Posted on 05/19/2003 12:42:46 PM PDT by SJackson
They have transgressed (to loosely cite the liturgy), acted perfidiously, willfully sinned, imputed falsely, slandered, lied, scoffed... and have gone astray.
There´s an epidemic of deception going on in media-land, accompanied by band aids of repentance. Why name just one journalistic scoundrel when I can get it for you wholesale?
Should we begin with the New York Times? Or CNN? Or the New Republic? No, let´s begin with Michael Moore, who won an Oscar for a documentary that has since been discredited as a fabrication. Documentaries are supposed to be pretty much the same as journalism, in a word -- Truth.
“What the heck is that?” you say. Beats me. I only know what I read in the papers -- which brings us to the New York Times. But not just yet. First, CNN. For those who came in late, several weeks ago, Eason Jordan, chief news executive over there, confessed what we suspected all along: that mostly Saddam´s side of the story was being aired. This, so that CNN could go on broadcasting from Baghdad.
In other words, Arab terrorists don´t like bad news, when it´s about them. So if you make nice, you can stay. If you report wrongdoing (truth), you can get killed.
CNN ("The Most Trusted Name In News") decided to stay and tell lie after lie after lie.
Jordan, like the other sinners seeking redemption, came only half clean. Since this is a moment of contrition over so much of the media, will Jordan confess that news from Israel is also half-baked, that for decades CNN has slandered Israel because it feared Palestinian Arab reprisals if the truth got out? Will Jordan admit that the real chief news executive at CNN is Yasser Arafat?
How many times did CNN replay that footage of young Muhammad al-Dura dying in his father’s arms in Gaza? This blood libel pointed at Israeli gunfire, and stirred up the world. Where is the retraction from CNN, now that word is out that this is a sin of omission? Germany´s main public TV network, ARD, has five minutes of film that show Arab gunfire doing the damage -- and now there´s further word that the whole incident was staged. Maybe the kid didn´t die and neither was his father injured.
We may never know the whole truth, because where can you go nowadays to find some truth? CNN? The New York Times?
Enough has been written about the New York Times, how its reporter Jayson Blair hugely duped Times´ editors and Times´ readers. Yes, the Times scolded itself with a million words of contrition, but will the paper of record fully correct itself by further admitting that, under cover of Anthony Lewis and Tom Friedman and many others, for years the Times wrote about Israel with pens dipped in the poison of deceit, hatred and manipulation? Try contacting the Times about its lopsided reporting -- reporting that slants in favor of America’s enemies and Israel’s enemies -- and see what you get.
Will any of this change in the face of this scandal? Do not hold your breath. Even the Times´ safety valve, William Safire, has become a team player -- in the worst sense of the term.
There´s more to this affair of media mendacity, duplicity and manipulation. In the middle of all this, we learn that a fellow named Stephen Glass wrote lies for the "prestigious" New Republic. There he was on TV the other day, confessing, and, of course, promoting his new book (sure to be a best seller), about how he pulled if off. Was this kid really ashamed? Didn´t seem like it to this viewer (Hey, got a big book deal, didn´t he?).
Well, with all this confessing going on, will we soon be hearing from NPR, how for ages it´s been trashing America and Israel?
Will the BBC cough up and admit that it does not really report, but rather incites hatred against America and especially Israel?
Will Haaretz´s Amira Hass and Gideon Levy and NBC´s Martin Fletcher and ABC´s Peter Jennings finally admit...
Oh what´s the use? This will go on, despite all this repenting, because like the snake said, "It is our nature."
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Jack Engelhard is completing his latest novel, The Uriah Deadline, a life and death moral dilemma involving a New York City newspaper and its reporters´ manipulation of Mideast news. Jack is the author of the international bestseller Indecent Proposal
I also get the impression that with the advent of Fox News, Radio talk shows and the internet, things are starting to change. We'll see . . .
I thought it was the "scorpion"?(not that it really matters)
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