The inimitable Deborah Amos, whose every word drips with deep miscomprehension of why Israel has to defend itself today against the Jihad, has organized a circus of compassion on NPR whereby again and again and again Lebanese "refugees" (Shi'a-supporter-of-Hizballah "refugees" fleeing either Shi'a strongholds in south Beirut, or Shi'a strongholds in south Lebanon) are asked to tell their stories. And when they tell them, in case they are not doing enough to arouse the listener's compassion -- no wet eyes in this house -- they are prompted, egged on, by the NPR interviewer. And no doubt the Arab interpreter also adds her mite, just to make sure to get the Muslim Arab view across.
There was not a word, in an interview with two "Lebanese students" I heard recently, as to what kind of "Lebanese" these "Lebanese students" were. Surely we had a right to know if these were Shi'a Lebanese, didn't we? Surely it might have made a difference if they were, say, not Shi'a, or not Muslim at all, but rather Christians or Druse whose territories have been left unscathed except for one truck that looked like it might be a rocket launcher, moving in a Christian part of Beirut?
One of the students did let slip that a lot of Lebanese "hate Hizballah," but this was not picked up by Deborah Amos, who passed quickly over it. I wonder why. Surely it might have been something her audience would wish to know: why do so many non-Shi'a Lebanese hate Hizballah? And why, when one of the students told her how Hizballah was "defending the south" did she not ask the obvious question: defending it from what? Wasn't the last Israeli soldier removed from internationally-recognized Lebanese territory (please, no more of that Shebaa Farms nonsense) six full years ago?
And why was it, in the course of this interview, and in all of the coverage, there is never a discussion of the obvious. What is the obvious? The obvious are those 12,000-15,000 missiles. What are they doing in Lebanon? Where did they come from? Who supplied them? Who brought them into Lebanon? Did no one notice them? What did the "Lebanese" think was going to happen with those missiles and all their other military equipment? What did they think those goosestepping black-balaclaved Kalashnikov-clutching bezonians of beetle-browed Nasrallah, he of the Nazi rhetoric, and the fascist blackshirts, were going to do? Just squirrel them away for the hell of it?
Whenever I hear anyone from Lebanon say that "everything was fine, it was all so wonderful" and now "everything is destroyed," I want to ask them how they can say with a straight face that "everything was fine" when, step by careful step, more arms and missiles were being brought in from Iran, and Syria, than are in the armories of even some European countries? How dare they say that up until now "everything was fine"? And how dare they pretend, as the Shi'a and other Muslims do, that everything was okay up to now, when the Christians have been under threat, steadily menaced and undermined, for the past half-century? How can they say this with poker faces when the undermining of what had once been a Christian-majority refuge in the heart of unpleasant Dar al-Islam has continued right through to today?
What do they take us for? Complete idiots? NPR I mean, not those Shi'a "Lebanese" and those non-Shi'a who would defend them, and rewrite not just ancient history, but the history of the last six years, the history of the last year since Syrian soldiers were removed, and even the history of the last month?
NPR may not believe all this. Deborah Amos may not believe it. But historical amnesia is no longer the strong suit of NPR listeners. The more outrageous the coverage, the more fury builds, and the less one wishes to support it, or to have it receive any government support whatsoever. One sees how people in England are forced to pay license fees to support the hideous BBC and its Al-Jazeerish coverage. One does not want such a situation here.
Taxpayers: It’s time to pull the plug on NPR. Long past time.
I disagree, leave NPR alone, stop being a censor! Disagree loudly though, with facts and reason!
Dumbo
There is no reason for even 0.0001% of our tax money to finance this brand of BBC, thereby enabling them to pretend that they are the official radio of the US. I don't fund ABC, NBC, FNC, or anything else out there. C-Span does a good, albeit boring, job of covering events that are in the public interest. Let PBS and NPR bat on their own.
But it is not just NPR that is prattling on about the poor Lebanese refugees, those innocent, innocent bystanders caught up in a war with which they have no part.
Except that they neglect to mention that Hezbollah (and their associates in Nabhi Berri's Amal party) was elected into the Lebanese Parliament in those same southern districts where Hezbollah was stockpiling 10-15 thousand missiles, apparently without the knowledge of the vast majority of freedom-and-peace-loving moderates. Those phantasmagorical masses of moderates didn't notice the daily missile barrages launched from their neighborhoods for the past several months. They didn't notice the piles of weaponry accumulating inside the mosque (aka armory) at Maroun al-Ras.
