Posted on 04/22/2013 2:58:27 PM PDT by guyshomenet
Most voters still get their news from television, a Rasmussen survey sadly reported before dropping the big bomb. [They] consider the news reported by the media generally trustworthy.
Any serious student of media and propaganda rapidly comes to the conclusion that if one strives to be misinformed, they must watch the evening news. This is nothing new (and hence not news). Long ago a wag opined Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach's St. Matthew's Passion on a ukulele. Little changed when news quit being produced with ink and started emanating with electrons. During the recent Boston Bombing, the media castrated their credibility by pimping purveyors of political propaganda.
Yes, CNN was involved.
Ted Turners bastard child is not the worst media outlet on the airwaves, though my conservative friends insist CNN stands for the Communist News Network. But in their rush to create news when little exists to report, CNN often reveals underlying biases. In the hours after Boston spectators were maimed, CNN aired their national security analyst Peter Bergen, who wasted bandwidth trying to equate Americas right wing with Al Qaeda terrorists. His feeble attempts at political skullduggery prove that security analysts should leave that work to propaganda professionals, namely CBS news anchors.
Early in Peter Bergens opinion piece (so labeled by CNN themselves), he says about explosives-based assassination attempts that
48 were right-wing extremists, 23 were militants inspired by Al Qaeda's ideology, five have been described as anarchists and one was an environmentalist terrorist. (emphasis mine). The phrase right-wing was repeated often and annoyingly, which was the first clue that Bergen had an agenda as opposed to a report. Permitting Peter as much leeway as one should give any member of the media, we have to understand what right-wing means and how Bergen may have become biased (aside from being part of an industry statistically heavy with left-wing extremists).
Etymologists note that right-wing devolved from revolutionary-era France, a place and time when left-wing restraint was unknown. In their parliament, first-estate elites the few nobles who kept their heads about them sat on the right side of the hall. Hence, any person who resists change has forever been labeled right-wing, which is odd given that right can also mean correct and the Latin term for left suggests sinister behavior. Where people and the media error is in using the term right-wing willy-nilly to describe anyone not progressing in ordained liberal directions (that direction evidentially being into the commode given demonstrated left-wing guidance of the U.S. economy).
This is where language becomes important and lexicographers become sinister. If opposition to change is the origin the term, we marvel that right-wing has been redefined as being reactionary. Even Google, a normally neutral organizer of bits, says right-wing means conservative or reactionary section of a political party or system and adds insult by following that summation with the example a right-wing Republican.
Like all things aside from Obamas dogma, lexicons are malleable.
In 2002, when waterboarding was first called torture, I looked up the words definition in no fewer than four dictionaries. The original definition was the use of extreme physical pain or discomfort. Since waterboarding causes psychological terror by triggering an anti-drowning reflex, but not physical pain per se, it is not torture by definition. In the subsequent decade, dictionaries have been augmented to include non-physical inflictions in the definition of torture. Lexicographers have altered the meaning of a word to fit their own biases, just as the phrase right-wing has mutated to serve left-wing masters.
Karl Marx accelerated the realignment of the term. One entomology dictionary notes that the father of socialist evil (no, not Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz) used reactionary to marginalize anyone opposed to revolutionary conversion to communism. In Americas meme melting pot, agitators who loved all things all things communistic would interchangeably use reactionary and right-wing to describe people that preferred written constitutions and gobs of freedom. Hence, for decades kids absorbed the artificially dualistic obfuscation of the true origin and basic meaning of right-wing while attending their liberal arts colleges (tech school students would never suffer a socialist to be on campus).
Which brings us back to the media (populated by liberal arts graduates) and poor Peters propaganda. Youll notice that his report posted on April 17th at 11:45AM. However, the afternoon before Bergen bemoaned that right-wingers were likely behind the Boston bombings, the National Journal (April 16th at 3:42PM) had already published a piece skeptical that home grown terrorists were behind the mayhem. And the Hindustan Times beat the National Journal by three hours in an analysis showing that pressure cooker bombs were in vogue with Al Qaeda. In short, CNN not only got it wrong, but did so a full day after east Indians got it spot-on.
Dose CNN provide staff with ukulele lessons?
None of this slowed Bergen, who ham-handedly wove statements designed to associate right wing with Al Qaeda in particular and terrorism in general. After madly mentioning the right-wing moniker, he ties the general notion of being right-wing with white supremacists, caps that with a drive-by remark about right-wing militia groups before slithering into discussions of Muslim terror campaigns and finishing by resurrecting more white supremacists.
None of this should be surprising since Bergen is a director at the New America Foundation, a joint whose board is left littered with George Soros son and similar ilk.
It is little wonder that Americans are increasingly disenchanted with the media. The common man possesses common sense and sees through broadcast canards.
Are CNNers linguists?
Don't forget the more nuanced gauche.
They are stuuning....
In Italian:
A sinistra = To the Left
A destra = To the Right
Headline & story lead from non-CNN source: MOMENT OF SILENCE IN BOSTON - All over Boston people took a moment to reflect on the marathon bombing last week--
Story on CNN: "The people of Boston were stunned into complete silence as they realized the bombing of their marathon... was the fault of the GOP because they would not pass strong gun control with complete universal background checks for all gun transfers and universal immigration reform with amnesty and full voting citizenship for all in this country without documentation."
Headline & story lead from non-CNN source: TAMERLAN TSARNEAV: A LONE WOLF BETWEEN TWO WORLDS - A boxer who dreamed of being a US champion, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was also drawn to Islamic extremism. To the end, he seemed alienated and lost.
Story on CNN: "What else is a man of color supposed to do... in this racist society supported by the Tea Party and Conservative Republican gun nuts and immigrant haters?
Headline & story lead from non-CNN source: REESE WITHERSPOON APOLOGIZES FOR DRUNKEN SPAT - Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon's initial court date on a disorderly conduct charge was pushed back for a month on Monday after the squeaky-clean "Legally Blonde" star admitted she had drunk too much and was "deeply embarrassed."
Story on CNN: "Her husband was being intimidated by a man with a gun... Wasn't she supposed to stand up for total, complete gun control, apple pie and the Chevrolet Volt?"
Headline & story lead from non-CNN source: PANIC GRIPS CROWD AT DENVER THE MARIJUANA HOLIDAY CELEBRATION - Three people were injured and tens of thousands fled as shots rang out at 5pm, just after the crowd shared joints for a massive, 4:20pm smokeout.
Story on CNN: "The calming, wonderful effects of smoking legal marijuana by Denver citizens were disrupted today... by gunshots going off surely fired by Tea Party and Conservative Republican gun nuts. Is their no shame left in this great nation of peace loving, pro-gun control pot smokers?"
Headline & story lead from non-CNN source: RAIN, SNOW TO HAMMER MIDWESTERN TOWNS ALREADY HIT BY FLOODS - Heavy river flooding in six Midwestern states that forced evacuations, shut down bridges, swamped homes, and caused as many as five deaths was at or near crest in some areas Monday morning.
Story on CNN: "Yes, more rain, storms and flooding... all caused by those Southern, Tea Party gun nuts denying human-caused climate change."
Jesus, Bendy! What do you find wrong with CNN reporting? It all sounds okay... to me--
I rest... my case, Joe.
Here’s a little propaganda from the AP. It appears that the terrorists’ mosque was populated with “preachers” and “congregants”:
Here’s another use of the term “preacher” to describe an imam: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/459253/20130419/feiz-mohammad-tamerlan-tsarnaev-boston-marathon.htm
Part of the new leftist style book in journalism?
A cunning bunch of intellectual runts.
You’re getting real close....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.