October 3, 2005

Mainstream Media In Action{or Inaction, you choose}

During my perusal of today’s Jewish World Review, I came upon this oh-so-true column by the great Mark Steyn about the lameness of today’s media, and thought I should share it. It’s titled Media Deserves Blame For New Orleans Debacle, but it doesn’t stop there.

The facts they put in front of us were wrong, and they didn’t talk truth to power. They talked to goofs in power, like New Orleans’ Mayor Nagin and Police Chief Compass, and uncritically fell for every nutso yarn they were peddled. The media swallowed more bilge than if they’d been lying down with their mouths open as the levee collapsed. Ten thousand dead! Widespread rape and murder! A 7-year-old gang-raped and then throat-slashed! It was great stuff — and none of it happened. No gang-raped 7-year-olds. None.

More?

Four years ago, you’ll recall, we were bogged down in “the brutal Afghan winter.” By “we,” I don’t mean the military but the media. The line on Afghanistan was that it was the white man’s grave. Actually, it was the grave that was white; the man was more of a blueish color thanks to temperatures “so cold that eyelids crust and saliva turns to sludge in the mouth,” according to Knight-Ridder’s Tom Ifield. “Realistically,” reported New York’s Daily News, “U.S. forces have a window of two or three weeks before the brutal Afghan winter begins to foreclose options.”

Er, no. “Realistically,” U.S. forces turned out to have a window of four years, which is how long they’ve been waiting for the “fast, fast approaching” (ABC’s ”Nightline”) brutal Afghan winter to show up. It’s Knight-Ridder’s news reports that turn to sludge on your lips. The “brutal Afghan winter” is a media fiction.

Go ahead, read the entire column. Next time you open up the New York Times, whose online version is now charging a subscription fee to read their op-ed’s or special features, the L.A. Times, the Washington Post or any other MSM newspapers, watch CNN, CBS, ABC, or NBC news shows, think about Steyn’s column, then wonder how much truth you’re reading vs how much fiction.

by @ 2:31 pm. Filed under The Liberal Media
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2 Responses to “Mainstream Media In Action{or Inaction, you choose}”

  1. NYgirl Says:

    You’re right, I remember all the hoopla about the Afghan winter & how our troops will not be able to withstand it.

    The media has lied so much that they have lost their credibility.

  2. Seth Says:

    Hey, NYGirl, I’m glad you’re up and at ‘em again!

    Yeah, the MSM has degraded to the point that we’d just as soon read fiction novels or watch fiction movies as read newspapers or watch the news.

    I only wish the “general public” would become aware of this, and understand how much politically biased propagaganda they are reading in the papers or watching on the news.

    On the other hand if that became a reality, the U.S. would become a permanent 1 party system, and that party wouldn’t be the one Teddy K. belongs to.