Who of us did not see the news footage of row after row of Katyusha rockets lined up among the olive trees in yet another bucholic and peaceful Muslim orchard? Not that any of the Middle East Experts (tm) commented on that, but rest assured that they will comment on the evil Israelis destroying the livelihood of the poor innocent Lebanese farmers when the IDF comes in and maliciously destroys that grove in an "unwarranted and non-proportional" response.
Start the cleanup with NPR (and BBC), but don't think that the problem ends there.
"Who of us did not see the news footage of row after row of Katyusha rockets lined up among the olive trees in yet another bucholic and peaceful Muslim orchard?"
If Tom Friedman ever woke up, he could title his next book "The Missiles and the Olive Trees".
"Start the cleanup with NPR (and BBC), but don't think that the problem ends there."
Actually, I think this sentence quoted above, and Hugh's general approach, puts the cart before the horse. If our society were capable, through its will and intellect, to pull the plug on NPR, then we wouldn't have such a robust pimple as NPR (and a thousand other robust pimples like it) on our face in the first place. But our society is obviously incapable of doing so -- and this incapacity is not being caused by NPR and the other robust pimples of our culture: this incapacity is merely a reflection of a deeper, broader disease by which such florid and robust acne thrives on our collective body politic.
This reminds me of the denial, by a few too many German citizens, about the concentration camps in their own towns.
When the hostilities are over, I think the Israelis should take NPR reporters, along with local residents, on a tour of weapons stockpiles kept in Lebanese homes, olive groves, schools and mosques.
And let the Israelis ask, of the locals, the questions that NPR reporters won't.
If you can stomach it, try listening to "Talk of the Nation" today with Dhimmi Conan. Truly dispicable. Only time I've ever heard him bat down a caller. Of course, an Israeli asking the learned Lebanese professor why the Lebs had made no effort to tamp down the Jihad over the past six years.
For balance, the other guest was an Israeli "peace-now" type who spent all his time bemoaning the harm of innocents in Liban.
On the plus side, there's nothing like a flare-up concerning Israel to remind me why, after 20 years continuous, I stopped giving $ to those dreadful, hateful fools. Pfft.
The poster above is referring to Neil Conan (sp.?)'s program, and the sad-voiced, morally pure -- too pure for the neighborhood he lives in, whether that neighborhood is called the Middle East or, alternatively, the real world -- is the novelist David Grossman, as poor a political guide as anyone in Israel. The Lebanese lady with her British accent did her best, ably assisted by a caller who claimed to have been offended by the duration of the Israeli campaign, to demonstrate why the Israeli "aggression" (as she, being quite careful, nonetheless let herself say)would not work and that Israel may have fallen into a "trap." Well, if it is a "trap" it is one that Lebanon --- whose government did nothing to ask for U.N. help to make good on that guarantee of demilitarization in the south that had been so grandly promised in order to get the Israelis to leave -- also has fallen into. What do the Maronites (and other Christians), what do the Druze, what do the old Sunni elites, horrified to disvoer that while they were all making backroom deals and divisions of power, nice Nabih Berri's Amal, the voice of the presumably oppressed, became or rather yielded to the implacable Muslim fanatics of Hezbollah. And perhaps not everyone knows this, but Hezbollah is not merely intent on destroying Israel. It is intent on destroying the Christians as a power in Lebanon, and the Druse (not quite full-fledged Muslims) as well. If Israel fails to knock out Hezbollah, it will not only be Israel that will suffer, but Lebanon, and its Christians, its Druze, its Sunni Arabs. That is certain.
"But our society is obviously incapable of doing so -- and this incapacity is not being caused by NPR and the other robust pimples of our culture: this incapacity is merely a reflection of a deeper, broader disease by which such florid and robust acne thrives on our collective body politic."
The problem is that in Western society it is very easy for each one of us to believe in your own illusion of reality instead of facing sometimes ugly real world.
If you support the 'good' things like peace, end of poverty and protection of environment, it is enough to make you feel good, even though your actions really do not contribute anything to achi
eving these goals.
