Posted on 09/20/2006 6:32:23 AM PDT by pabianice
Remember the "Arab street," that riot-in-the-road featuring flammable Israeli flags, Saddam Hussein posters, clenched fists and chants threatening "Death to America"? The street may have lacked pavement and a fire hydrant, but it had beaucoup television cameras.
Flames, clenched fists and death threats -- a heart-pounding collage of sensational imagery and rhetoric. What more could a TV exec need to attract audience eyeballs?
Recall the talking heads who told us in 1990, after Saddam invaded Kuwait, that "the Arab street" was going to rise en masse, as an ur-proletariat, which would support Saddam against the West. If you need documentation, check out a few old PBS "NewsHour" transcripts.
But the mass rising didn't happen. Why? Because the Arab street was, to a great extent, the creation of television cameras. Political operatives -- no doubt many on Saddam's payroll -- knew they could attract the sensation-hungry camera crews and use the media to project the operatives' preferred "image of anger."
Twenty-first century Islamo-fascist terrorists, however, have refined the model and moved beyond an image of anger to a new form of prepared global ambush that integrates murder, terror and instant media.
The ambush technique coordinates blood-spilling violence with sensational imagery and rhetoric using a dispersed network of media operatives, guerrillas and terrorists. Networked, Coordinated Blood-spilling plus Sensationalism -- hence the technique's acronym: the CBS ambush.
Since May 2005, we've seen the CBS ambush employed effectively on three notable occasions, the latest being Pope Benedict's remarks at Regensburg University.
In May 2005, Newsweek ran its phony Guantanamo Bay prison "Koran flushing" story. Violent riots broke out in several predominantly Muslim countries. The riots in Afghanistan attracted particular attention. Indian military analyst Bahukutumbi Raman wrote that those riots were incited by "well-organized agents of the Hizb ut-Tahrir terror gang."
The Newsweek story gave the terrorists an emotion-laden "grievance trigger." The ambush consisted of violent riots and a prepared deluge of anti-American propaganda. The vicious riots not only attracted further global media coverage, but also intimidated Muslims who oppose terrorist organizations and their violent interpretation of Islam.
In September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a series of editorial cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons attracted political protests and several violent threats, but the cartoons were no international cause celebre. In fact, an Egyptian newspaper published several of the cartoons in an article condemning the Jyllands-Posten.
But in January 2006, waves of orchestrated, coordinated violence broke out in predominantly Muslim nations and in Muslim neighborhoods. The terrorists and political operatives promoted a "clash of civilizations" propaganda line, with the cartoons as the "grievance trigger."
Pope Benedict's Regensburg ruminations provided another CBS ambush trigger.
Benedict -- in a speech that examined historical relations between Muslims and Christians -- quoted the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus, a ruler whose empire consisted of little more than the city of Constantinople. Muslim Turks had all but dismembered his realm. Manuel II, engaged in a dialog with a Muslim Persian scholar, challenged the Persian to show him "just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
An imprudent quote by a man on a global podium? Yes -- particularly since popes blessed several sword-bearing Crusades. It is, however, a defensible quotation in the context of an academic lecture. The pope pointed out the dialog between Manuel II and the Persian examined "the truth of both (religions)." But context doesn't matter when triggering a CBS ambush, only the superficial trace of historical grievance and the energy of emotional slight. The "distributed" violence following the media magnification of the pope's remarks included firebombing Christian churches (in several Muslim countries) and the execution-style slaying of a Catholic nun who worked in a hospital in Somalia. A hospital administrator said her murder was "not a random act."
Executing a CBS ambush requires the implicit cooperation of sensationalist media -- media that delight in emotional slights and rarely probe beyond the superficial. Until that implicit cooperation ends, the Islamo-fascists will continue to exploit this productive stratagem, achieving propaganda victories designed to ignite a "clash of civilizations" and brutally intimidate their Muslim and non-Muslim opposition.
Imagine how strong our country could be, if we were united in a fight for civilization.
The CBS AmbushGood article though.
I also like "Iraq The Model"'s view:
When will we be ready to accept criticism?(excerpt)
...One friend reminded me of the assassination attempt that targeted the former pope two decades ago wondering what the reaction of the pope was as we all know he eventually visited the assailant and pardoned him.
No mosques were blown up and no speech of a clash of civilizations was made.
So why don't we admit that the "other" is better than us at responding rationally when criticized? Why don't we learn from others?
When we closed our ears to anything that doesn't match our beliefs and refused all criticism wasnt that enough reason for the deterioration of our civilization? ...
I believe this tactic is beginning to backfire. It has become tedious to the most important audience in this macabre play, THE AMERICAN STREET, staged or not.
The enemy, instead of appearing inhumanly powerful, comes off juvenile and quite vulnerable, by reacting as they do to mere words and pictures. The whole idea of the suicide mission is to instill abject fear; how can we cower to the same people who we see on TV reacting with infantile hissy-fits?
Huh? Imprudent? Horsecrap. It's imprudent not to speak the truth.
And you have a problem with the Crusadesthat is, taking back territories, such as Jerusalem, put to the sword by jihad gangs? I don't. I do have a problem with wimps like you trying to avoid offending gangsters. It can't be done. The offense is always pretendedan excuse to justify doing the stuff they're yearning to do anyway.
And in this case, the gangsters are such losers anyway. Trying to be "prudent" in this situation is delusional.
Sword bearing Crusades that saved Europe from the Islamo-Nazis.
By the way, by "you," I meant the writer of the piece, not you. Sorry!
I honestly wonder if even that would do the job. After the initial shock and horror, how long would it be before both the Democrats and the media would ooze back into the "It's all America's (and especially Bush's) fault" knee-jerk? Once one has acquired the habit of willed stupidity and deliberate obliviousness--and especially when both are powered by a large fund of unreasoning hatred--it's pretty hard to break.
It would also mean having to admit that one completely wrong, all along.
You're right, what as_holes.
The following thread follows the media manipulations of recent events:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1703870/posts
BBC, NY Times and Guardian Appear to Have Stage-Managed Muslim Anti-Pope Hatred
The problem is that the parody and reality have become indistinguishable.
Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING
This is not the first time the media has fanned the flames of war.
There is a term for this. Yellow journalism.
And the Hezbollah terrorists' "victory" over Israel was a prime example.
The "impartial" media is anything BUT.
I agree my friend. I NEVER gave 2 flying craps about Muslims long before 9/1 . I dont give 2 damns about them now eithe r. Who the hell cares what some uneducated , 7th century throwbacks think about ANYTHING. They are the scumof the earth who contribute nothing to the planet . screw them
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