How typically MSM that Fenton blames the business of news rather than the politics of news for the failure to warn the public re an impending 9/11 (although I remain convinced that 9/11 was predictable only with 20-20 hindsight).

For a very long time, the journalistic subculture has demanded an adversarial stance towards the rest of society, including government and business. At best, this was to ensure that the "left outs" had something of a voice (at least a few of them). But coupled with a romantic third worldism, infantile leftism, and a consuming ambition to shock the bourgeoisie, the MSM probably would've found itself an accomplice of 9/11 had the reporters been in a position to call Bin Laden's mind on the matter.

The MSM is also pussyfooting with Communist CHina, since it fears being denied access should it report too honestly and truthfully on that last, best hope for 20th century totalitarianism.

Posted by: Kepha at March 12, 2005 2:52 AM

Oh where, oh where have our media gone
Oh where, oh where can they be
With their lies on air and their tales too wrong
Oh where, oh where can they be?

Posted by: Rick at March 12, 2005 4:45 AM

In an era where the MSM's credibility is in inexorable decline, such soul searching could either be genuine or mere window-dressing to mask gaping holes (media taqiyya, if you will).

Just like radio slowly lost out to tv, so will the the excessively PC MSM lose out to swifter, bolder new media outlets. Or so one can hope.

Posted by: voletti at March 12, 2005 6:31 AM

Rick, I loved you little ditty.

Let's see:

The media anchor named Rather
Is often in such a great lather
That when facts he should check
He say's "What the heck?
Everything's nothing but blather!"

Posted by: Kepha at March 12, 2005 7:43 AM

Kepha,

Thank you. It's a take off of the children's sing-song rhyme: Oh, where, oh where has my little dog gone. . . .

Posted by: Rick at March 12, 2005 8:37 AM

Such left wing influences such as political correctness,and multi-culteralism skewer the media from asking the needed questions. And yet why do so many in the media seem to have little trouble in critisizing the right and the conservative Christian which makes up over 90 Pct of the nations religions? Time and, time again I have watched the media on C-Span when they where interviewing a Saudi representative, or a CAIR representative and all you get is softball Questions thrown out while the Islamic representatives carry on with their relentless propaganda campaigns to the press without any challenges. No one asks about the Saudi wahaabist books going into mosques in America that call for the overtaking of America. Chris Matthews calls his news program Hardball but he only has hardball questions for repubicans. Ask Michelle Malkin. Will Tom Fentons book be openly discussed on television media? I think some shows will and we know which shows won't.

Posted by: Mackie at March 12, 2005 10:16 AM

HEAD'S UP GUYS!

Hirsi Ali will appear on 60 Minutes tomorrrow evening.

Posted by: Suzan at March 12, 2005 12:52 PM

Sorry forgot the link, here it is:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/11/60minutes/main679609.shtml

They will also show portions of "Submission".

Posted by: Suzan at March 12, 2005 12:52 PM

I would be interested in seeing a report on who owns controlling interest in all the media. There has to be a reason you can not get a letter to the editor published that is even mildly critical of islam. We know SA money is widely passed around here in the states, so how much of our media is owned or influenced by that same money?

Posted by: Carolyn2 at March 12, 2005 1:15 PM

Suzan -

Thanks for posting about 60 minutes w/ Hirsi Ali

WHOOO HOOO! Finally!

OT - Did anyone catch the O'Reilly factor this week when he interviewed Paul Sperry about his new book -
Infiltration : How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington ?

O'Reilly was utterly incredulous, although he did indicate he would explore the subject a bit more. We'll have to wait and see.

Posted by: miira at March 12, 2005 3:11 PM

Voletti,radio never "lost out to tv",there are tens of millions of people in America that tune in every single day,to listen to shows like Rush Limbaugh,Sean Hannnity,Laura ingraham,Michael Medved and Michael Savage,including me.
These radio shows such as many others of the same genre have attracted tens of millions in audiences acress America,to counterbalance the liberal bias of the main stream media and to feed America`s hunger for the political uncorect TRUTH.
Thank to them and to internet sites like this one,we can now stay informed and thank God for that.

