News Media is worthless

by **PudriK** » Mon May 24, 2004 10:37 pm

Just finished watching Bush's half-hour speech on C-SPAN. For those who didn't see it, he laid out five steps in the US plan, and listed specific milestones to be met:

- Iraqi interim Govt composed of Pres, two VPs, Prime Minister and 26 ministers, as designated by UN special envoy in consultation with Iraqis

- election of Interim Assembly no later than Jan 2005, to establish laws and draft Iraqi Constitution

- national elections and set up of permanent Iraqi Gov't by end of 2005

In addition, he mentioned that the Coalition provisional authority will end on June 30.

WAS ANY OF THIS COVERED IN NEWS MEDIA? NO

Instead, all coverage has focused on the fact that he said we would deploy more troops if necessary, and that Abu Grahib would be demolished.

Some (CNN, Al-Jazeera) even said that no specifics were mentioned about plan or UN involvement!!

I'm getting tried of having to go to primary sources just to find out what's going on in the world.

Not to mention, what also pissed me off was listening to all the callers into C-SPAN either praise GW or call him a liar or rail against the war, but none addressed the substance of his points.

What little optimism I have left is rapidly dwindling...

Anyway, just venting mostly, but for anyone else who saw the speech, what did you think? My only thought so far is, it's nice to hear they have a timetable.

by **TestMonkey#8** » Mon May 24, 2004 11:59 pm

I think the plan is sound. However, it hinges on the Iraqi people's desire to make democracy work. I for one have my fingers crossed that this plan works. Not just for us to save face but for that whole region to have a legitimate shot at reform.

by **King** » Tue May 25, 2004 1:54 am

yeah good luck w/ that hoping... i bet you anything we see more of this... :blow:

i hope we dont but with so many fundamentalist islamic nutcases.... spreading bile and refuge, the words peace and love seem to fall out of their vocabulary.

:ar15:

maybe someday, when all their kalishnikov rifles have spent all their ammo in whatever weird, f-ed up celebrations they have... they might realize that violence is not the answer.. and then someone goes in and mops up :freak:

by **Rule of Wrist** » Tue May 25, 2004 2:50 am

Have to agree with you on the media critique. They have almost completely disassociated themselves with journalism, and have graduated to a complete focus on what they can sell. And what sells is panic.... i.e. bad news. The "conservative" media is not much different in that regard, really, it's just what that bad news is about.

As far as the timetable, that seems much too short to me... I wouldn't set any firm dates on this one... it took us years of martial law in Japan after the war to setup a stable government, and that was with a culture much more receptive to that stability in comparison...

Make no mistake, how this is handled affects far more than just the middle east...

by **SavageParrot** » Tue May 25, 2004 4:34 am

Give them democracy and they will vote in Al Sada (spelling?) it's just the way things are, they value their religion over their own personal freedom, of course it doesn't help that we can't seem to talk about democracy without adding the prefix american.

by **CodeRed68** » Tue May 25, 2004 7:54 am

Another thing that I am sick of hearing from the media (I mainly watch CNN) is about the stupid prison scandal. With all that is going on there, this is still making major headlines. Yesterday the anchor was talking about the new prison they are going to build and said something to the effect of "the prisoner of war abuse scandal that has severely undermined and jeapordized the US war effort...". Are they F'n kidding me? I am not condoning this but to me it is such a non issue and isolated incident that doesn't even warrent the front page. Even if it wasn't isolated, WHO CARES?!
Like Rule said, they just want to show the bad, not any good because that is what sells. DIRTY LAUNDRY.

by **PudriK** » Tue May 25, 2004 8:36 am

Savage Parrot, while you are correct that the Shiites would probably vote in a cleric, that you said it would be Al-Sadr proves my point... from the more in-dpeth coverage, I have learned that Al-Sadr is marginilized among Shiites, at best divided, and does not have wide-spread support. But to hear the news, you would think he did...

Yes, CodeRed, you have to love how the news editorializes during a news report these days. They constantly attach these kinds of statements into their reporting.. until people begin to accept it as cold fact. The point is not whether it undermined the US war effort, but was it "severely," and do you need to mention this every time you mention the scandal, even if the report does not include a poll or survey showing this.

In addition, we have seen NO coverage on rebuilding efforts, news schools, rebuilding. None! I never see it in the paper, on the web, on TV, on the radio.

Like you said, the news media is only concerned with attracting viewers now, not informing them.

BUT WAIT... guess which news agency did cover the SUBSTANCE of his speech, not just others' opinions of it....

Fox News

by **Buliwyf** » Tue May 25, 2004 9:20 am

the media is trying to be the next sport in america. It is no longer about journalism

News Media is worthless

News Media is worthless

Who is online