Posted on 08/09/2006 2:59:53 AM PDT by goldstategop
Dear Mainstream Media,
I understand why you report as you do in both the Israel-Hezbollah conflict and the larger war on terror. You believe journalism requires a sort of elegant moral relativism, that telling "both sides of the story" is a necessary prerequisite to "objective" journalism. You don't believe that there can be an objective right or wrong; if you were reporting World War II today, you'd feel obligated to speak to front-line Japanese and Nazi soldiers and discuss the Allies' disproportionate response to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the invasion of Poland.
Since you don't believe in right and wrong, you also don't believe in a bright-line distinction between truth and falsehood. Terrorists are just as believable as American and Israeli officials. Everyone has an equally valid perspective on the truth. Of course, it doesn't hurt that terrorists are more than willing to fabricate juicy stories you can print on Page 1. "Terrorist Kills Civilians" simply doesn't have the same shock value as "American Soldiers Murder Family," even if the second headline is a complete and utter canard. It's easier to win a Pulitzer when you use the fertile imagination of terrorists as reliable sources.
Nonetheless, I feel compelled to offer some advice. It is quite obvious that you do not understand some basic concepts with regard to war. It is also obvious that you do not understand some basic concepts with regard to the state of the world. If you take any of this advice to heart, you may lose your shot at a Pulitzer – but you may restore your own usefulness.
Lesson #1: In a war, civilians die and civilian property is destroyed. Since the days of Napoleon, armies have routinely drawn support from civilian populations. There is no way to win a war without also devastating a certain amount of the civilian population. The more popular the enemy force, the more devastation is necessary. We didn't simply defeat the Japanese military in World War II – we absolutely devastated Japan's ability to make war.
Lesson #2: Terrorists are not fools. They recognize that you are unwilling to accept Lesson #1. They therefore melt into the civilian population, knowing that humane forces (read: American and Israeli) will attempt to avoid civilian casualties. If, however, humane forces have no choice but to kill civilians in order to kill terrorists, terrorists can rely on your sympathy.
Lesson #3: Islamists dissemble. You may love the stories Islamists tell, but don't rely on their truthfulness. You made complete fools of yourselves at Qana after listening to the Syrian-run Lebanese government and Hezbollah terrorists. You made fools of yourselves in Jenin in 2002 after listening to Palestinian Arabs complain of a nonexistent massacre by Israeli forces. "War is deceit," Muhammad stated. Take him at his word.
Lesson #4: Don't expect Muslim journalists from the Middle East to objectively report about Israel or America. Verify first. Trust later. Adnan Hajj is Lebanese, yet Reuters had him taking photos of the current conflict. They were shocked – shocked! – to learn he had blatantly altered those photos to make Israel's campaign look more brutal. Charles Johnson, who exposed Hajj's falsifications, received a death threat from another Reuters employee, who used the e-mail address "zionistpig": "I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut." I'm willing to give odds the sender is Muslim. Any takers?
Lesson #5: Terrorists can read. When you reveal national security secrets during a time of war, assume that you are probably getting American soldiers and American civilians killed.
Lesson #6: War is not about proportionality. Knitting is about proportionality. War is about winning.
Lesson #7: Hatred is not a synonym for justification. Don't pretend that because Islamists hate us, they are justified in that hatred. Yes, Islamists hate America and Israel. So what? Nazis weren't particularly fond of Jews. Just because one group hates another group doesn't mean the first group is justified in its hatred.
I hope you take some of this advice to heart. Now that would be front-page news.
((Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em Down Hezbullies.)
Ben Shapiro, a kid, basically, has clearer vision and better understanding of war, life and journalism than the old frauds like Dan Blather, Walter Crankcase, Perky Katie Couric, etc., etc. Young Mr. Shapiro is wise beyond his years and his columns not only reflect his wisdom, they are usually right on target.
It's a travesty that the target of this column, the drive-by media, won't read or take to heart Mr. Shapiro's words of wisdom. They could use the help.
...except that they know they still have the leftist news junkie audience that just loves how the MSM/drive by media portrays the news just for them. They used to have it so nice and cozy, no one to ferret out the real story, Al Gore sure did good when he invented the internet.
But the problem is not that journalists are trying to present both sides and be objective. The problem is they are NOT being objective. They are taking sides and their choices are based on political viewpoints and shallowly analyzed rhetoric instead of objective facts. When they take sides in a domestic election, we call it "politics". When they take sides in a war, it needs to be called "treason", and they need to be called "enemy".
It almost all comes down to three related things: Conservatives, Republicans, and Bush.
The people who make up the media, the vast majority of them, ae left wing, socialist leaning, liberals. Most editors, reporters, story writers, anchors, and producers see the world through a leftist perspective.
