Current media would have sided with Japan

The State News - Columbia SC ^ | 11/17/01 | A. LEVINE

[Commonsense]

The following is a Letter to the Editor in the 11/17 edition of The State newspaper of Columbia SC. I thought I'd share this with you. I found it an excellent take on the media today.

Current media would have sided with Japan

I let my imagination return to the days and weeks after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and think about what the reporting would have been if the present crews of ABC, CNN and others had been around.

We would have heard Bill Maher expound on how brave the Japanese pilots had been to fly their flimsy planes into the mouths of our battleships while our own troops cowered behind anti-aircraft guns.

Susan Sontag would have lectured us on how it was all our own fault anyway for not understanding Japanese culture and how we had hurt their feelings by exposing their rape of Nanking. CNN would have had Tojo on the air, over and over again, threatening us and mocking our inferior culture. CNN would even have gone so far as to offer him a series of questions to answer, as it recently has done with bin Laden, in order to explain his side of the story.

Peter Jennings would have chided President Roosevelt for hiding out in the hours after the attack. He would have interviewed Tokyo Rose and Himmler and invited talking heads to explain how all this had been provoked by our support of the Jews against Hitler's "final solution" policy.

Reuters would have refused to call Pearl Harbor a sneak attack, claiming one man's sneak is another man's surprise and should not, in any event, be called an attack but a military exercise.

Where is Edward R. Murrow when we need him?

A. LEVINE
Columbia (SC)

[Commonsense]

For your reading pleasure.

[Commonsense]

I thought you might enjoy this one.

[all4one]

Thank you for posting this letter. It puts into words and examples what I have been thinking for the last few weeks.

The more weeks that pass, the less the media is covering the true attrocites of the mass murders that were committed on American soil.

Their main objective seems to be to blame us for not "understanding" Muslims and their culture. And to figure out why the Muslims hate us.

[Commonsense]

You're welcome. I thought it captured the essence of the liberal media in the last two months pretty much on straight on target.

[Commonsense]

This letter pretty much captures the spirit of the media.

[Syncro]

Very right on Commonsense...thanks for showing this.

This Letter was a good one too.

From the NY Daily News opinion page from a Lt. in the FDNY.

[blam]

I remember listening to Edward R. Murrow when I was a kid.

[GOPJ]

Bump - Ernie Pyle wasn't hire because he didn't graduate from an elite school, and was biased toward the United States.

[Erasmus]

And they all would have complained about the unfairness of our big, nasty warships destroying all those nice, pretty, shiny Japanese bombs.

[GOPJ]

bump

[constans]

In fact, the US media did side with Japan as their imperial spread started. While the Japanese sneak attack against Pearl Harbor is well known as a Japanese outrage, slightly less well known is the Japanese sneak attack against the Czarist Russian fleet at Port Arthur (now Korea) in 1905. At the time, the US media went wild, lauding Japan for its unwarned, surprise attack against Russia before Japan declared war. It was looked upon as a brave rout against the encroaching Russian octopus in the far east.

Surprisingly, 36 years later, the press was distinctly less amused at Japan's "heroic" antics, but they seemed perfectly happy to look at things from their side, before.

[raisincane]

I have been thinking the same about the media. Where are all the stories of our families' pain? We will never forget 9/11/01, but apparently the big 3 media outlets have forgotten, and in a few short weeks. And, I wish they would report why we are bombing the Taliban! Instead, they try to make us feel sorry for the useless diaper heads. Sorry for ranting.

[woofer]

We would have heard Bill Maher expound ...

Maher expounded at Zap2it.com that he doesn't think ABC will renew his show in 2002, if he lasts that long.

[CWRWinger]

Good find. I'm surprised The State printed it. I wonder if they edited out parts of that letter to make it 'printable'.

[cgbg]

The media also would have praised the "peaceful" Japanese religions, their ancient and inspired culture and intellectual history. They would have reminded us of hundreds of years of American destruction of native Americans and enslaving of American blacks, and exploitation of cheap oriental labor, explaining that it was no wonder that the Japanese were suspicious of the U.S.

They would have contrasted this with the tolerant attitudes of the German and Japanese people towards each other, noting that these two very different cultures had overcome racial prejudice.

Oh, yes, and they would have pointed out that it was America that had committed the first act of war by imposing an economic embargo on Japan. Many experts from academe would have given historical perspective showing that economic embargos were traditionally the first acts of war of aggressive powers like the U.S.

[LurkerNoMore!]

What a great letter. Thanks for the heads-up!

[JohnHuang2]

Thank you so much for the ping...gonna bookmark this one =^)

[Captain Shady]

I let my imagination return to the days and weeks after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and think about what the reporting would have been if the present crews of ABC, CNN and others had been around.

I suppose that Tokyo Rose would have been a star reporter.