Category Archives: Media Criticism

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Obama’s Army

43 Comments

Thoughts on the corruption and bias of the press, which they don’t even bother to try to hide any more:

Does anyone doubt that if it were Romney rather than Obama who led by three points, the creed recited daily on MSNBC would stress the inexact nature of polling and the overwhelming power of conservative millionaires and billionaires? Imagine for a moment that a Republican was president: What would appear on the front pages and at the top of the network news broadcasts? There would be stories on long-term unemployment, stagnant wages, brutalized net worth, and credit downgrades. There would be stories on last weekend’s brazen attack on our base in Afghanistan, which led to the deaths of two Marines and the loss of eight Harrier jets. The White House would be slammed for its changing and evasive explanation of the murder of a U.S. ambassador and his security officers.

Charges of corruption would be leveled at the president for naming the wife of a wealthy contributor to the U.N. General Assembly just weeks after that contributor penned a New York Times op-ed arguing the president does indeed support Israel (though if the president were a Republican support for Israel would not be in doubt). The AP would resurrect its headline from the spring of 2008: “Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control.” Imagine the deafening, glass-shattering howls as NBC and ABC and CBS and PBS and NPR and CNN and MSNBC and NYT and WAPO and WSJ and AP and Reuters and FT and Bloomberg and Politico demanded accountability.

The fact that the media line is so mutable—that the tone and emphasis of their coverage is merely a function of Obama’s relative position—reveals the extent to which the press has become a withering and slightly deformed appendage of the center-left. This is not a matter of “vetting” the president’s biography and past associations four years into his term. It is a matter of covering Obama’s official record, right now, as the global economy stagnates, Washington deadlocks, Europe teeters, Islamists take power in the Middle East, Iran grows emboldened, Afghanistan falls apart, and China and Russia fester. It is about suggesting, if only hinting, that Obama and not George W. Bush, ATMs, or an idiot in California might be at least somewhat responsible for what is happening in the world.

People who vote for Romney aren’t just voting against Barack Obama — they’ll be voting against the media.

[Update a few minutes later]

Obama’s palace guard: the “fact checkers.”

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Muslims, Mormons And “Liberals”

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Some thoughts on how some religions are more equal than others:

The “Book of Mormon”—a performance of which Hillary Clinton attended last year, without registering a complaint—comes to mind as the administration falls over itself denouncing “Innocence of Muslims.” This is a film that may or may not exist; whose makers are likely not who they say they are; whose actors claim to have known neither the plot nor purpose of the film; and which has never been seen by any member of the public except as a video clip on the Internet.

No matter. The film, the administration says, is “hateful and offensive” (Susan Rice), “reprehensible and disgusting” (Jay Carney) and, in a twist, “disgusting and reprehensible” (Hillary Clinton). Mr. Carney, the White House spokesman, also lays sole blame on the film for inciting the riots that have swept the Muslim world and claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff in Libya.

So let’s get this straight: In the consensus view of modern American liberalism, it is hilarious to mock Mormons and Mormonism but outrageous to mock Muslims and Islam. Why? Maybe it’s because nobody has ever been harmed, much less killed, making fun of Mormons.

Sanctimonious, hypocritical cowardice.

[Update a few minutes later]

Ignorance, too:

…isn’t it interesting that since 9/11 so few “liberals” or “progressives” in that media (and elsewhere for that matter) evince a serious interest in Islam? It’s hard to find one who knows much substantive about it. Few even know what taqiyya or dhimmi law are. I have had many blank stares from otherwise intelligent people when asking even rudimentary questions.

I think the reason for this is a convenient and largely deliberate ignorance. Liberals know if they scratch the surface of Islam all the misogyny and homophobia will come pouring out, not to mention the tenets of Sharia with its attendant superiority of religious law to state law and the consequent abolition of the separation of church and state — all values and goals supposedly anathema to the liberal mind. Trying to reconcile those things with the policies of their hero-president would make their heads explode, so better not to know about them.

Easier to keep a head from exploding when it’s buried in the sand.