper heritage or question why fewer people are tuning to the mainstream networks for news need only look at what they put "above the fold" and use as their "lead story." All of us in the business know the phrases "if it bleeds, it leads" and "celebrity sells."

That's why terrorist carnage in Afghanistan and Iraq get covered. Footage and photos shot by Arab cameramen, often traveling with the terrorists who plant the bombs, will always trump the story of American soldiers -- like those of the 67th Armored Regiment -- distributing more than 1,000 wheelchairs to disabled Iraqis.

And that's why two celebs -- Fonda and Streisand -- made "news" this week. From Australia, Fonda, known affectionately as "Hanoi Jane" for posing on an enemy anti-aircraft gun during the Vietnam war, labeled the war in Iraq as "a crime, a tragedy, disgusting and despicable." Streisand used her website to demand the impeachment of President Bush, claiming, among other things, that he "lied to the public about the presence of WMDs in Iraq and rushed to unilaterally invade the country after promising to work with the United Nations."

The dynamic duo may be singing the same old song -- "Blame America First" -- but the masters of the mainstream media made it "news." One can be forgiven for believing that they did so because it is "politically correct" to castigate and denigrate this President while he is traveling overseas, for it will assuredly be picked up and used against us in the Islamic press.

Those who believe that such "coverage" is valid would do well to heed the words of Brigitt Gabrielle, a Middle East expert, who spoke a few days ago at the Intelligence Summit here in Washington. As a 10-year-old child, Gabrielle barely survived an attack by Islamic radicals.

To underwhelming press coverage she observed, "Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy protection, it earns disrespect and loathing in the enemy's eyes. Apathy is the weapon by which the west is committing suicide. Political correctness is a shackle around our ankles by which Islamists are leading us to our demise."

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COPYRIGHT 2005 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

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[jazusamo]

Another good post. Last night or the night before, Ollie was on H&C and Colmes pretty much walked on eggs with him. It was comical.

[malia]

ping and bump

[Daaave]

Brigitte Gabriel
Founder, AmericanCongressforTruth.com

"When the Muslims and Palestinians declared Jihad on the Christians (In Lebanon.)in 1975, they started massacring the Christians, city after city. I ended up living in a bomb shelter underground from age 10 to 17, without electricity, eating grass to live, and crawling under sniper bullets to a spring to get water."

"It was Israel that came to help the Christians in Lebanon. My mother was wounded by a Muslim`s shell and taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment. When we entered the emergency room, I was shocked at what I saw. There were hundreds of people wounded — Muslims, Palestinians, Christians, Lebanese, and Israeli soldiers lying on the floor."

"The doctors treated everyone according to his or her injury. They treated my mother before they treated the Israeli soldier lying next to her. They didn`t see religion, they didn`t see political affiliation — they saw people in need and they helped."

I Believed The Lies About Israel

[nutmeg]

FoxFan ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[ch.man]

Well you may be right, but here in Europe, the endresult was that news about the President's trip were almost obliterated by the "Katrine" story. I have not seen any mention of the trip on the official French TV channels, but of course a lengthy discussion about Bush "lying again, the bastard". This is a very important issue that should not be underestimated.
Net result: Bush = lying = USA = evil.

[Patriot from Philly]

I will need to read this book. I want to read Menace first.

As for the media, I've found that the media reflects its bias in several ways:

-what it covers;
-what is ignores;
-what it hypes and then drops

For instance, I am sure the media desperately wanted the cartoon story to go away, since they looked so bad in it. That is why they jumped on the port story.

[Watery Tart]

Thanks for posting the UNEXCERPTED article, smooth!
Thanks for the PING, cgk!

Just for that, here's a photo of Ollie with Lt. Dan.
;o)

[PGalt]

Information/propaganda flowing one way is history. Inquiring minds want to question.

Thanks for posting. Good article.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[GOPJ]

Having the MSM do press coverage of the war is like having women who hate sports write and edit the sports section.

[ladtx]

This week, the commander in chief visited U.S. troops fighting a war in Afghanistan, paid a state visit to the largest democracy on earth, closed a deal on nuclear cooperation and met with the man most likely to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

Had this been Bill Clinton the MSM would have had the orgasmic vapors about his political astuteness and how he is the statesman of the millenium. But not Dubya, he just sorta stumbled into it doncha know, and it's not even worth reporting on unless your drunk or high.

[SuziQ]

From Brigitte's article:
"The difference between the Arabic world and Israel is a difference in values and character. It`s barbarism versus civilization. It`s democracy versus dictatorship. It`s good versus evil."

So eloquent; so true.

[cgk]

What a great picture! Sinise's Operation Iraqi Children is a great charity: it's on my profile! :)

[smoothsailing]

Thanks.:)

[smoothsailing]

I saw that! I think maybe Colmes has figured out that Ollie doesn't take fools lightly.

[smoothsailing]

Thanks for posting the pic! :)

[Liberty Valance]

Thanks for the sanity Ollie.

[redpoll]

What I don't understand is the reluctance by the President, his allies, conservatives in general, and others to vigorously press back against the media. Bush should have an army of guys out there promoting his viewpoint. An unabashed conservative television news network - no, not like Fox News, more like the mirror image of CNN - would be great. If leftwingers are going to protest Ann Coulter, we should return the favor with every leftwing nutcase who speaks on campus. Why not write, produce, direct, and promote television and movies with conservative themes? There's enough drama in the real world of people dealing with Mao, Stalin, Castro, Che, and Chavez to fill thousands of DVDs. What's the opposition going to do... call us EXTREMISTS? Tears are welling up right now at the thought.