"World Opinion" Is Worthless (Its A Statement Of Media Moral Cowardice Alert)

Townhall.com ^ | 08/01/06 | Dennis Prager

[Small-L]

Good point, Jim. When Kerry and the left speak of "World Opinion," they're talking about the opinion of the world media; and most of us recognize that the media in no way represents the opinion of the man on the street. French media, German media, and UK media are no different than US media--they all stem from the same socialist/liberal/intellectual-elitist world view; and while they claim to be unbiased, are enamored with their own importance and their own intellect that they can't see their own biases.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

those who are fighting for decency will be able to fight better once they loosen the chains of "world opinion".

"World Opinion" is simply journalistic opinion, hyped by journalism. Journalism can properly be spoken of as a unitary entity for the simple reason that journalists obey the "eleventh commandment" - "Thou shalt not question the objectivity of a fellow journalist."

Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate

[Old Professer]

Prager is a man of high principle and strong moral conviction and is rightly outraged; those against whom he rails are not so much pragmatists as they are opportunists, for opinion is informed by publication and the publicists are those in charge; our alliances are often emotional in nature and even when history proves that there are indeed bad guys and good guys, in war, they all soon look the same.

If the Jews gave up all the land and assimilated into kindred cultures, the war would but begin anew as we see among the different sects in Iraq now that no greater overarching threat holds old enmities at bay.

No peace will grace the world as long as there walks a single man whose enemy's name is written in his birth ceremony.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Journalism is the "bad news" business.

All you have to do to understand journalism is to recognize that

• Journalism is a single entity. All journalists obey the "eleventh commandment" (Thou shalt no question the objectivity of a fellow journalist), so all journalists go along and get along and nobody says any journalist isn't objective. That is the MSM's definition of a "journalist."

• Journalism is talk, and it promotes itself at the expense of people who people who do.
  • You neeed water? Journalism will report bad news about the water company if it can.
  • You need Electricity? Journalism will report bad news about the availability of electricity and will even promote environmentalism to threaten the electricity supply.
  • You need security? Journalism will criticize the police for either "brutality" or incompetence, or both. Ditto for the military.
  • Ditto for food.
  • Ditto for automobiles.
  • Ditto for gasoline.
  • Ditto for health care.
• Journalism is superficial because of its short deadlines.

• Journalism is arrogant in claiming to be objective, and in claiming to speak for "world opinion." And in publishing polls claiming to speak for American opinion.

IOW, there is no reason why we should defer to the pretensions of journalism. And there are serious reasons that journalists should be sued. Particularly broadcast journalists.

Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate

[300winmag]

It is when "world opinion" and its news media start liking you that you should wonder if you've lost your way.

As in the case of the Clintons claiming world opinion of America was at its high under their regime?

They've never explained how "world opinion" went so bad between January 20, 2001 and September 11 of the same year. How could George Bush have been so busy alledgedly undoing all good the Clintons had done, and yet nobody noticed at the time? Yet it was drastic enough to distress islamic nutjobs to crash four packed airliners into specific parts of the American landscape.

[PGalt]

Thanks for the ping. BUMP! BUMP!

[NZerFromHK]

""World Opinion" Is Worthless - Its A Statement Of Media Moral Cowardice"

FYI.

[ChessExpert]

This is an outstanding article. If there is an award for best article of the year, this one might get my vote.

I very much appreciate his list that follows the sentence. The history of "world opinion" regarding the greatest mass murders and cruelties on the planet is one of relentless apathy.

These 20th century atrocities are not mentioned nearly enough. Dennis Prager draws many excellent conclusions. I would like to add one more, from Professor Rudolph Rummel. Rummel estimates that for every soldier who died in the heat of battle, four innocents have been killed in cold blood by their own government. Prager’s list gives some of the worst cases of government murder of civilians. War may be hell, but tyranny can be worse.