In addition, there is a genuine lack of leadership, which can be seen in politicians like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. If you are a good orator and look good on tv, it does not matter if your policy is totally void of content. It does not matter what are the consequences of your actions as long as they boost your poll ratings.
George W. Bush tries to show some leadership, but his analysis of the problem, which is violent Jihad in the doctrine of islam, is flawed and corrupted by the same PC sickness that bothers Europe and the Democratic party in the US.
NPR, BBC and the lot do not understand that there is a price to pay for peace. It cannot be taken for granted. A ceasefire is not the same as peace, but it can instead lead to worse war in the future.
If the Democrats were running the US government right now, the peace envoy would have been sent to the various Middle Eastern countries long ago. It would look good and it would look like the US is doing something, even though in reality the US would be doing absolutely nothing to solve the problems of the region. The other side simply does not play with the same rules.
The propaganda machine is currently shifting focus from the suffering of the innocent Lebanese to the utter futility of trying to dislodge hezbollah. The hezbollah savages are too powerful / too stealthy / too advanced / too well supported by population / too this and too that for Israel to have any hope of defeating them. Also focusing on Israeli casualties. Lots of talk about use of 'sophisticated iranian missle' to attack the ship (as if the iranian 'scientific brain trust' could actually create a radar-guided anti-ship missle on its own). The idea is for Israel to come to the realization that resistance is futile, so they should accept any cease-fire in order to save face. (and of course place themselves perpetually at the mercy of the savages) It's interesting to watch the machine in action.
Dear DhimmiWatch readers,
Hugh is spot on. NPR is poisoning the minds of all who listen to it regarding the War on Terror and the Arab-Israel conflict.
In utter frustration, I have written letters to my congressman and senators about my desire to remove government funding to CPB/NPR. I have pasted it in below in hopes that others can use it as a template to write to their elected representatives.
Best.
Determined_in_Dallas
Dear Congressman ________,
I have been amazed by the biased and shallow reporting on NPR. In particular, they show a remarkable amount of bias when it comes to the Israel-Arab conflict and the War on Terrorism. I am hoping that this e-mail will spur you to work towards ending governmental support for this incredibly biased news organization.
As one example, yesterday and today's edition of "All Things Considered" broadcast a report by Jackie Northam that was over 6 minutes in length (over 12 minutes total across the two days) about Bharaini prisoners at the Guantanmo Bay Detention Center. What just left me astounded was Ms. Northam's lack of curiosity over why these men were arrested in the first place. She never presented any information on the background of these men; information that is critical for evaluating the U.S. government's contention that these men are dangerous and want to do harm to the U.S. Any reporter with the least bit of curiosity would have wanted to know:
1. Did these men attend or study at fundamentalist Madrassas?
2. What were these men doing in pre-9/11 Afghanastan?
3. Was there any evidence that in Afghanistan they were training with Al Qaeda or supporting the Taliban government?
4. Was there any truth to the released inmate's lawyers' claim that the man had tried to commit suicide 12 times? Wouldn't it have been straightforward to give the U.S. military a chance to respond to this claim?
5. Was there any truth to the man's claim that he had been "abused" by being interrogated for long periods of time while he was forced to be wrapped in an Israeli flag? Two points regarding this claim: If NPR considers this torture or abuse then they do not share my value system. Second, they could have inquired with the U.S. military about just what types of interrogation techniques were being used.
The egregious omissions described above are typical of a pattern of reporting where there is a complete failure in the NPR quality control system. The 5 questions raised above are just normal questions that a good journalist would insist on knowing and reporting.
I find it astonishing that NPR would be committing such sins of omission on stories so directly related to our current war efforts against Islamic Terrorism. Yet I am all for free speech. I believe that if NPR desires to do a biased job of reporting on the Israel-Arab conflict and the War on Terror, that is certainly their prerogative. However, they should not be doing this at the taxpayer's expense. I hope you will work towards ending NPRs funding from the Federal Government. We can be using such funds in far more productive ways.
Please note that I am sending a copy of this e-mail to the NPR office in Washington.
Thank you for considering my suggestion and best from Texas.
But historical amnesia is no longer the strong suit of NPR listeners.
