Quran story part of deeper media crisis

Register-Guard ^ | 5/29/05 | Chris Hanson

[anniegetyourgun]

India, 1857. Islamic and Hindu soldiers in the British army, called sepoys, mutiny over news that they will be issued cartridges greased with pork and beef fat, which they would have to bite open with their teeth before loading their new Lee-Enfield rifles. The British have no clue how sacrilegious eating pork is to a Muslim or beef to a Hindu. They are oblivious to the pent-up resentment against imperial rule, and flabbergasted when the Sepoy Rebellion spreads across India.

According to some accounts, the greased-cartridge purchase was only a rumor. In other versions, the sepoys refused to believe a British assurance that the cartridges had been swapped for others coated in non-blasphemous lubricant. The mutiny was not quelled until June 1858, after massacres of European civilians, ghastly reprisals and savage battles in a civil war triggered by questionable information.

[God luvs America]

bump for later

[claudiustg]

Newsweek showed us once again that yon can just make this stuff up. Seymor Hirsh does it all the time.

[TWohlford]

"Newsweek showed us once again that yon can just make this stuff up. Seymor Hirsh does it all the time."

They didn't "make this up." They misreported it.

Newsweek should've said that it was a common rumor in some spots, along with other rumors of American misconduct. They could've said that it even warranted an on-going Pentagon investigation.

Instead, they presented it as fact, as the first hint of another Abu Greb story.

HOW the media reports something, as we all know, is just as important as WHETHER they report it.

[HighlyOpinionated]

Are they complaining that bloggers do a better job of journalism without a college degree than the paid-media does?

And they accuse bloggers of having an agenda? We're allowed. Journalism back when I thought about majoring in it was expected to be Fair and Balanced.

Seems like those of my peers (and older) forgot what they learned, or maybe they didn't attend a Fair and Balanced University.

[ReadyNow]

All (or most of) these lying journalists are members of The Newspaper Guild, a leftist labor union. As such, they are under no obligation to tell the truth, and their central task is to bring down anyone and anything that doesn't serve the purpose of making themselves more powerful.

See the truth at www.newsguild.org

[edweena]

It strikes me that it doesn't matter what the Western media reports as long as detainees are claiming that certain abuses took place. Looking at it from their point of view, if American prisoners of war were released and reported abuses, would we be more inclined to believe them, or denials by the country that imprisoned them? Especially if they had been kept secretly under different rules than those usually applied to prisoners of war. And if pictures proving even worse abuses to other American prisoners had been released, and accepted as truthful by the government of those who performed the abuse, we would tend to believe the worst that was said about that government and those prisons.

Our media does not have the kind of credibility to make people believe something unless it confirms what they already believe. It takes a lot of trust in the messenger to change long-standing beliefs.

[SnuffaBolshevik]

Conservative bloggers pounced quickly to discredit the documents then-CBS anchor Dan Rather relied on last fall in his infamous report about President Bush's National Guard performance. Cyber-debate then moved on briskly to other things. Many people think the documents were proven to be forgeries and the gist of the report false. But in reality, no one has demonstrated conclusively whether the documents are fake, or whether or not Bush disobeyed orders to shirk flight status as alleged.

This is B.S. If I order apple pie at the diner and I am served steamed roadkill, the onus is on the cook to prove it IS apple pie- not on me to prove that it is not.

[Just A Nobody]

If I order apple pie at the diner and I am served steamed roadkill, the onus is on the cook to prove it IS apple pie- not on me to prove that it is not.

LOL - love the analogy, and correct too.

[anniegetyourgun]

Yep - I really hated this article.....but felt it should be posted so the ugly face of the MSM could be revealed again.

[Lazamataz]

Journalism back when I thought about majoring in it was expected to be Fair and Balanced.

Fair, to socialists.

Balanced, to the left.

[Lazamataz]

Conservative bloggers pounced quickly to discredit the documents then-CBS anchor Dan Rather relied on last fall in his infamous report about President Bush's National Guard performance. Cyber-debate then moved on briskly to other things. Many people think the documents were proven to be forgeries and the gist of the report false. But in reality, no one has demonstrated conclusively whether the documents are fake, or whether or not Bush disobeyed orders to shirk flight status as alleged.

Actually, it was conclusively proven.

You can overlay the memo with one produced by Microsoft Word and there are no variations.

[maica]

Journalism back when I thought about majoring in it was expected to be Fair and Balanced.

####

My mother proved to me the bias of our local paper by taking me to a school board (I think) meeting and then showing me how it was reported in the (Baltimore) the next day. This was back in the fifties.

It was very leftleaning even then.

[anniegetyourgun]

They lie about their lies.