Nullius in Verba

I’ve spoken time and time again about how the media are completely biased in this country and indeed influence what happens on the political scene. They don’t necessarily work for a politcal party per say, but they do work for specific people: for example there is no doubt that they killed Paul Martin for Chretien’s benefit. In fact Chretien through friends and friend’s marriages had the media quite sown up. As I’ve said before they failed to truly explain Chretien’s complicity in involving Canada in Iraq. Lately in Ontario John Tory’s Progressive Conservatives were defeated simply because the media reported only one issue and did a fifth grader job of describing the complete issue as well: I refer to the Private School funding. Yesterday I heard that the global idiot Al Goreacle won the Nobel Peace Prize at a time when there are people who actually deserve this award.

There are wild dogs, wild hogs, and then there’s the mainsteam media.

Today all you hear on CBC is their jeering tone describing Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez’s speech attacking the Bush Administration at the Military Reporters and Editors’ conference.

Now they have made mistakes in Iraq, but lately under General Petraeus’ leadership a lot of things have gone right and I have described some of them here in this blog as reported by independent journalists. I have no doubts that people involved in real real research into military and development of third world countries savaged by civil war will examine many of his methods.

The fact is that Sanchez was a failure. He was unable to interact with other members of his team and colleagues. He kicks Bush where it deservedly hurts, but fails to examine his own personal ineptitudes. Not only that but Sanchez was hung out to dry during the Abu Ghaib disaster and he’s one bitter man.

The media forgot to look in the mirror today, because Sanchez said something else. Something more significant and something you’ll never hear.

Because Sanchez spent much of his speech slamming the media’s horrible coverage of Iraq. This is something we can learn from in this country as well as the media does an abysmal job of covering Afghanistan. Some people try and blame the current government for not spreading a good message but I think the failure lies with a media doped up on the intoxication of mass death and explosions rather than boring works of human endeavor or improvement.

In Sanchez’s words:

GIVEN THE NEAR INSTANTANEOUS ABILITY TO REPORT ACTIONS ON THE GROUND, THE RESPONSIBILITY TO ACCURATELY AND TRUTHFULLY REPORT TAKES ON AN UNPRECEDENTED IMPORTANCE. THE SPECULATIVE AND OFTEN UNINFORMED INITIAL REPORTING THAT CHARACTERIZES OUR MEDIA APPEARS TO BE RAPIDLY BECOMING THE STANDARD OF THE INDUSTRY. AN ARAB PROVERB STATES - “Four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past, the neglected opportunity.” ONCE REPORTED, YOUR ASSESSMENTS BECOME CONVENTIONAL WISDOM AND NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO CHANGE. OTHER MAJOR CHALLENGES ARE YOUR WILLINGNESS TO BE MANIPULATED BY “HIGH LEVEL OFFICIALS” WHO LEAK STORIES AND BY LAWYERS WHO USE HYPERBOLE TO STRENGHTEN THEIR ARGUMENTS. YOUR UNWILLINGNESS TO ACCURATELY AND PROMINENTLY CORRECT YOUR MISTAKES AND YOUR AGENDA DRIVEN BIASES CONTRIBUTE TO THIS CORROSIVE ENVIRONMENT. ALL OF THESE CHALLENGES COMBINED CREATE A MEDIA ENVIRONMENT THAT DOES A TREMENDOUS DISSERVICE TO AMERICA.

Never were truer words spoken.

Such things remind me of how society as reflected by the mainstream media at it’s worst finds people to use as a scapegoat to sacrifice to the god of distractions. Late last week as an example that naive fraud Wei Chen agreed heartedly on CBC radio Ontario that “we’ll see how the economists like it when they are laid off as the world unites to have one main Bank to set monetary policy.” - in reference to an economist explaining the grim realities of cheap foreign labor when yet another Windsor Ontario car plant laid off people.

“The Republic has no need of geniuses,” stated a self-important and wholly ignorant judge during the sentencing and death of the scientist Antoine Lavoisier, at a time in France when genius’ and good men were needed more than ever.