What? The willful act of historical amnesia is the very essence of NPR's listenership. Imagine fake histories is what these Yuppies do. Anybody who doubts this, I hereby command you to read the Sunday Times cover-to-cover so as to disabuse yourself of this readily apprarent fact.
I despise NPR's political correctness, and especially their stance on illegal immigration, BUT they offer the best cultural programs south of Canadian Broadcasting Company territory. Besides, some of their reporting is truly exceptional, heads and shoulders above the usual network crap. Their Katrina reporting, for example, was outstanding.
A civilized country must sponsor arts and culture. That includes public radio.
NPR's news programs, particularly that offense to thought, "On Point," conducted by an enthusiastic, self-assured ignoramus who simply will not, cannot, ever approach the subject of Islam so that one damn program on the Middle East after another is more Hamlet without the prince. It's idiotic, and Ashbrook is an embarrassment. It cannot be that in the entire country there are not more educated, more cultivated people whom, in some competition, would prove their knowledge (yes, they should know something about history, about literature, about all kinds of things -- actually have to take some kind of test of general knowledge to prove it, and if endowed with a fluent, pleasing, well-modulated voice, instead of what we now get, that would be nice too.
NPR won't go under. But until it starts minimally answering the many justified complaints about certain areas of its coverage (and the reply "Both sides complain so we must be doing something right" just won't do as an answer to specific, well-detailed records of what is covered, how it is covered, what guests are invited, what the questions permitted on the air appear to suggest, and so on), NPR should be punished by a withholding of funds. It has the Joan Kroc legacy. Don't worry about NPR. And perhaps, at NPR, among the decent and intelligent people who appear there, a little embarrassment about its news coverage may begin to express itself.
Or not.
When the impulse to give them money, despite everything, comes over you, sit down. It will pass. If it doesn't, mail the check made out to me. I'm a much more reliable recipient.
It could be worse, ever been to Canada?
Someone who thought I was being insensititive referred me to this site, courtesy of our compassionate northern taxpayers:
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeye/powerofnightmares/index.html
Could anyone enlighten me on how to set up a link where you just have to click on it, eh?
I'm still with Hugh. Irrespective of whether their cultural programming is good or not, they shouldn't be receiving our tax monies to broadcast their terrible coverage of world events.
I have no doubt that they will be able to readily make up lost revenues from other sources......like multicultural-loving leftists.
Its time for our legilsators to pull the plug on tax funds going towards CPB/NPR.
I guess I had already figured it out...
Anyways, the Title: "Is our Perception of a Global Terrorist Network an Illusion Created by Politicians?'
Hi All,
If it is the case that NPR can't be defunded, how would the creation of an NPR2 sound? It would have to be given a different mandate or board, to fill in the gaps NPR leaves.
On the other hand, the Beeb is up to BBC4 and it doesn't seem to help there.
Magooey
Wrong! It's WAY past time to pull the plug!
There was if I recall correctly an hilarious but apt mistranslation in Grossman's Yellow Wind, though I can't put my finger on the passage right now and I hope I am not misrembering the author. Anyway, the very first words in one of those sentences which exist not to convey actual information but only to show what a refined, sensitive, moral person the speaker is (a kind of sentence so typical of Grossman and of so many others like him), were "I, nebbish . . . ." I figure that had to have been a mistranslation of the (originally) Yiddish "nebekh," and which I am told has been imported into modern Hebrew. (I don't think the root is Germanic -- Polish perhaps? or Hebrew or Aramaic?) In any case, I believe that in both languages it's simply an interjection meaning "alas! it is a pity!" But although the translator was not following Nabokovian principles of translation, it is clear he hit onto a higher truth about Grossman, and my guess is that even the irrascible Nabokov (with his admiration of the Jews and Israel and his love of puns) would have let this one pass with a kindly smile.
I tend to wearily shrug off Grossman's kind of posturing with the phrase "the best is the enemy of the good," but really, too much is at stake, and Hugh's withering "too pure for his own neighborhood, the real world" is completely devastating and if I may say Krausian in its pithy cosmic irony. (If he doesn't mind, I shall borrow it for my own future polemics, with an appropriate citation of course.) The worst in this respect of being too pure for the real world (a gnostic failing) is Simone Weil. Evelyn Waugh once compared her with Edith Stein in that very regard, and to my mind there was nothing left of Weil afterwards, though I fear a certain kind of feminist academic still burns incense to our Sainte Simone. Perhaps Grossman should starve himself to death, it might do wonders for his academic reputation.
