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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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More on the media.
#2435841 - 03/15/04 04:49 PM (20 years, 17 days ago) |
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Iraqi spy case shows media at it again
March 14, 2004
BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement
Anyone who wants to understand why the media are held in such low regard by the public -- in polls of the most respected professions we usually come somewhere between Nigerian e-mail scammers and serial pedophiles -- should consider the following headline from an Associated Press story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last week:
''Accused Spy Is Cousin Of Bush Staffer''
The accused spy is Susan Lindauer, who is accused of working for Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency. She describes herself merely as an "anti-war activist,'' though, as the daily rummage through the Baathists' scrupulous paperwork indicates more clearly every day, being an anti-war activist and on the Saddamite payroll are by no means mutually exclusive.
Before she allegedly became an Iraqi agent, Lindauer spent a decade in Washington working for four members of Congress: Peter DeFazio, Ron Wyden, Carol Moseley Braun and Zoe Lofgren. What do these four legislators have in common?
Answer: They all have a ''D'' after their name.
But to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's headline writer the salient fact about Lindauer is not her 10 years of work for the Democratic Party but the amazing revelation that she is a second cousin of Bush chief of staff Andrew Card.
A second cousin! Hold the front page!
Here's an easy test for the publisher, editor and news staff of the paper:
1. Name all your second cousins.
2. Where do they live?
3. When did you last see them?
It's one thing for the press to be anti-war and feel Saddam should be given another decade or two to come into compliance with Security Council resolutions. It's quite another to be so smitten with the old butcher that your copy editors internally absorb Baath Party tribal politics and assume that mere second cousinship with members of the Bush clan automatically puts you in the inner circle. To be fair to the Associated Press, they sent the story out on the wires with the headline, ''Woman Named In Spy Case Worked As Journalist, Congressional Aide.''
What's that? ''Worked As Journalist''? Well, there's an angle the Seattle guys unaccountably missed. Before she went to work for the Democratic Party, Lindauer worked for . . . the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Instead of the cousin thing, the headline writer might more usefully have written:
''Accused Spy Used To Sit At Desk Next To Mine; I Made Clumsy Pass At Her At 1992 Office Party.''
I'd love to see these headline writers working in Hollywood: ''Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me''? ''Well, to be honest we thought it sounded punchier as 'Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Someone Who Used To Go To School With Someone Who Was A Cousin Of Someone Who Was Briefly Married To A Receptionist At Halliburton. When Cheney Worked There!' ''
Look, these are serious times. Week after week, more details emerge of the extraordinary number of influential Westerners, from French government ministers to the head of the U.N. Oil-for-Food program, who appear to have been in the pay of Saddam. That's, among other things, what Susan Lindauer is accused of.
But we don't have a serious press for these serious times. Boring and self-important is not the same as serious. But one reason why John Kerry calculates he can get away with damning the Bush administration as ''crooks'' and ''liars'' is because he figures he can count on the mainstream media doing what the Post-Intelligencer did -- instinctively framing every issue in anti-Bush terms, no matter how ludicrously. I suppose it's not entirely impossible that one reason the Post-Intelligencer guys went with their spy-Bush linkage is because Lindauer has been accused of betraying her country and Al Gore accused Bush of ''betraying'' the country, too. But that's one more reason why Bush will win in November: The media and the Democrats are sustaining each other in their delusions.
Sen. Kerry thinks the Bush administration are ''crooked'' and ''lying.'' The Bush ''lie'' boils down to this: The president believes there's a war on. The Dems think 9/11 is like the 1998 ice storm or a Florida hurricane -- just one of those things. And they think Bush is ''lying'' by insisting on playing it as a war.
As it happens, the only big political ''lie'' in recent days came from Kerry, who told a meeting in Florida, ''I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly, but boy, they look at you and say, 'You've got to win this, you've got to beat this guy.' '' The senator has spent most of the last year in Iowa and New Hampshire, which, for all their charms, are not where one goes to rub shoulders with ''foreign leaders.'' Jacques Chirac could have driven over the Granite State border from Quebec's Eastern Townships, where he was vacationing last summer. But he didn't. Kerry does not appear to have ''looked at'' any foreign leaders since he began his campaign.
