Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Swallow

Seems like NPR expects us to swallow whatever the Pentagon serves up, newsworthy or not. This morning Tom Bowman reports on a terrorist training video for teens. First, whether this video is al-Qaida or just plain insurgent propaganda is unclear (funny how al-Qaida or Iran is behind every bit of bad news in Iraq if you trust NPR). Second, as awful and depressing as the clip of the video is on the NPR website - why does it deserve special coverage? Is the exploitation of children in wars unique to al-Qaida or the insurgents in Iraq? Hardly, it's a worldwide scourge. Is this particular exploitation of children being done by agents who act in our name? No. That would be newsworthy, wouldn't it?

Well, how about the US detention of children in Iraq? Let's see what NPR has done to cover that story - what do you know, virtually nothing! Funny how it was happening way back in 2004 and continuing with new twisted twists in 2007. Does using teenagers as masked informants count as exploitation? And what about that amazing democratic "government" of Iraq that we've been standing up - how have they done with children? Better not touch that one.

Those kinds of stories would take a bit of work to investigate, and let's just say some of those choice interviews with George and Dick might just dry up. Better to just let the US military hand you the videos and tell you how unlike us the enemy is, and how inhuman and fanatic they are, and how crucial to freedom and civilization this stupid war in Iraq is. Gulp. Yum.

5 comments:

Porter Melmoth said...

Chaplin looks like he's got a great long term healthcare plan there.
Cost: Confidential
Universality: No
Exclusivity: Yes
Supplier: BushCorp - an Unequal But Opportunistic Provider For These Modern Times (TM)

(Sorry, not necessary to comment on the subject of this entry...we've been gagging for almost 8 years now.)

Anonymous said...

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LJansen said...

And does NPR realize there are military recruiters in ALL our highschools.

What do they think of that?

Anonymous said...

not only are there military recruiters in our high schools, but the military is supporting the development of violent videogames, and then approaches the really talented "killers."

yeah; all the action is in the story that is NOT covered.

Porter Melmoth said...

Good points about the home-grown creation of future warriors. Like NPR, its subtlety is built into the 'we're right, they're wrong' mentality. NPR can't identify or critique such hypocrisy objectively because it is such an integral part of it. As publicizer of neocon/military-industrial/corporate interests, NPR deludes itself with its own propaganda.