Media Sins
By Geoff Metcalf (09/08/08)
“Vices are character traits. Sins are specific acts of commission or omission.” --Solomon Schimmel Blood sport politics continues. Hurricane season is in full flower. Russia, Iran, North Korea and China continue to rattle sabers in varying degrees and I’m reminded of the Kingston Trio singing “…and I don’t like anybody very much.”
The U.S. military may be working to gain greater access to the Pakistan-Afghan border region where Al Qaida terrorists have been regrouping, but the latest Oprah election news overshadows Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen’s effort to work with Pakistan.
Walter Lippman once observed, “The press is no substitute for institutions. It is like the beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about, bringing one episode and then another out of darkness into vision. Men cannot do the work of the world by this light alone. They cannot govern society by episodes, incidents, and eruptions. It is only when they work by a steady light of their own, that the press, when it is turned upon them, reveals a situation intelligible enough for a popular decision.”
Recently, Drudge reported “Oprah’s staff is sharply divided on the merits of booking Sarah Palin” (GOP VP phenom). Despite (or because of) Drudge’s reportage Oprah actually issued an official statement. "The item in today's Drudge Report is categorically untrue. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this Presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over." Oh yeah?!?
Drudge wrote, “Half of her staff really wants Sarah Palin on," an insider explains. "Oprah's website is getting tons of requests to put her on, but Oprah and a couple of her top people are adamantly against it because of Obama."
Credulity and the smell test are being tested. Verne Gay blogging for Newsday http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/2008/09/oprah_five_reasons_why_palin_s.html notes, “O went so far as to issue a denial, and she does that very very rarely - in fact, I can't even remember an instance when she has…There's no such thing as a ‘divided’ staff out there in Chicago. She is the Queen. They are her subjects. There are no disputes with the Queen, and that is that.”
Commentary continues to focus on the presidential spitting match and nature’s fury. However, permit me to share an unreported something that deserves mention.
Back in July General Petraeus officiated at a remarkable re-enlistment ceremony in Baghdad. Somehow, although the main stream media is in a feedy frenzy over Alaska’s Governor and her teenage daughter’s maternity, they missed a truly newsworthy event.
Perhaps it is a function of the alleged inherent media prejudices, and I confess I have been unable (yet) to confirm or deny the number of troops who re-enlisted and recited their oaths in the crowded Al Faw Palace in Baghdad. But it was HUGE.
Reportedly, July 4th saw the “largest re-enlistment ceremony EVER held in military history”. The event took place about 5 kilometers from Baghdad International Airport, July 4, 2008 at Al Faw Palace (The Water Palace), with General Petraeus (the big dog) officiating.
Since NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC and even FOX didn’t get around to showing it; please take a look for yourself at
http://tonguesoffire.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/baghdad-reenlistment/.
A Chicago pizzeria donated 2,000 pizzas that were made (frozen), shipped and arrived in Baghdad and fed to the troops after the ceremony.
Oddly, the media did report on the 2,000 pizza donation (so they knew about it), but somehow neglected to report why they were sent, OR the event at which they were consumed. THAT friends, a sin of omission.
Meanwhile, Human Events is exposing the Obama reality the Main Stream is either myopic to recognize or (like the reason for 2,000 pizzas) scared spitless to tell the American people http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=28408
The author calls it, “the least examined, yet most revealing, and by far the most potentially ruinous of the senator’s controversial associations. Obama claims to be a ‘committed Christian,’ yet appears to support Oprah in the worldwide dissemination of a virulent anti-Christian doctrine.
As Lippman said, “The press is no substitute for institutions. It is like the beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about…” However, it is apparently an arbitrary, capricious and prejudiced judgment that chooses where to shine that light.
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