And, if he had, he'd find them far less well-disposed to him than he imagines. Last Thursday, March 11, 2-1/2 years to the day after Sept. 11, nearly 200 people were murdered by terrorists in Spain. Like Britain, Australia and Poland, Spain is a member of what John Kerry calls Bush's ''fraudulent coalition.''
You can disagree with the administration on this war. I have. A few days after 9/11, I called for resignations from the agencies that failed on that day -- FAA, FBI, CIA, INS. Didn't happen. Still hasn't happened. It should. A couple of weeks after 9/11, I called for a total upheaval of America's relationship with Saudi Arabia. Didn't happen then. There are a few subtle hints that things are changing, but far too slowly. Anyone who took the war seriously can certainly find fault with the administration. But not if you stand there like a 5-year-old boy and never get beyond pointing your fingers and sticking your tongue out: ''Ooh, Bush lied. And Ashcroft's a big bully. And Cheney's stealing it all for his oil buddies. And you shouldn't mention the war in your campaign ads, because it's not fair. Nyaa-nyaa!''
Two hundred people died in Madrid because of a war Democrats refuse to admit exists. But, hey, you never know: Maybe the guy who did it will be a third cousin twice removed of Karl Rove.
The LEFT leaning media.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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silversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
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-------------------- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Yes, it sucks when your beliefs are proven wrong.
It's not too late to wake up though. Give it a try.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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mabus
anguish this!
Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 956
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i can't wait for nader to clean up the whole dirty mess this nov.
Edited by mabus (03/15/04 05:35 PM)
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: More on the media. [Re: mabus]
#2435991 - 03/15/04 05:32 PM (20 years, 17 days ago) |
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-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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afoaf
CEO DBK?
Registered: 11/08/02
Posts: 32,665
Loc: Ripple's Heart
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what's going to grab more headlines:
"spy suspect worked for 4 no-name democratic congresspeople"
"spy suspect had ties to bush whitehouse"
it's like the 9/11 footage, the reporter would have been stupid to pass up an eye grabbing headline for something that was only moderately interesting.
-------------------- All I know is The Growery is a place where losers who get banned here go.
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: More on the media. [Re: afoaf]
#2436177 - 03/15/04 06:24 PM (20 years, 17 days ago) |
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Quote:
"spy suspect worked for 4 no-name democratic congresspeople"
What??? Are you saying Carol Moseley Braun wasn't a SERIOUS contender?
Quote:
it's like the 9/11 footage, the reporter would have been stupid to pass up an eye grabbing headline for something that was only moderately interesting.
Doesn't accuracy count? Oh... wait. You're a leftie!
Kidding of course.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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silversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
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Quote:
luvdemshrooms said: Yes, it sucks when your beliefs are proven wrong.
It's not too late to wake up though. Give it a try.
I hardly see how one local Seattle newspaper article proves liberal bias throughout the media.
-------------------- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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One?
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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silversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
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Did I miss something? Maybe I skipped over the part where it mentioned anything but some dumb article about some Iraqi spy being related to Bush. You're really grasping at straws here(or at least whoever wrote that article is). If they were going to "expose" the "liberal media" by pointing to one story, the least they could do is go after some major national news source like CNN.
-------------------- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Quote:
Did I miss something?
It seems you did. Although I'll admit you do OK for someone who must not read, watch, or listen to the news.
That's the only explanation for you missing the bias.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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silversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
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Quote:
luvdemshrooms said: Quote:
Did I miss something?
It seems you did. Although I'll admit you do OK for someone who must not read, watch, or listen to the news.
That's the only explanation for you missing the bias.
Or maybe it's the fact that bias is relative.
-------------------- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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afoaf
CEO DBK?