Posted by: adela at March 12, 2005 5:39 PM

The ACLU isn't free of any guilt from terrorist activity,they believe that you shouldn't be able to arrest someone for what they might do in the future.
The problem is that suicide bombers don't leave very much behind to bring to trial as the accused,remember how that Trooper feared annoying
one of the 9/11 hijackers that he caught speeding
and only issued a ticket.
CAIR loves to gloat over the fact that the hijackers were here because of poor National security policies,yet when Mussoui was picked up
CAIR defended the man as innocent until proven guilty.
This ploy is a typical taqiyya method where
Muslim pretend to abhore tettorism but do little to stop it or report activity in their Mosques.

CAIR Canada was outraged when 19 Sunni Pakistani's were detained by the RCMP for security reasons.
They were foreign students on Visa's,but their ID used in Pakistan was false,then the documents
for coming to Canada as a student were forged,then the College ended up as a "Store Front" bogus school selling enrollment papers for foreign students to get Visa's to Canada,they all lived near each other and attended the same Mosques,they were all males around 25 years old
and went underground when they failed to renew
their expired Visa's.

Oh,and two had been caught taking flying lesson
that was with a School that goes by a Nuclear power plant East of Toronto ( Pop. 3 million) .

With all of these oddities CAIR and the Muslim community screamed "Racisn" and "Profiling" during public demostrations for their release.
When the truth started coming out in the media
Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Council MCC
still argued that Profiling lead to the detaining and the criminal aspects have no standing when Human rights are violated,these men
wouldn't have been arrested if they weren't profiled.

This is what we're dealing folks,Mr.Fatah
said that the RCMP information made public had ruined their lives and made it difficult for them when returning to Pakistan with the forged papers they bought back home.
Now we have the Maher Arar case of the Syrian
traveling on a Canadian passport that was stopped in New York and deported to Jordan and then taken back to his homeland where he now claims he was tortured,CAIR and the MCC are now bitching that information from this case isn't being made public.

We can't win folk,they argue both side of a issue like John Kerry did,they were against disclosure before being in support of it.

I don't care if Muslims have their feelings hurt over the truth or TV shows like "24" ,the
9/11 hijackers WERE Muslims and it's in the history books so future Muslims can't rewrite the events like Muhammed did when creating the Quran.

Posted by: ala-sux at March 12, 2005 6:27 PM

Click on the interactive tab on Suzan's link, "the fundamentals of islam" - CBS certainly gives a nice version of islam, "islam spreads to Jerusalem" or something like that. Sounds like islam was just accepted without threat of the sword. Kind of like nazism "spreads" to Poland.

Posted by: Carolyn2 at March 12, 2005 7:02 PM

A former newspaper editor is now Mayor of London. Get a load of his pro-jihad outragous comments below :

SWC To London Mayor: Apologize Now For Antisemitic And Anti-Israel Comments

At a time when violent antisemitic attacks on British Jews increased 42% last year reaching greater levels than in France, where just days before Holocaust Memorial Day Jewish gravestones were desecrated with swastikas, while at the same time there was a spate of violent attacks against Jews in North London, where Jewish students feel increasingly intimidated on university campuses for openly expressing their support for Israel, and when young people in the UK increasingly display a lack of understanding of the Nazi Holocaust, the slanderous comments against a Jewish reporter and the State of Israel by London's controversial mayor have fueled an already dangerous environment.

Mayor Ken Livingstone's most recent statements accusing the Israeli government of "ethnic cleansing" and his description of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a "war criminal who should be in prison" have added to the anger over comments made last month when he compared a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard. Livingstone has refused consistent calls from Prime Minister Tony Blair, British officials, Holocaust survivors, and London's Jewish community to apologize.

Therefore, we are asking our supporters in Britain and around the world to join the Simon Wiesenthal Center's protest directly to London Mayor Ken Livingstone to urge him to immediately apologize for his comments trivializing the Holocaust and demonizing Zionism and Israel.

Livingstone has had a long history of conflict with British Jews. Last year, he hosted Sheik Yusuf al Qaradawi, a Muslim Brotherhood Imam who has endorsed suicide bombings against civilians in Israel and attacks on foreign civilians in Iraq. In 2000, he made a speech claiming that global capitalism was responsible for more deaths that the Nazis. And as far back as 1983, in his capacity as a newspaper editor, he published a cartoon of then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin dressed in an SS uniform with a caption reading, "The Final Solution."