The opposite to this, of course, is the right. So, to the majority of people in the media, conservatives, republicans, right wingers, and the President are wrong on the issues. The people in the media disagree politically with them.
No matter what they say, this shows up in their reporting. They are biased because they think the positions of the right are wrong, and the positions of the left are correct. Some do try to check their impulses to let this worldview into their reporting, but most do not, and in fact don't even realize they're doing it.
The blatant partisanship brought upon this nation under the Clinton's and the Clinton's henchmen (Carville, Lanny Davis, Sid Blumenthal, Mandy Grunwald, etc) and the 24/7 cable news industry, with its constantly chattering debate shows, have conditioned the people in the media to make this partisan "edge" a flavor in their stories.
The Watergate victory of the left over Nixon has caused a whole generation of reporters to desire, more than anything, a similar sitiuation to happen to them, and elevate them to the percieved godlike position of Woodward and Bernstein, so there is a constant "gotcha" undertone to most political reporters today. Since their proclivity is toward the left, the favorite subject of "gotcha" politics is the Republicans. This is why most of Clinton's blatant scandals went underreported, and Bush's speck-in-the-eye incidents are dragged into the overreported spotlight.
This is never going to change as long as leftists continue to favor a journalistic career, or in other words, journalists naturally lean left.
The Communists took over the media in the 30's. They knew that by controlling the information you control society. When this issue comes up, I like to publish the 1963 Communist goals read on the Senate floor.
"Communism 1963 Goals Read In Senate
Is Communism Dead? Read Its Avowed 1963 Goals - Sound Just A Bit Familiar?
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Congressional Record
PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 88th CONGRESS FIRST SESSION
VOLUME 109-PART 1: JANUARY 9, 1963, TO JANUARY 30, 1963
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 10, 1963
Mr. HERLONG: Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land. Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the Record, under unanimous consent, the following 'Current Communist Goals' which she identifies as an excerpt from 'The Naked Communist,' by Cleon Skousen:
(From 'The Naked Communist,' by Cleon Skousen)
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS:
U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushehev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free election under supervision of the U.N.
Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
Allow all soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
Do away with all loyalty oaths.
Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
Get control of schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers, associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
Gain control of all student newspapers.
Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness,repulsive, meaningless art."
Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity, as "normal, natural, healthy."
Infiltrate the churches and replace repealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture-education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.
Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition: that students and special interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
Internationalize the Panama Canal. "
Tagline material. Just too long to include an attribution, though...
The fallacy in your case is the assumption that journalism's job is to tell you what is going on. You buy the newspaper, and you think that finding out what is happening is what journalism is about - but journalists have their own, quite different, idea of that.Everyone chooses their occupation or profession based on their ability and desire to satisfy themselves and the people they care about. Most simply take the first job that will pay enough money to keep the respect of their family. Professionals prepare systematically to do something more than that. Journalists go into journalism to be part of a profession which is at the top of the pecking order.
First and foremost, journalism promotes the idea that journalism is the most important profession. And that implies pecking at all the other chickens in the barnyard.
And so on. In general, anyone who aspires to respect based on doing things, and who is a natural for membership in the Republican Party, is a natural target of journalism.
- Water is so important that if somebody shuts someone else's operation down they are said to have "shut his water off." Does someone take their importance by providing good water to the public? Journalism's reaction is to look for questions which can be raised about the possibility of quality degradation in the water supply, and about how expensive water is. Peck.
- Everyone needs gasoline and electricity. Does someone take their importance by providing energy to the public? Journalism's reaction is to look for questions which can be raised about the environmental and international political impact of producing energy, and about how expensive energy is. Peck.
- Everyone needs, or will need, health care. Does someone take their importance by providing health care to the public? Journalism's reaction is to look for questions which can be raised about the reliability and expense of health care. Peck.
- The nation needs police and military. Does someone take their importance by providing security to the public and the nation? Journalism's reaction is to question whether they do their job adequately without brutality. Peck.
Who does journalism not peck? Only those who sell out any independence from the idea that journalism is the only thing that matters. Those people, it calls "liberals." Or "progressives." Or whatever high-sounding label they prefer. Which is why people who are rich enough, tend to buy off journalism by taking on journalism's political coloration. Especially, but far from exclusively, those who inherited their money.
I'm afraid there's not enough of left of America to save the world this time around. The press is our greatest enemy and we are not feared in the world anymore. I'm afraid that our young men are not psycologically prepared for this type of war either and the brutality of the enemy they face. The press should be outlawed and the American fighting man needs serious PR by way of posters, and demonstration of will, resolve, and might - forget about our weaponry- it is nothing without the WILL.
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