Registered: 11/08/02
Posts: 32,665
Loc: Ripple's Heart
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-------------------- All I know is The Growery is a place where losers who get banned here go.
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Well of course, until you realize that most of those in the media have fessed to sharing the same mindset and that individuals like Walter Cronkite and certain media outlets (I believe it was ABC) have fessed up to their bias.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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silversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
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Quote:
luvdemshrooms said: Well of course, until you realize that most of those in the media have fessed to sharing the same mindset and that individuals like Walter Cronkite and certain media outlets (I believe it was ABC) have fessed up to their bias.
According to a chart I once saw in my Political Science textbook, the majority of journalists described themselves as "moderates." This would make sense, since conservatives keep complaining about the media's "liberal bias," while liberals complain about its "conservative bias." Obviously the media is liberal compared to you, but I'd say they're rather conservative compared to me. Also, the personal biases of journalists and reporters don't necessarily amount to biased reporting(though some bias is bound to leak in on occasion).
-------------------- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
Last seen: 7 years, 9 months
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The majority of journalists describe themselves as moderates because of the company they keep, which is mainly other journalists. It's an intellectual incest thing. Also, they tend to cluster in left leaning areas, the main media poles being LA and NY. The NY Times occasionally admits to their slant but won't do anything about it. Their editoralizing in supposed news articles reaches a new low almost daily.
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silversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
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Re: More on the media. [Re: zappaisgod]
#2439316 - 03/16/04 12:44 PM (20 years, 16 days ago) |
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Quote:
zappaisgod said: The majority of journalists describe themselves as moderates because of the company they keep, which is mainly other journalists.
Or maybe it's because most Americans like to think of themselves as being in touch with the voice of the American people.
Quote:
It's an intellectual incest thing. Also, they tend to cluster in left leaning areas, the main media poles being LA and NY.
Gee, could it be because those are the two largest cities in the US?
Quote:
The NY Times occasionally admits to their slant but won't do anything about it. Their editoralizing in supposed news articles reaches a new low almost daily.
I'd be interested in seeing some examples. I've yet to see CNN reach anywhere near the level of editorializing going on in Fox News.
Also, it's a bit simplistic to refer to "the media" as "liberal." There are countless media outlets in this country, so obviously some are going to be more liberal than others. Also, not all "liberals" agree on everything. What positions are they liberal on? Most news I've seen has a pretty conservative slant on drugs. I've heard people here say they're liberal on gun control, but if the majority of Americans favor more gun control(I've heard that's the case), then are they really liberal on that issue compared to the majority of Americans?
-------------------- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
Last seen: 7 years, 9 months
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Editorializing is fine on the editorial page. It doesn't belong in supposed news articles. Front page of today's Times
"Consumer debt is hitting record levels. The federal budget deficit is yawning ever larger. The trade gap? Don't even ask."
This is the beginning of an article about Greenspan's position on the level of federal debt and his unconcern about it. It's editorializing in a supposed news article.
My point was that journalists perceive themselves as moderates because of the company they keep. Stop fooling around, most of them admit they are to the left of the prevailing mood of the country
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silversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
Registered: 10/10/02
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Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
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Re: More on the media. [Re: zappaisgod]
#2439530 - 03/16/04 01:40 PM (20 years, 16 days ago) |
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Quote:
"Consumer debt is hitting record levels. The federal budget deficit is yawning ever larger. The trade gap? Don't even ask."
This is the beginning of an article about Greenspan's position on the level of federal debt and his unconcern about it. It's editorializing in a supposed news article.
Maybe a little bit, but I doubt many people would say that consumer debt, the federal budget deficit, and the trade gap are good things. It's editorializing on a rather trivial level to make it more interesting to read.
-------------------- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole
Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
Last seen: 7 years, 9 months
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It's editorializing on a trivial level to push an agenda. The three things aren't necessarily bad either. Nonetheless, it shouldn't be in a news article. Actually, today's front page wasn't too bad. I can usually find more.
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