Inanity Still Rules the Airwaves

[FOTD]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/levi-asher/inanity-still-rules-the-a_b_80119.html

It's 2008 -- five years after the major news media in USA "learned its lesson" about failing to report the truth on the justification for the invasion of Iraq -- and inanity still rules the airwaves on the evening news.

On every evening since Benazir Bhutto's assassination on Dec 27, I zapped through one television news show or channel after another, waiting -- praying -- for some newscaster to speak of the likelihood that the assassination was the work of President Pervez Musharraf's administration as well as (if not more than) the work of Al Qaeda. I zapped and I watched and I waited in vain.

From the conservative news channels to the moderate-minded evening shows to even the best liberal shows, our major news outlets tiptoed gingerly around the facts, facts that were widely known from day one on the Pakistan streets. "Musharraf is a dog!" they shouted in Lahore and Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Every five year old kid in Pakistan knows that Musharraf is a dog, that it's highly likely Musharraf helped to arrange the murder of the politician who was about to win an election. So why aren't Charlie Gibson and Brian Williams and Katie Couric and Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann saying this? Why on earth do our television reporters refuse to report to American viewers what everybody else in Pakistan and around the world believes to be true?

I don't know the answer to this question, but I believe the problem has more to do with conformity than with conspiracy. USA news media is always eager for an Al Qaeda terrorist story. This one came rolling in, bullets and bombs and blood, and the evening news shows ran with it. They're still running. They should do less running and more thinking.

Many reporters are even giving credulous treatment to the Musharraf government's ridiculous shaggy dog stories (an incriminating phone call from the shadowy Baitullah Mehsud, a medical report that Bhutto died a coward's death from ducking into her limousine). Where are the hard-hitting journalists here? Is anybody even paying attention to this story, or are they all suffering from Iowa fever?

It's not just Pakistan that's getting junior varsity coverage; our top television journalists have been no more incisive on the horrifying and genocidal crisis currently ravaging Kenya. Brian Williams sleepily assured us last night that "it's a tribal conflict." Thanks a lot, Brian. Maybe we ought to send some CARE packages over.

The American public must demand more aggressive and more skeptical journalism from our top news providers. Or else we have learned no lessons since the days of the smoking mushroom cloud in 2003.

[Wrinkle]

Man, just how much Kool-Aid did you drink?

While there remains _some_ possibility Musharraf could be involved, it's far more likely he was not. Why would someone plan such an attack on the chance she'd be popping her head up out of the vehicle at the appropriate time, even after being warned and Musharraf originally cancelled the whole deal, suggesting it was too dangerous, but she persisted.

Someone such as Musharraf would've looked for a much better opportunity, and used a far more sure method of disposing of her, had he planned it, IMO.

The reason no one's giving it more than passing mention (which could've been expected some would suggest it) is due to it being very unlikely.

You're the only one who insists on pouring fuel on the fire.

[mr.jaynes]

Well, I won't rule out complicity on the part of the Pakistinian government, but I won't also rule out that it could have been the work of some radical Islamist sect.

As for inanity on the airwaves, one need not look any further than Flush Limburger, Shemp Hannity and Lurid Ingrate.

[dggriffi]

well,   its seems unlikely that the government participated directly but it should be clear to any observer that they could have been complicit.  

Many people have felt for some time that Musharef has been playing us by allowing the Taliban to hide in Pakistan while pretending to be our friends.   He claims that they are also "hunting terrorists"  but the only people that die are people that oppose him.  

His withdrawal of government protection for this rally seems pretty suspicious.   As does his declaration of an "emergency" allowing him to continue without an election.

[dggriffi]

just curious


does Poseidon still rule the regular waves?

[mr.jaynes]

quote:Originally posted by dggriffi

 His withdrawal of government protection for this rally seems pretty suspicious.   As does his declaration of an "emergency" allowing him to continue without an election.

And so that is what kind of makes me wonder if there was some complicity. On the other hand, it could have been a coincidence.

[dggriffi]

sure.  Its hard to say for sure but anyone who can claim that mushareff is innocent for sure is drinking someones koolaid