As to the 12,000-15,000 katyushas, I don't know what Hugh could possibly be talking about. Doesn't he know that when accusations of only 8,000 katyushas were bandied about a year or two ago, Robert Fish denied it! Why, Master Robert told us that he himself had driven all over the back roads of southern Lebanon, and was here to tell us all that he had not seen these 8,000 missiles, it was all Zionist propaganda. Master Robert can't be wrong, can he? or even lying? Is this the promised end? Or image of that horror?
Good Lord, I meant to write Fisk, not Fish.
limes,
CBC's political agenda is similar to that of the NDP--the furthest-left but least popular of the major political parties in Canada. They have been consistently protective and apologetic of Islam in their coverage of it, and in my opinion they have been consistently favouring Lebanon in their coverage of this latest conflict. They have been trying to use the Canadian-Lebanese "refugee" situation to bolster their attacks on the Harper government.
Given that the CBC is primarily a publicly-funded national institution, which abuses that clout to compete directly and ruthlessly against privately-owned media organizations, I'd say it's time for the government to review the amount of funding it receives and to address the issue of political bias.
Interestingly, there appear to be connections between CBC, Toronto Star (another far-left media organization), and the New York Times, but I have not investigated this issue yet. Given the similarities between the editorial positions of each of those institutions, I would not be surprised if the connections go deeper than merely shared political views.
I thought I'd share the reception at craigslist (that den of Leftists) to my posting the story about the Iranian punishments for various "crimes" (it was posted at Jihad Watch the other day -- example, 60 lashes for a homosexual kiss, etc.).
At the end of the post, I wrote, dripping with sarcasm of course: "Sounds like a Leftist's paradise, eh?"
Responses:
1) wow..i'd love to see the method to THAT madness § 07/23 09:40:10
[i.e., this fellow doesn't see how Leftists, who sugarcoat Islam and vilify neo-cons, are twisting their own logic]
2) HOMOSEXUAL KISS: 60 lashes. but what if its
a totaly hetero kiss? 07/23 09:42:12
[to which the first fellow responded:]
like bush and every man he ever meets? § 07/23 09:44:29
[responded to by the previous poster:]
sure, or a lil kiss with gannon after a long day 07/23 09:46:04
at the office...
3) right wing propaganda untrue. Iran is a virtual heaven on earth. stop your BSing
07/23 09:42:56
4) one of the finer things in life that I don't think I'll ever stop enjoying so much is unintentional irony. 07/23 09:45:49
[huh? what is this supposed to mean?]
5) wow, sounds terrible. We should nuke them. § 07/23 09:55:26
[I detect cheeky sarcasm here -- not to mention naive obliviousness]
6) [this last response (the sparseness of responses is also revealing -- at craigslist, you will see over 20 responses when it's time to assail neo-cons and right-wingers) is somewhat ambivalent, or should I say confused:]
islamic laws in lebanon (none; it's a milti-ethnic parliamentary democracy) women's rights, gay rights, electoral law etc.: lots of improvement needed, civil society groups exist and are working on these issues. biggest issue, of course, is disarming the last big remaining ethnic militia group left over from the civil war days.
maybe when a country starts making progress in areas that are desperately needed in that region we should (gasp) HELP them instead of DESTROYING them because they weren't instantly perfect in their first year of freedom from foreign domination.
meanwhile, when it the usa going to start have its client state in the region bomb saudi arabia, another hotbed of islamic fundamentalism and terrorism?
07/23 09:59:17
I heard that "both sides complain" red herring tonite from a couple of knee-jerk hacks from the LA times on Terry Gross. "Fresh Air" my butt. More like a fetid chili-dog fart.
Didn’t wgbh in Boston give their donor list to the democrats?
The people who did this crime got off scott free!
I've listened daily to NPR for decades, yet never sent them a dime, as I disagree with about 80% of their very obvious political agenda. I dislike the fact that they are able to put their hand in my pocket through government subsidy. They should be forced to compete in the marketplace with everyone else. I do enjoy hearing differing ( and often wildly liberal ) points of view.