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| Terror Networks |
| Pressing for defeat |
| 2006-10-31 |
| Taliban insurgents don't need a media relations bureau By Ezra Levant - Calgary Sun The monthly number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq reached a year-long high in October. In other news, the U.S. midterm elections are next Tuesday. Coincidence? Of course not. It is a sign of Western condescension to think only our own politicians use propaganda to win hearts and minds. In fact, when it comes to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida, Hamas and Hezbollah, the media battle is more important than the military one -- because the media battle is the only one they can win. Our press corps is so cynical and skeptical when it comes to interviewing Prime Minister Stephen Harper or President George W. Bush -- doubting everything and assuming even basic pronouncements to be tricks. But those same tough-as-nails reporters turn into mindless stenographers when they interview a foreign tyrant -- a perfect example being the fawning reception Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad receives. That is the lesson every terrorist learned during the Vietnam era -- if you can just survive long enough without being killed by the military, the media will save you. In Vietnam, for example, the 1968 Tet Offensive by North Vietnam was a military disaster -- more than half of the 84,000 Communist troops involved were killed, and no territory was won. It was a wipe-out. But anti-war media, led by Walter Cronkite, declared it a massive victory for the Communists, demoralizing Americans and undermining the military. That is why terrorist groups such as Hezbollah have media departments with business cards, e-mail addresses and round-the-clock phone numbers for Western journalists to get the spin. During the recent Israel-Hezbollah war, CNN embedded a journalist with a Hezbollah spin doctor, with none of the ethical soul-searching that accompanied embedding troops with the U.S. military. The Associated Press hired a Hezbollah activist as a photographer, firing him only after he doctored the photos he sold to AP to make Israel look more violent than it was. Doctored photos can be spotted -- what about doctored news stories? How many other Hezbollah plants are AP freelancers? Of course, the greatest undoers of the West are not Hezbollah freelancers, or even the al-Jazeeras of the world. As in Vietnam, it was the Western collaborators -- or self-haters -- who did much more damage to the cause of liberty than any foreigner. Jane Fonda's traitorous visits to North Vietnam are the most blatant example. In Canada, we don't have the same Vietnam culture in our press corps as the Americans do, but we're getting there. Every time a Canadian soldier dies in Afghanistan, it is turned into a moment of national bathos. The death makes the TV news when it happens, then when the body is put aboard a plane for Canada, then when the plane lands, then again at the funeral. Each of those events is not news -- each is an editorial effort by our press corps to create a public feeling of hopelessness and pointlessness. The Taliban doesn't have a media relations bureau these days. It doesn't need one, it has the CBC. It doesn't need a spokesman, it has Jack Layton, making the case for a humiliating evacuation of our troops. The war against terror will not be won or lost by our brave soldiers. It will be won or lost by our media. Now that's terrifying. |
| Posted by:.com |
| #3 How many other Hezbollah plants are AP freelancers? Don't you mean aren't? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-10-31 11:48 |
| #2 The siege is over, on orders from the PM of Iraq. |
| Posted by: Slaviger Angomong7708 2006-10-31 11:45 |
| #1 The media has yet to notice the siege against the al-Sadrites. They little Mullah's terrorists are surrounded in 4 areas. Iraqi Forces might want in on the first wave. |
| Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 2006-10-31 03:56 |