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March 27, 2006
An Email Arrived Forwarding This
...column by Ralph Peters to friends and family. Shortly afterward a "reply all" came back with the following:
"Yeah, its amazing how 2 or 3 thousand journalists have all gotten together in a conspiracy in Iraq to report only the bad stuff and none of the good. Man, those lousy journalists, can seem to get the story straight in Iraq but are really, really good at getting together and pulling the wool over the entire world's eyes.
And its also amazing that the people in charge of this war, the ones that have access to the US airwaves whenever they want (think Presidential speeches, news releases carried by every major news outlet, news conferences etc) don't have ANY opportunity to release their side of the story, poor souls. And finally, isn't it amazing how EASY it is to blame the news media instead of accepting ANY blame for misguided policies and mistakes (think Nixon and Watergate, I won't go into this administration - except maybe Katrina).
Sorry, but when people tell me that the MEDIA is to blame, then I'm almost CERTAIN that its not. There many be LOTS of good things happening in Iraq, but that doesn't mean there aren't a LOT of bad things happening there either. Weak minds and weak hearts seek to blame others - looks like it's happening again!"
Posted by tree hugging sister at March 27, 2006 11:13 AM
Comments
IMO Peters does a good job, but when his "reply-all" attacker defends the "Media Supremacy Myth" with, "news releases carried by every major news outlet, news conferences" I tend to think of all thge negative things the media puts out, and the Cindy Sheehan stories - and how little and to a bare minimum they DO cover presidential speeches - sandwiched in between the negative editorializing of such, and trivilizing what is said.
Posted by: -keith in Silicon Valley at March 27, 2006 01:59 PM
Yeah, I thought the reply all was a bit moronic, as the point most people I have read make is that the good things that are occuring hardly get reported, while all we hear is the bad stuff. They missed that point, to me, in their rush to defend the media.
Posted by: Crusader at March 27, 2006 03:32 PM
Ditto you, guys. It seemed like a blast out of left field and had nothing to do with the point of the column ~ that good things are under reported. I would ask the same fellow, "Very well then. I'm assuming by your response you were already well aware of every fact in the column and could recite them if asked." As I'm sure any of us could do about how many headless bodies were found in a suburb north of Baghdad today. I doubt very much that he could give me one good thing outside of purple fingers, less mind a litany. The other thing I took issue with was the thousands of journalists in a conspiracy. There probably are very, very good stories being filed from Iraq all the time. I don't believe 'in country' reporters are the problem as much as stateside editors who tell them what to look for and decide what makes the paper/broadcast. You want to talk a conspiracy at THAT level, I'm with you.
Pffft. And he has the college education I didn't get.
Posted by: tree hugging sister at March 27, 2006 03:49 PM
Geeze, I never get the fun emails....
Posted by: Crusader at March 27, 2006 04:35 PM
I'm no fan of the media, but if they don't spend all that much time covering the good news here in America. The lead story is never any charitable works a bar owner might have done, but if one of his bouncers rapes and murders a patron, it's front page news.
So, we really don't have much of a basis to expect them to lead with a new school opening when Baghdad's murder rate is 33/day. It isn't in their nature.
Posted by: Tainted Bill at March 27, 2006 08:32 PM
Oh Bill, you're just cranky because Natalee Holloway is off the front page...
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at March 28, 2006 07:44 AM