Friday, January 28, 2005

To Hell with the Media

I wish that there was some form of Sedition Acts in service today, in full force like they were during World War 2, becuase the media really needs a swift kick in the ass in the present day. Firstly, there's the article from Townhall.com, called "Fourth Estate or Fifth Column" by Thomas Sowell (got word of it via Powerline): http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20050125.shtml, where he talks about how the media reports in Iraq. Basically the only casualties that the media gives a rat's ass about are the American ones, and tangentially the Iraqi ones. They don't care how many insurgents and terrorists that the Coalition forces take out, or if the battles were military victories.

The other article is by the American Journalism Review, called "Quitting Kabul", by Kim Hart (got this one from Captain's Quarters): http://ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3815, where Hart discusses how the media has all but abandoned Afghanistan, in favor of Iraq. To be fair, the article does talk about how there is an emerging Afghani media which is taking up some of the local slack for journalism (hence, they can be used as stringers or freelance work), and that parts of the country are hard to reach, both physically and technologically. But that doesn't excuse the media from their poor track record in Afghanistan since 2003.

My take on these trends? The media doesn't want to realize that WE ARE AT WAR. Plain and simple, the media is operating on a level that thinks that President Clinton is still in office, and that if they only make Bush look bad, things will be better. Part of the problem with that, is that they have not really taken into account the logistical nature of the conflict that we're currently involved in. It's highly likely that they didn't plan on having the journalistic material and manpower to cover both Iraq and Afghanistan. But that's probably not the reason why the mainstream media is covering the news the way that they are. They WANT the American forces to lose the war. And at this point, they NEED the American forces to lose the war- they've spent too much money and manpower hyping their point, to turn back. They're spinning for spinning's sake at this point. They're also trying desperately to protect their viewpoint, their Vietnam driven ideology, which is increasingly becoming seen as a sham (case in point; historians are now getting a radically different view of 'Nam than they used to. Anything written prior to the 1990's is generally seen as innacurate), and is proving to be useless in the present day. This amounts to a desperate rear guard action, which will only end in their slow extinction. But not before they put the lives of American servicemen and women at risk, and endanger the coalitions' mission in the Middle East.

Now, eventually someone's going to bust the mainstream press on this, and I don't mean like the CBS Memogate story. I mean in terms of someone bringing hard proof that the mainstream media is working either with the terrorists, or deliberately trying to change the real news to the controlling news that they want (ie; turning American victories into defeats). What happens then? When they get "outed" in that fashion, what will their response be? And what will the public- and government's response- be? I almost long for that day, because it will represent a true watershed in the evolution of the media, and also, a return to real journalism. Plus, it'll help the war effort, rather than the childish yelling we're being subjected to.

I have a sinking feeling, that if the media acted like they are today during WW2, the generals in command would have ordered them shot on sight.

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