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| Tribune Company Carrying Water for North Korea? |
| 2005-03-07 |
| Monday, March 07, 2005 By Kevin McCullough (kmc@wmca.com) Is the Chicago Tribune toeing the Kim Jong-Il line in its reporting on North Korea? . OPINION - Subscribers to the Los Angeles Times, and their parent company the Chicago Tribune, should reconsider their subscriptions. The Tribune Company's willingness to actively promote the party line of Kim Jong Il on its front pages speaks loudly to the lack of trust that can be placed in their credibility as news-reporting outlets. Hugh Hewitt has been deservedly ballistic about this recently. Such a betrayal should be cause for a horrific blog-swarm and truly objective broadcast outlets should be equally attentive. The question of whether or not they will be is entirely a different matter. Why am I so vexed? The Tribune Company felt it was necessary to print a story on Thursday under the guise of "news coverage" by Barbara Demick, a staff reporter. In this front page news feature, Demick reportedly interviews "Mr. Anonymous" whom Demick claims to be North Korean, with close ties to the North Korean government. The headline read, "North Korea without the Rancor." Barabra Dimwit. Consider the source. What unfolded in sentence on top of paragraph was a disgusting display of propaganda that would make even Eason "Baghdad" Jordan proud. Mr McCullough understands what goes for "news" in Pravda West, and Pravda Heartland. i.e., LA Times, and Chicago Tribune Demick spins the innocent meetings she had with the source1 as an honest conversation and she represents what the source says as patently true - no fact checking, no aggressive follow-up questions! Mr. Anonymous, spins a tale of "all is well" and "life is normal" as though there is no moral or qualitative difference in the lives of Americans and North Koreans. Or as the replacement announcer said after the massacre at Tienanmin Square; "Nobody die, everybody happy!" There's never been a positive article about North Korea, not one," he said. "We're portrayed as monsters, inhuman, Dracula ... with horns on our heads." And? She allows him to tee-off unchallenged with charges against America. Because he speaks for her too. For basic life, we can live without America, but we can live better with it," he said. "Now that we are members of the nuclear club, we can start talking on an equal footing. In the past, the U.S. tried to whip us, as though they were saying, "Little boy, don't play with dangerous things." Anonymous? Deep Throat he ain't! She sat there 2as Mr. Anonymous championed the idea that it was America's fault for the breakdown of talks between the two nations. Ms. Dimwit remembers this?
"We were hoping for change from the U.S. administration. We expected some clear-cut positive change," the North Korean said. "Instead, Condoleezza Rice immediately committed the mistake of calling us an outpost of tyranny. North Koreans are most sensitive when they hear that kind of remark." Aww, poor baby did the mean "Sheriff W" and "Deputy Rice" hurt your prescious wittle feelings? Awwww. And, of course, when Mr. Anonymous got around to discussing human rights, America was doubly to blame. First, he claimed an equivalency in human rights between North Korea and the United States. Then, he followed up with blaming President Bush for North Korea's problems in lacking basic necessities to live: "Is there any country where there is a 100 percent guarantee of human rights? Certainly not the United States," the businessman said. "There is a question of what is a political prisoner. Maybe these people are not political prisoners but social agitators ... Electricity is a real problem. We have only six hours a day," said the North Korean, who lives in an apartment in a choice neighborhood of Pyongyang, the capital. "When you are watching a movie on TV, there might be a nice love scene and then suddenly the power is out. People blame the Americans. They blame Bush." With a little help from pee-wee. "Say US bad or be political prisioner!" She even tried to ruefully play off the presence of what had to be a North Korean government monitor. A colleague, a 55-year-old man also visiting from North Korea, nodded.3 Demick even allowed him to have the last word in the story. "There is love. There is hate. There is fighting. There is charity ... People marry. They divorce. They make children," he said. "People are just trying to live a normal life." Children play in fields of green while parents dance in the meadow. There is a heavenly chorus even though we are an athiest state. The insanity of allowing such blather to spew forth on the front pages of the Tribune Company's most visible pages is sickening. Demick is no more a journalist trying to find and report news than Donald Duck is a serious candidate for president in 2008. "What's he talking about. I was born in Hollywood, CA, and am over 35. I Beat Hillary in Iowa and New Hampshire, and I have the Democratic nomination wrapped up!" Demick might have done herself well to interview one or two people who were actually from North Korea, but did not have the "close ties with the North Korean government" - nor the friendly, nodding, government monitors tagging along. But she learned about fair Reporting from reading all those books by Peter Arnett. What more can you ask? Regardless, seeing Kim Jon Il's propaganda is something one might become accustomed to in North Korean papers where journalists die if they dispute the government line. But I am not prepared to - nor will I - suffer another laughable paragraph from the Tribune Company in trying to convert themselves into the world's most maniacal leader's dogma pages. But we have a great sports section. Please don't cancel... © 2005 IllinoisLeader.com -- all rights reserved 1DPRK Spy 2Like the dupe and apologist she is 3"Aaah. Mr. Anonymous earned rice ration. Dupe American reporter eat up every word." |
| Posted by:BigEd |
| #5 My Gawd, actual competition in print media, the Tribune Company versus the World Socialist Workers Daily. |
| Posted by: Thrainter Cliling3962 2005-03-07 9:05:28 PM |
#4 Tribune Company Carrying Water for North Korea?Well, yeah. And any other rabid dictator they can think of. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-03-07 7:48:47 PM |
| #3 Powerline has been all over this. Not sure I buy her line that says she was letting her interviewees have enough rope to hang themselves, but she has clearly been coorectly harsh on Kim Jong make me Ill in previous stories. |
| Posted by: Remoteman 2005-03-07 7:16:37 PM |
| #2 A Fisking with images inserted--impressive. I believe that's a Rantburg first. Of course if you get .com started on that Fred's gonna need to put up an adults only warning. |
| Posted by: Matt 2005-03-07 6:34:13 PM |
| #1 Addendum : Check out Hugh Hewitt today. He posed Ms. Dimwit some questions, most of which have the correct answer. She is apparently running scared... |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-03-07 6:19:36 PM |