The starknesss that society doesn’t need people pointing out the truth as much as it may hurt is plainly laid before us. What they really want and need is someone to blame… and quickly.

(Truth is Naked)

I firmly believe that both the mainstream media (MSM) especially CBC, as well as most socialists would rather see Iraq (and Afghanistan) a destroyed smoking heap than for the Americans to have any success there. That’s how selfish they are.

(The twisted irony is that Socialists more than any other group of people seem to have all the traits of the Seven Deadly Sins)

Whether the invasion was right or wrong, at this moment in life it is what it is.

The real question is now what? Leave when people are most vulnerable and your job is half done?

More news from yet another independent journalist Michael Totten, that you will never hear from the biased MSM. Ramadi in Anbar province was one of the worst places in Iraq and possibly on the planet. Literally the people of the entire city were terrorised and blown to bits by Al Quaeda simply for the benefit of the cameras of the Mainstream Media. Now that the surge is working and the city has been intelligently turned and the people are on the side of sanity things have cleaned up. No attacks in 81 days. The city is boring and the MSM is nowhere to be found.

Violence has declined so sharply in Ramadi that few journalists bother to visit these days. It’s “boring,” most say, and it’s hard to get a story out there – especially for daily news reporters who need fresh scoops every day. Unlike most journalists, I am not a slave to the daily news grind and took the time to embed with the Army and Marines in late summer.

…

“We have one Iraqi lieutenant here who speaks pretty good English,” Marine Lieutenant Jonathan Welch told me. “You should talk to him. He has a sarcastic sense of humor and a really interesting point of view.”

“That would be terrific,” I said. “Can you introduce me to him?”

He went to find the lieutenant, but came back with bad news.

“He won’t talk to you,” he said. “Apparently some reporters recently spent a few days with him and his men. They wrote an agenda-driven story with a few quotes yanked out of context. He said the story was a total lie and that he refuses to have anything to do with the media.”

I heard complaints of that sort about the media every day from American Soldiers and Marines, but this was the first time I had heard it, albeit indirectly, from an Arab Iraqi.

Totten’s report is worth reading. Unbiased reporting is hard to find and thanks to the internet, the power of blogs, and the power of individual private donation we have real reporting.

I was greeted by friendly Iraqis in the streets of Baghdad every day, but the atmosphere in Ramadi was different. I am not exaggerating in the least when I describe their attitude toward Americans as euphoric.

Grown Iraqi men hugged American Soldiers and Marines.

…

Ramadi has changed so drastically from the terrorist-infested pit that it was as recently as April 2007 that I could hardly believe what I saw was real. The sheer joy on the faces of these Iraqis was unmistakable. They weren’t sullen in the least, and it was pretty obvious that they were not just pretending to be friendly or going through the hospitality motions.

…

The Iraqis of Anbar Province turned against Al Qaeda and sided with the Americans in large part because Al Qaeda proved to be far more vicious than advertised. But it’s also because sustained contact with the American military – even in an explosively violent combat zone –convinced these Iraqis that Americans are very different people from what they had been led to believe. They finally figured out that the Americans truly want to help and are not there to oppress them or steal from them. And the Americans slowly learned how Iraqi culture works and how to blend in rather than barge in.

Finally this exerpt I found especially profound:

“We’re learning to use local conflict resolution strategies,” said Colonel John Charlton. “Living with Iraqis every day helps us understand local culture. We’ve actually become attached to these people on a personal level. We feel responsible for their safety. We’re concerned about what will happen to our Iraqi friends if we don’t succeed in this country.”

I heard quite a number of Soldiers and Marines express the same sentiment. Whether it’s true or it isn’t, and whether it’s supposed to be this way or not, sometimes I sensed they feel like they’re fighting for Iraqis more than they feel they are fighting for Americans.  

When one considers exactly how little most of the socialists on campus at either of my universities actually contributed to the lives of others, it is a tiny list indeed. In fact out of all the folks on this planet I meet, socialist are the most selfish people of all. I’ll say it out loud but many people feel the same way.

(This is how socialists truly feel. Greed Jealousy…)