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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Mass Media Myopia |
| 2006-06-27 |
| June 27, 2006: One of the biggest disparities is the media coverage often given to opponents and supporters of the war on terror. In many cases, assertions of the opponents are presented, often without challenge, while those of supporters are ignored, unless they are to be taken apart to support the anti-war crowd. For instance, the media has often given pronouncements, like those from Congressman John Murtha, without close examination or criticism. This is despite the fact that one of his pronouncements, suggesting that quick-reaction forces for the Middle East be stationed in Okinawa, just didn't make sense. The distance between Okinawa and Baghdad is nearly 8,000 kilometers. This is nearly twice the ferry range of an F-16C. Murtha's claims of a cover-up involving an incident in Haditha got a lot of press coverage, but were recently found to have no basis in fact. His latest claim, that the American occupation of Iraq is a bigger danger to world security than Iran under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or North Korea, which is planning a test launch of its Taepo-Dong 2 missile, has been highlighted by some internet sites (like the Drudge Report) and blogs, but played down by the mass media. Another often-unchallenged claims from anti-war activists is that the Bush Administration lied, particularly when it pertained to the relationship between Saddam's regime and al-Qaeda. It is presented, almost as an article of faith – and common knowledge – that there was no way for a "secular" Arab dictator like Saddam to work with a terrorist like Osama bin Laden, whose motivation for terrorism is based on a form of Islamic fundamentalism. Yet, the American mass media has not only tried to ignore evidence to the contrary (like the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi fleeing to Baghdad for medical treatment as the Taliban was driven out of power in Afghanistan in 2001, and memos that have been discovered and reported on as early as April, 2003), it has actively tried to debunk these reports. |
| Posted by:Steve |