Friday, May 21, 2004
Understanding liberal media bias
I have often been confused by the labelling of the BBC, Reuters etc by the right-wing as the "liberal media." The right-wing in India does even better by accusing *all* English language media outlets of being biased against them, irrespective of whether they're TV channels or newspapers. So, when I saw these lines by James Taranto in the Wall Street Journal about the Iraq prison abuse scandal, I was not surprised.
[Reuters Baghdad bureau chief Andrew] Marshall claims that before their arrest, the Reuterians were thrown to the ground and threatened with guns, and afterward they were kept in a cold cell, had bags put over their heads, and were forced to listen to loud music and do gross things with their fingers.
The U.S. military denies the charges. We leave it to our readers to decide which is more credible, the U.S. military or the wire service that routinely gives us such headlines as "Giuliani Lauds 9/11 'Heroes' Amid Angry Hecklers."
But we have to say, even if the allegations are true, we don't understand why Marshall is so upset. After all, official Reuters policy is that, in the words of global news editor Stephen Jukes, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." If that's so, isn't one man's maltreatment another man's saturnalia?
I think I am begininng to understand how the right-wing mind works. If one doesnt agree with them, just about anything goes. Not to mention the shrill accusations of being wrong, communist, pinko, anti-semite, biased, moronic, unpatriotic, namby-pamby etc.
[Reuters Baghdad bureau chief Andrew] Marshall claims that before their arrest, the Reuterians were thrown to the ground and threatened with guns, and afterward they were kept in a cold cell, had bags put over their heads, and were forced to listen to loud music and do gross things with their fingers.
The U.S. military denies the charges. We leave it to our readers to decide which is more credible, the U.S. military or the wire service that routinely gives us such headlines as "Giuliani Lauds 9/11 'Heroes' Amid Angry Hecklers."
But we have to say, even if the allegations are true, we don't understand why Marshall is so upset. After all, official Reuters policy is that, in the words of global news editor Stephen Jukes, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." If that's so, isn't one man's maltreatment another man's saturnalia?
I think I am begininng to understand how the right-wing mind works. If one doesnt agree with them, just about anything goes. Not to mention the shrill accusations of being wrong, communist, pinko, anti-semite, biased, moronic, unpatriotic, namby-pamby etc.
