Some Popular Columnists Are No-Brainers
By James T. Moore (09/11/07)
"It's going to take a lot of dead people to wake America up." That bit of tasteless, insensitivity was uttered by none other than Fox News host John Gibson. It was his simpatico reaction to an equally tasteless and insensitive article written by Stu Bykofsky, a journalist for the Philadelphia Daily News.
The title of Bykofsky’s article was (if you can believe this): “To Save America, We Need Another 9/11”
In his article, at which Gibson threw flowers, Bykofsky spouts: “Americans have turned their backs because the war has dragged on too long and we don’t have the patience for a long slog. We’ve been in Iraq for four years, but to some it seems like a century. It’s not that we believe our military is being beaten; it’s more like, there is no formal ‘battleground’. There is the drip of daily casualties and victory is not around the corner.”
According to Bykovsky, that’s not the American way. Americans like quick resolutions, even to wars.
Then, Bykofsky asks us to compare “tragedies”: “Remember the community of outrage and national resolve? America had not been so united since the first Day of Infamy—12/7/41. We knew who the enemy was. We also knew who the enemy was shortly after 9/11. (But) because we have mislaid 9/11, we have endless side-show squabbles about whether the surge is working, (etc. etc.)
Bykofsky is correct when he says, America’s fabric is pulling apart, like a cheap sweater; but he is stupidly dead wrong when he unequivocally states that to “sew the fabric back together”, we need another 9/11 attack! If it takes another attack on our homeland to restore America’s righteous rage, says Bykofsky, then let it be!
But journalists occasionally slip and show their lack of grey matter; then hurriedly scramble to retrieve their credibility and restore their tarnished image. Stu Bykovsky was forced to do this the following week in a contrite and rationale-littered article, which went something like this: “What I said last week, that another 9/11 attack would unite America, was wrong, judging by my e-mail and voice-mail responses. In the first 12 hours I received more than 2,000 e-mails and 100 voice mails. Roughly 65% disagreed with me, many violently and obscenely.”
And Bykovsky’s foot-shifting rationales were as phony as a 2-for-1 car sale. “In my column,” he said, “I was thinking that another 9/11 would help America; I was speculating on the effect of an attack, ---not calling for it. Later I said, I had no doubt that terrorists are planning to attack us again; and if it is to be, let it be. I am resigned to an attack---not calling for it.” (my italics)
Three elements of this whole ratty business have me infuriated.
One, the hedge-hopping content of the two Bykovsky articles---First, the stunning statement that we need another 9/11 attack; then his tacky turnaround when he found that most of his readers were disgusted with him.
Two, John Gibson’s positive reaction to Bykovsky’s first article on America’s need for another 9/11, of which Gibson should know better, but apparently doesn’t.
Three, the fact that if we should experience another attack like 9/11, it will probably be a well-orchestrated tragedy created by criminal elements within this administration, designed to cower us into giving up more of our liberties; and NOT an attack to strengthen our determination and resolve, as Bykovsky so naively put it.
Either way, some columnists, in their zest to write will-they-or-won’t-they terrorist attack articles continue to treat human life as cavalierly as the Bush administration has treated it for the past six years. Bodies coming back home in boxes seems to bother them not at all.
But then, I am not too surprised. No-Brain is a seat-of-thought deficiency of some of our most popular journalists.
James T. Moore
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