NPR -- Official organ of disinformation
By accident this morning I was listening to Boston's NPR station while driving in the car (90.0 WBUR). Featured was an interview with a Arab "journalist" who was describing the conditions in Iraq. He had, apparently, been in Iraq "doing research" for almost two years since the fall of Saddam.
This "gentleman" was telling a rapt interviewer (who was breathless, with comments praising the courage involved) about his travels around Tikrit and through the zones of conflict. He was telling the interviewer how brainless and ignorant the US troops were. He recalled with amusement the irony of conferring with persons hostile to the US presence right by the side of the road as US troops in armored vehicles rolled by them. He stated how foolish the troops are (and the whole US presence is) with no understanding of the people, the inability to speak Arabic and the incompetence generally of Americans in Iraq.
For 10 minutes the interviewer fawned over the friendly witness -- more like fed him questions designed to elicit a view that the US are ciminals, Saddam was the rightful ruler, and that the people are entirely against the US presence. Then, the interviewer states, "and you have a book just out, 'Inside the Resistance....' The title uses the word "resistance...." "Well it is a resistance" explained the author. "The Iraqi people are resisting an outside invader."
If NPR had started the interview with this information, perhaps the listening audience would have been alerted that this author's views were, of necessity, slanted against the US and our actions there. But no, better to present this as the view generated by unbiased research of a neutral party, and slip in the information of bias at the end when the listener has already glazed over, and accepted as truth the "facts" and views espoused by the author.
Let's be clear about this: if this cat was walking about the streets of Tikrit, as he avers, he is a Saddam loyalist, most likely a Baathist and a Sunni hostile to the US right from the get-go. Otherwise he would be dead. Plain and simple.
Secondly, the Iraqis have held an election, widely acknowledged as fair and (mostly) untainted. They have a constitution now, as well. All this may be ill-suited to a culture given to dictatorial rule, oppression and murder, but it exists and even the most fervent leftist should be able to accept and take these facts on board. The Sunnis may not dig being in the minority to the Shias, but that's democracy in action. The people in charge of the government there are Iraqis -- not the US, although it is the presence of US troops that enforce the will of the electorate -- a situation I am VERY keen to remedy. But "resistance?" Who the $$$$ do you think you are kidding? These are foreign insurgents or ex-Baath party cronies of Saddam, funded by Saudis and other Ghaleegies, dedicated to the killing of Americans and all westerners they can possibly manage. The islamic fighters are dedicated to the greater jihad. The Baathists just want to establish another Saddam-style dictatorship where they lived a lot better of the backs of the majority Shias. But the primary victims of their actions are fellow Muslims, Arabs and native Iraqis. Zarqawi isn't even Iraqi - he is Jordanian. The few suicide bombers they have managed to capture have been largly confused teenagers and often from places like Saudi Arabia. Resistance? A person I respect and who is very connected with sources in Iraq tells me that the people hired to run the insurgency are in fact from South Africa -- white mercenaries oeprating in Damascus. But of course we don't want to offend them as a matter of diplomatic BS. But resistance?
And this rubbish, this leftist crap is broadcast on NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO (supported by listeners like you)???? Tokyo Rose is alive and well and living in Boston working for WBUR. And the scary part is how well they craft their "news" to sound reasonable -- reasonable, that is, until you dissect it and expose it for the propaganda that it is.
This "gentleman" was telling a rapt interviewer (who was breathless, with comments praising the courage involved) about his travels around Tikrit and through the zones of conflict. He was telling the interviewer how brainless and ignorant the US troops were. He recalled with amusement the irony of conferring with persons hostile to the US presence right by the side of the road as US troops in armored vehicles rolled by them. He stated how foolish the troops are (and the whole US presence is) with no understanding of the people, the inability to speak Arabic and the incompetence generally of Americans in Iraq.
For 10 minutes the interviewer fawned over the friendly witness -- more like fed him questions designed to elicit a view that the US are ciminals, Saddam was the rightful ruler, and that the people are entirely against the US presence. Then, the interviewer states, "and you have a book just out, 'Inside the Resistance....' The title uses the word "resistance...." "Well it is a resistance" explained the author. "The Iraqi people are resisting an outside invader."
If NPR had started the interview with this information, perhaps the listening audience would have been alerted that this author's views were, of necessity, slanted against the US and our actions there. But no, better to present this as the view generated by unbiased research of a neutral party, and slip in the information of bias at the end when the listener has already glazed over, and accepted as truth the "facts" and views espoused by the author.
Let's be clear about this: if this cat was walking about the streets of Tikrit, as he avers, he is a Saddam loyalist, most likely a Baathist and a Sunni hostile to the US right from the get-go. Otherwise he would be dead. Plain and simple.
Secondly, the Iraqis have held an election, widely acknowledged as fair and (mostly) untainted. They have a constitution now, as well. All this may be ill-suited to a culture given to dictatorial rule, oppression and murder, but it exists and even the most fervent leftist should be able to accept and take these facts on board. The Sunnis may not dig being in the minority to the Shias, but that's democracy in action. The people in charge of the government there are Iraqis -- not the US, although it is the presence of US troops that enforce the will of the electorate -- a situation I am VERY keen to remedy. But "resistance?" Who the $$$$ do you think you are kidding? These are foreign insurgents or ex-Baath party cronies of Saddam, funded by Saudis and other Ghaleegies, dedicated to the killing of Americans and all westerners they can possibly manage. The islamic fighters are dedicated to the greater jihad. The Baathists just want to establish another Saddam-style dictatorship where they lived a lot better of the backs of the majority Shias. But the primary victims of their actions are fellow Muslims, Arabs and native Iraqis. Zarqawi isn't even Iraqi - he is Jordanian. The few suicide bombers they have managed to capture have been largly confused teenagers and often from places like Saudi Arabia. Resistance? A person I respect and who is very connected with sources in Iraq tells me that the people hired to run the insurgency are in fact from South Africa -- white mercenaries oeprating in Damascus. But of course we don't want to offend them as a matter of diplomatic BS. But resistance?
And this rubbish, this leftist crap is broadcast on NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO (supported by listeners like you)???? Tokyo Rose is alive and well and living in Boston working for WBUR. And the scary part is how well they craft their "news" to sound reasonable -- reasonable, that is, until you dissect it and expose it for the propaganda that it is.
posted by Zaphod at Thursday, December 01, 2005
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