The Last Days of the American Republic
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
The American media is close to scaling heights of absurdity not seen since the last days of the Weimar Republic. This morning, Fox News's "Fox & Friends" spent a full half-hour talking about "Blago" and a new survey out on kids calling other kids bad names in school. The Big Three did their usual, turning prime time morning news into a glorified human interest hour that features stories about natural disasters and incredibly obese people from small towns winning the lottery. CNN, however, trumped them all, by taking the Israeli incursion into Gaza and using it as an opportunity to parlay the term "Humanitarian Crisis" as frequently and inappropriately as a Peter Griffin one-liner gone awry on Family Guy.
While Kathie Lee and Hoda drooled over Perez Hilton's celeb gossip and Drew Carey hugged yet another poorly t-shirted mug for a $1.99, the top notch reporters over at CNN covered all four sides of the bombed U.N. School in Gaza--North, South, East & West--without once noticing the terrorists poking out of all four corners! That's accuracy in reporting; where's the Pulitzer Prize Committee when you need them?
I'm sure Paula Hancocks would've mentioned the fact that Hamas fighters were shooting at the IDF long before the IDF retaliated by bombing the building... if she weren't so busy talking about that "Humanitarian Crisis." I'm positive Christianne Amanpour would've spent more than a passing moment on the three month old Israeli baby wounded in a Hamas rocket attack if she weren't so busy talking about the loads of Palestinian children killed in that IDF bombing because they were being used as human shields (another thing Christianne conveniently forgot to mention). And I'm sure Rick Sanchez would have talked about how that UN school employed Hamas militants as school teachers if he weren't so busy interrogating an Israeli spokesperson with the comment: "Now, I checked with Human Rights Watch and confirmed your claim that Hamas uses children as human shields, but, even so, knowing this--should Israel target these places?" I think Rick should win an award. He can be the first foreign reporter allowed in Gaza. Go, Rick, Go!
CNN spent their day hammering Israel with more guilt than a series of Popes has lacquered onto Catholics for 2,000 years while, at the same time, making a special point of reporting that Senate Democrats were not "mean spirited" when they kicked "Blago"'s infamous "you'd better replace the only black Senator with another black man" Senate pick out of Congress.
Wait, so let me get this straight. The two main stories are:
1. Israel putting their lives on the line to ensure the safety of their people after four years of endless rocket barrages by terrorists groups who have no problem stating they want Israel and America dead--and that's a "Humanitarian Crisis."
2. Senate Democrats, members of a party created to ensure a state's right to legislate slavery, tell a party member to go home and we need journalistic insight to remind us that this isn't "a black thing."
But, in the end, what is really important is what Miley Cirus is wearing to prom. That's about as informed a news story as France attempting to get Syria involved in the mythical ceasefire negotiations. Maybe Miley is taking the slack-jawed ophthalmologist to the after party!
The American media is on drugs. That is the only viable explanation for the sheer lunacy exhibited by these television networks. It is as if they know their world is ending, but they anti-depressants keep bouncing them back through denial, anger, and bargaining, instead of onward to accepting the fact that life as Americans know it is over. Perhaps the media is just too afraid to face the fact that they are America's own homegrown suicide bombers; after all, nothing is a greater Humanitarian Crisis than a mainstream media that has been converted into a propaganda machine. Just ask Goebbels, or Reifenstahl, or the six million dead Jews who now haunt the increasingly violent pro-Hamas/anti-Israel rallies springing up across Europe.
THE REAL NEWS:
Live Blogging with Pictures from the Muqata.
Headlines from Aliyah! Step by Step: Making a Life in Israel (go to blog to read all):
Reuters exclusive-Gaza UN school headmaster was Islamic Jihad "rocket-maker"
Yesterday Hamas fired upon, hijacked humanitarian aid trucks
Missile launchers, anti-tank missiles found in Gaza schoolyard (updated)
Terrorists’ rockets extend range to Gedera, infant injured
Palestinian reporters in Gaza: Hamas leaders behaving like Osama bin Laden
Hamas stealing medical supplies from Gaza hospitals
A report from An Unsealed Room:
...A senior IDF officer in the Gaza Strip said, "Many houses in the area are booby-trapped and underground tunnels were built under them meant to enable the kidnapping of soldiers."Brilliant observations by Imshin on Not a Fish:
According to the officer, forces discovered a booby-trapped mosque, and among the weapons, found motorcycles meant to be used for kidnapping soldiers.
Have you noticed that since the ground operation started, the IDF has been less careful, and not at all apologetic, about civilian casualties among Palestinans? There is apparently a reason for this, as regrettable as are any civilian deaths, especially those of children.Biographies of the IDF Soldiers who have given their lives in this battle for the safety of Israel and the world from A Soldier's Mother.
Someone explained it on TV. Apparently, this is one of the important lessons of the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, in which our soldiers’ lives were on occasion compromised, apparently, in order to minimize the danger for Lebanese civilians.
Hence the incident in the UNWRA school today, which, according to the IDF, was being used as a launching pad for mortars against our soldiers, at the same time as it was providing refuge for civilians. Just another Hamas war crime, I believe.
This IDF policy doesn’t mean that no soldiers will be killed, as we have been seeing with great sadness, but at least they won’t be killed in order to save Palestinian lives.
The truth must be told. Precious as those Palestinian lives may be, they are not more precious to us than the lives of our boys. No Israeli mother should have to lose her child, because our enemies use other mothers’ children as human shields in wartime.
An Overview of the Israeli Public's reaction to Operation Cast Lead @ Occidental Israeli.
A five minute doc on the buildup of Hamas in Gaza since Israel left in 2005. [Kippa-Tip to Oleh Girl.]
Over @ Forecast Highs a fairly thorough analysis of what lies ahead for the IDF--as for my two cents, the IDF should fight like Yhoshua--with complete faith. March around Gaza City. My prayers are that HaShem shines a light on all the traps-- much like the day He kept the sun in its place until the fighting was over and Yhoshua and Israel claimed the victory. It can happen again-- we just need to have faith.
An amazing observation on the media's interpretation of Israel by David Bogner @ Treppenwitz. What does this say to world Jewry? Will this battle inspire the kind of Zionism and pride evident after the Six Day War? Will we run with it this time?
Stay Updated with Israeli Bloggers to get the real scoop about what is going on... the American mainstream media is off their rocker.
Labels: American media, CNN, Fox News, Gaza, IDF, Israel, Israeli bloggers, United Nations, war
posted by Shoshana @ 6:37 PM
