I though I was the only one who noticed that the fake hostage story, the alleged terrorist downing of a British C-130 transport, and the Eason Jordan controversy were related…
Jack Kelly, in The Toledo Blade The Pittsburgh Post Gazette , ties them altogether and notes ironically that the media has become a PR firm for terrorist organizations.
It’s also interesting that the terrorists turned to the news media to recover lost momentum. Journalists who fell for these hoaxes may merely be idiots, and their silence about the implications of the hoaxes may simply be the by product of embarrassment. But the Web logger Shannon Love (Chicago Boyz) wonders:
“Why were the major media so quick to disseminate pictures of an action figure as a genuine hostage photo?” More to the point, why are major media so quick to disseminate anything that a terrorist group, or purported terrorist group, releases? … For the terrorist, it is like being given millions of dollars in free advertising.”The story is why the story behind the failings at the AP and CNN is not being told anywhere except the blogosphere.
On a related note, I could swear that yesterday (Saturday) at 12 Noon Eastern, CNN had reported that the pope had abdicated. This was subsequently picked up by LA News Radio. Was I imagining this?
Really, the story HAS been told and is being told, about this (MSM as terrorist spokesgroup, although I also believe that the DNC is in there, too, if not actually quite eager to work on behalf of terrorists, at least “arm in arm” with terrorists and terrorist demands).
Problem is, so far, that because it’s the blogosphere writing that story, it then becomes, as per the MSM and related, a source to dismiss. We’re bloggers, therefore we’re supposedly assumed to lack credibility, and, what credibility that the MSM can manage to allow so far has been for NON blogger sites, such as Wonkette, KOS, Sullivan, even, sites and sources created for to further a certain perspective, funded by similar sources comingled with the MSM…which then makes for reliability, as per the MSM’s twisted logic.
(^^) part of that “Deaniac” paramilitary use of the internet, however. Remember how many times and how often could be read the insistence that Dean was the one only a short time ago? That everyone else was out of touch (and that Deaniacs were not, by ultimatum)? I believe the practice is: say it often enough, intimidate by sheer volume, discourage just enough to deflect and redirect the outcome (d’oh). If it hadn’t been for conservative, even moderate bloggers this past year, 2004 might very well have brought a different outcome, and would have if the Deaniac/internetliberalvoice had represented truth, justice and the American Way. Thank God they did and do not.
It is interesting to note that the Jack Kelly quote you have chosen to excerpt is actually from Shannon Love at Chicagoboyz.
See the discussion of the “omission” of the attribution here:
http://www.chicagoboyz.net/archives/002847.html
Cripes. The tone of that last post is not what I intended. I didn’t mean for it to sound like Kevin was plagiarizing. Kevin had no idea that the quote didn’t come from Jack Kelly. I just found it very ironic that the quote chosen to show how some in the MSM were waking up to facts the blogosphere had known all a long had, in fact, originated in the blogosphere.
Strange Dog, it looks like he does, the link is included in his blockquote text.