Additionally, the Center is urging mayors of all cities to refuse to officially welcome Livingstone to their cities until he apologizes for his reckless and incendiary behavior.

By signing this petition, you will be sending a letter directly to Mayor Livingstone urging him to apologize for his anitsemitic and anti-Israel comments.

Donate now to fight antisemitism and to help us continue our work.
Please support the work of the Simon Wiesenthal Center .
Please do not respond directly to this email - the SWC will not receive your correspondence. Send inquiries to: information@wiesenthal.net

Nossy

Posted by: Nostrodamus at March 12, 2005 8:12 PM

From the nature of the whining in the article and responses one would think that the media actually runs this country. (Flash: it is a propaganda organ of the administration).

We have a Christian conservative President, a Christian Conservative Congress and Senate.

We have a President who does not care about public opinion or what the media says (he doesn't even care about the UN or international opinion. to wit the invasion of Iraq).

And what about those stalwarts of conservativism, MSNBC, Fox and yes even CNN (who is always the administrations alter ego), What about Limbaugh, Hannity, Tony Snow, Mike Savage, Tucker Carlson, Chris Matthews, The New Republic, The American Enterprise Institute, the Hertiage Foundation, the Mays Brothers at Clear Channel.. those media voices are bigger than any piffling from CBS or the New York Times.

We have a government that is owned and controlled by the Republican Party, and which does what it wants to do, when it wants to do it, regardless..

Get a grip, the problem isn't the media's coverage on terrorism, or the silence and timidity as regards the source of terrorism (Islamism), the problem is our Christian Conservative Government.

It is they who will not speak the name of evil, it is they that are business partners with said evil.

If this was a liberal leftist Democratic controlled government, conservatives would be howling for the scalp of the President and Congress, not whining about the media.

The media in this country is not left or right,liberal or conservative it is establishment and corporate, and it is the corporate establishment which provides the funding for both political parties, and backs that party which cuts them the best deals... currently the Republican.

But go ahead and whine about the media (a distraction) I place all the blame where it belongs, on the administration (which controls the DoJ, Homeland Security, FBI,DoD, CIA, etc).

If Bush would actually lead then the media would follow, as they did when they jumped on board the invade Iraq bandwagon.

Posted by: Giaour at March 12, 2005 9:05 PM

I am posting this link here again, OT but just to placate the spineless Zapatero government of Spain. Read it if you want to know what surrender means!

And Spain was occupied for 700 years by Islam: They should have learnt their lesson.

Pelayo would turn in his grave! Something for you, Hugh Fitzgerald! I'am sure you would love to comment on that!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/csm/20050311/ts_csm/oanniversary&e=4

Posted by: Terminator at March 13, 2005 1:03 AM

"We know we could have saved thousands of lives if we had done more to bring the public's attention to the threat of an Al-Qaeda attack in the years before 9/11. What we must ask now is why did we fail?"

.....the evidence suggests that one of the tactics employed by the hijackers on all the flights was to move passengers to the back of the airplane away from the cockpit. Mace, pepper spray, or a similar substance would have aided the
terrorists in that effort and assisted them in maintaining a cont rolled area around the flight deck.

Both mace and pepper spray were specifically prohibited items under the Air Carrier Standard Security Program.......

Records of purchases by the hijackers and other evidence indicate that knives with blades of less than four inches long were their primary weapons of choice.

One is left to consider the following. Had the consequences of being a "selectee" under the passenger prescreening program, as nine of the terrorists were, required a more intense screening of the selectee, as had been the case before the prescreening system was computerized in 1998, the system would have stood a better chance of detecting the prohibited item, possibly depriving the terrorists of an important weapon.

From http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/staff_statement_4.pdf

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I believe the news reported the 1993 WTC bombing, the 1999 truck bomb at Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the 1998 bombing of US embassies in East Africa and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.

Joe public was well aware of terrorist attacks and under the impression that Airport security was not complacent.

Posted by: Bar at March 13, 2005 3:14 AM

Giaur~ sorry, The media is a much of a problem as the Leftist Academia, and we ain't giving up on exposing them any time soon.

