[Dean's World] Dave Price: A Rather Unreliable Media

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Posted by Dave Price:
A Rather Unreliable Media
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1164855475.shtml


   [1]This is just unbelievable. We always suspected the MSM was severely
   biased, but now it appears they have been, for months, relying on a
   police Captain Jamil Hussein, who is so emphatically not a police
   captain that tomorrow's Ministry of the Interior press briefing will
   specifically address the issue.
   Remarkably, the good not-Captain has only noticed nonexistent attacks
   on Sunnis. It's fair to assume he was actually a creation of Sunni
   insurgent propagandists.
   I know this has been well-covered [2]elsewhere, but I felt I'd be
   remiss not mentioning this travesty again because I can't tell you how
   deeply this offends me. As someone who tries to draw conclusions about
   events empirically, I rely on good data to make decisions, and the
   media's role in a free, rational society is to provide good data. This
   is an awful abdication of their duty to perform due diligence. How
   could they fail to exercise skepticism about sectarian claims in the
   midst of what they are desperate to label a civil war? Isn't this the
   same media that was in an uproar when the Pentagon was buying space to
   run true stories to Iraqi newspapers? Did it not occur that insurgents
   in Iraq who have no qualms about sawing people's heads off for
   dramatic effect probably have few compunctions about feeding the media
   propaganda? Or, even worse, did they suspect and simply not care?
   And when our soldiers, who are dying every day, object, the AP
   [3]calls them "ludicrous." While we're at war, no less, the press is
   not only acting as a megaphone for enemy propaganda, but blasting our
   own military. This scenario is so over-the-top that if you put it in a
   fictional movie script, they'd call it too unrealistic and paranoid.
   Sadly, this incident is probably the very tip of the iceberg. Our
   media is in a frightening state of echo-chamber-driven self-delusion.
   Remember folks, Dan Rather [4]still thinks the memos are real.
   It's telling that the three best-known names from this war are Jessica
   Lynch, Lynndie England and most recently Peter Devlin, who are
   respectively a victim, a thug, and an unwilling[5], unwitting
   doomsayer (when the press finished with him).
   I don't think the FDR option of threatening the media with government
   takeover is the answer, but I'm starting to think something has to be
   done, perhaps allowing the military a much larger budget for public
   affairs, and civil lawsuits for reports affecting the military
   situation that are provably false (this might act as a counter to the
   financial pressure media have to run lurid reports whether or not they
   are true).
   Please, please help support the [6]two [7]Bills in Iraq. They're
   risking life and limb to bring back the real reporting from Iraq that
   we so desperately need.

References

   1. http://floppingaces2.blogspot.com/2006/11/getting-news-from-enemy-update-iii.html
   2. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=iraqs_war_of_perception_who_is_jamil_hussein&ns=AustinBay&dt=11/29/2006&page=2
   3. http://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/28/ap-calls-centcom-accusation-ludicrous-stands-by-its-story/
   4. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1162983012641&col=968705925735&call_page=TS_Entertainment&call_pageid=968867495754&call_pagepath=A&E/News
   5. http://commentary.threatswatch.org/2006/11/distorting-marines-as-martyrs/
   6. http://www.billroggio.com/
   7. http://www.indcjournal.com/