Posted by: Gary at March 13, 2005 4:09 PM

I place all the blame where it belongs, on the administration (which controls the DoJ, Homeland Security, FBI,DoD, CIA, etc).~ Giaour

Lets play your game and put the blame were is belongs...

Among the five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, only Mohammed Atta held a certificate from the FAA as a qualified private and commercial pilot, including proficiency rating in multi-engine aircraft operation. Atta received his commercial pilot certificate in December, 2000. Records indicate that Atta received Boeing flight simulator training sessions.

Among the five hijackers aboard United Airlines flight 175, only Marwan al Shehhi is known to have completed flight training and possessed an FAA pilot certification. Al Shehhi received his commercial pilot certificate in December, 2000, on the same day and at the same facility as Atta received his. He also had Boeing flight simulator training.

Among the five hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 77, Hani Hanjour was the sole individual who FAA records show completed flight training and received FAA pilot certification. Hanjour received his commercial multi-engine pilot certificate from the FAA in March 1999. He received extensive flight training in the United States including flight simulator training, and was perhaps the most experienced and highly trained pilot among the 9/11 hijackers.

Among the four hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, Ziad Jarrah was the lone individual who is recorded as having received flight training and FAA pilot certification. Jarrah received his private pilot certificate from the FAA in November, 2000, and was recorded as having received Boeing flight simulator training. Staff would note that Jarrah had logged only 100 flight hours, and did not possess a commercial pilot certificate or multi-engine rating.

I would like to thank the Clinton administration for giving these known terrorist’s visa’s to say here in America. I would like to thank the Clinton administration for not kicking them out when those visa’s expired, and for training them to fly commercial aircraft on those expired visas. I would like to thank the Clinton administration for changing the airport “selectee” process that enabled these jihadist to escape detection.
And for doing all this in light of Al Qeada’s numerous attacks on America and American interests in 1993, 1996, 1998, 2000.

Posted by: Bar at March 13, 2005 5:55 PM

In memory of Rachel Corrie, Dr. Jack Shepard says, "When will we realise that there can't be this many "accidents"?

By Dr. Jack Shepard

In memory of Rachel Corrie
http://www.shepardusgov.com/RachelCorrie.html
1979 - 2003
Herald Tribune
Killed in Israel
Wednesday March 3, 2004
Killed in Israel
Only a year ago, the month of March would have held the same positive associations for me as it has for many - the beginning of the end of winter, the promise of springtime and even summer. This year, and for every year for the rest of my life, the approach of March will mean something else entirely - the anniversary of the brutal death of my cousin, Rachel Corrie. .On March 16, 2003, an Israeli soldier and his commander ran over Rachel with a nine-ton Caterpillar bulldozer while she stood - unarmed, clearly visible in her orange fluorescent jacket - protecting a Palestinian home slated for demolition by the Israeli army. .The death of Rachel Corrie, and the response that her case has - and has not - received, reveal several disturbing, indeed immoral and criminal, truths. First, Rachel died while attempting to prevent the demolition of a home, a common practice of the Israeli Army's collective punishment that has left more than 12,000 Palestinians homeless since the beginning of the second uprising in September 2000. This practice violates international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. .Second, Rachel was run over by a Caterpillar bulldozer, manufactured in the United States and sent to Israel as part of the regular U.S. aid package to Israel, which amounts to $3 billion to $4 billion annually, all of it from U.S. taxpayers. The use of Caterpillar bulldozers to destroy civilian homes, not to mention to run over unarmed human rights activists, violates U.S. law, including the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, which prohibits the use of military aid against civilians. .Third, the self-acquittal of the Israeli army for Rachel's death and the resistance of the state of Israel to an independent investigation into this case reveals both the Sharon administration's unwillingness to take responsibility for the death of a U.S. citizen and the Bush administration's cowardice in allowing another nation to attack U.S. citizens with impunity. .Fourth, Rachel's death was in fact only the first of several Israeli attacks on foreign citizens in the West Bank and Gaza. Brian Avery, from New Mexico, was shot in the face on April 5; Tom Hurndall, a British citizen, was shot in the head on April 11 and died Jan. 13, and James Miller, another British citizen, was also shot and killed in April. To date, only in Hurndall's case will the Israeli soldier responsible for the attack face trial, and this is because the British government, after several months, finally responded to the overwhelming evidence presented by the Hurndall family. .As we approach March 16, residents and citizens of the United States should ask themselves how it is that an unarmed U.S. citizen can be killed with impunity by a soldier from an allied nation receiving massive U.S. aid, using a product manufactured in the United States by a U.S. corporation and paid for with U.S. tax dollars. When three Americans were killed, presumably by Palestinians, in an explosion on Oct. 15, 2003, as they traveled through Gaza, the FBI came within 24 hours to investigate the deaths. After one year, neither the FBI nor any other U.S.-led team has done anything to investigate the death of an American killed by an Israeli. .Why the double standard? Perhaps this reveals the most disturbing truth of all. .Elizabeth Corrie is an administrator and teacher in a school in Atlanta. ________________________________________________________________________ Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Our Place in the World: Still no justice for Rachel Corrie
By WENDY SMITH
GUEST COLUMNIST
Friday 23, 2004
Tom Hurndall, a 22-year-old British peace activist, died last week in a London hospital. He was shot in the head by Israeli sniper fire nine months ago while shepherding Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip out of the line of fire. He had been in a coma since his injury. Hours before Hurndall died, the soldier who shot him was charged with aggravated assault. The charge is now likely to be revised to manslaughter or murder; British police are participating in an official investigation of his death.
Rachel Corrie from Olympia was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Rafah refugee camp about a month before Hurndall was shot there. Like Hurndall, Corrie was a volunteer with the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement to End the Occupation of Palestine (ISM). Like Hurndall, she was killed by an identifiable Israeli soldier. As in Hurndall's case, the Israeli government initially released a report on Corrie's killing, stating that nobody connected with the Israeli military was culpable and that further investigation was not required.
So, why has Hurndall's killer been charged when nothing has happened to Corrie's killer?
According to the Hurndall family, the only reason the soldier who shot him has been charged is because of pressure applied by the family. Hurndall's father is an attorney. He went to Rafah shortly after the shooting and compiled an extensive dossier of eyewitness affidavits, forensics reports, photographs and other relevant information. This dossier was put before the British foreign secretary in a way that made it very difficult to ignore. Ultimately, the British government went to bat for Hurndall, an unarmed British civilian killed by an Israeli soldier under the impression that he could shoot with impunity.
Indeed, the soldier had good reason to believe this. More than 2,000 unarmed Palestinian civilians, many of them children, have been killed in the occupied territories since the current intifada began in September 2000. Only 10 Israeli soldiers have been indicted and none has been convicted. A culture of impunity permeates the Israeli military, which is well known for its non-investigations of itself. For this reason, the Hurndall family would like to see the investigation of his death extend all the way up the chain of command.
Corrie's parents are not lawyers. In addition, they were told by members of the Washington state congressional delegation and State Department officials that if they quietly played along, justice for their daughter would ultimately be achieved. So far, all that has emerged is a non-credible Israeli military report claiming that 1) Corrie was not run over by a bulldozer and 2) even if she had been, the driver could not have seen her. These statements are contradicted respectively by the autopsy report and multiple eyewitness reports.
It is an insult to the human heart to have to force government officials to do their jobs properly while digesting the fact your child has been brutally killed.
Somehow the Hurndall family was able to take the necessary steps in the timeframe required. Believing what their congressman, senators and State Department officials told them, the Corries have been left to swallow lies.
Is this the best our members of Congress can do for a citizen killed abroad? Plenty of them made pretty speeches but real action is a question of political will.

Posted by: Dr. Jack Shepard at March 14, 2005 10:22 AM

Dr. Shepard:

The lies the Corrie family have been left to swallow are those told by the ISM/PSM who have manufactured Rachel's martyrdom the way the Palestinians manufactured the Jenin, Jenin fraud and the Mohammed Al-Durra fraud. The difference in Rachel's case is that she died attempting to protect weapon smuggling tunnels when a tractor/tank rolled backward over her because she was sitting on the ground, or possibly in the tunnel itself -- well out of the operator's line of vision whereas in the Al-Durra case, there wasn't a death involved (the French TV station has been completely discredited over this one) and in case of Jenin, Jenin, the only deaths the IDF were responsible involved armed combatants.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at March 14, 2005 3:21 PM