The value of a free press

There is no freedom in the world like the freedom of an American journalist to say whatever he or she wants. The only criterion for self-censorship is that the report he or she files be mostly true. Absent of actual malice, one can even be wrong in one�s dispatch, and still not be guilty of libel. In America, truth is an absolute defense against libel and has been so for more than 200 years.

Now that doesn�t mean that there can�t be fallout from bad reporting. The Nation Review Online published a list of boneheaded predictions about Iraq II written by avowed Bush-haters that will be used by some on the right (read Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and everybody at the Fox News Channel, to name a few) to hammer their reputation for years. And all that�s fair, I suppose. Freedom of expression is not that same as freedom from criticism. If you say something stupid � like say Trent Lott did � you deserve blowback.

That�s the way America is. Actions have consequences. And I�m cool with that too.

But that�s not the way it is everywhere. In the world of the state-run or state-sanctioned media, reporters, editors and producers have an overt agenda to slant the news in a way that furthers their or their master�s ends. Pravda � �truth� in Russian � rarely printed any truth ever.

As we all have seen recently, a number of the Arab media outlets � Al Jazeera and others � have been broadcasting the statements of the Iraqi Ministry of Information as complete and unvarnished truth, while ignoring the vast reportage coming from embedded reporters of every nationality traveling with the troops. These media outlets have been spoon feeding the most ridiculous propaganda to the Arab Street, who in turn, believed it right up until the time that the statue of Saddam fell on April 9th. They were lead to believe that Iraqi forces would slaughter the Americans and Brits by the thousands on the way to a glorious victory over the infidels.

Then came the letdown. From a standing start in Kuwait, the Americans and the Brits captured Baghdad in three weeks. The Arab Street was flabbergasted. How could this be? We watched the news and there was no hint of this impending disaster. �It must have been treason,� one Egyptian shopkeeper said to a British reporter.

And in a sense, he�s right. The Arab media have engaged in an organized campaign to attack American and �Zionist� interest to the point that they have deliberately misled their readers or viewers. Today, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) ran a piece written by Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, editor of the London-based Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat lambasting much of the Arab press for this practice. In part, he says:

But when we examine the Arab media, [we find] that little has changed since the previous century. It seems as if today's wars are no different than those of forty years ago. At that time, the Arab media jumped ahead of the Arab armies by making false predictions. They assumed that publishing a headline about downing 100 Israeli warplanes in the war of 1967 would build self-confidence and may even come true in the future. However, those who doze off and wake up in front of Arab TV will not forgive the [Arab] media [for] its lies when the smoke clears up and the truth is seen in full."

"I know that adopting an impartial stand in the [Arab] media world is akin to suicide, because there are many who push the media into extremes, and take 'nationalistic' positions, and maintain that whoever thinks differently is committing treason against the [national] cause. [They maintain] that lying for the sake of the cause is moral and honorable. The Arab media [of today], in these hard times, is slowly turning into the 1967 media; at that time, radio announcers, analysts, and journalists exaggerated acts of courage and covered up defeats, which - historically - became a mockery."

"The Arab media today, with its clear inclination towards exaggerations and false promises of victory, is feeding the public stories that have nothing to do with the real events in the field. Hence, it is replicating the old media, despite the fact that it is broadcasting in color and using electronic technologies�"

"Before the beginning of the [1991 Gulf War], Arabs who supported the Iraqi regime came up with floods of promises that it would be a great war, a second Vietnam, and that tens of thousands of the invaders would return in body bags, and that the Gulf would become a sea of blood. We were deluged with reports about the support of the international street [for Iraq], but soon the whole thing ended with the signing of the Safwan Agreement, in which Iraq surrendered completely, to the surprise of millions�"

"The media, in its reports, should not preempt the propaganda of ministries of information... The best service that [the Arab media] can provide to the public is the truth. This way it will save its reputation that was tarnished in the past, to the point that it became the twin-sister of the inferior political regimes."

This acknowledgement from a prominent newspaper editor, gets to the heart of why Americans are deeply distrustful of Arab culture in general and Arab nations in particular: everything that the Arab Street uses to form its opinions about everything is so biased that it has almost no connection with the rational world. New Yorkers were horrified to hear that the attacks on the World trade Center on 9/11 were being reported in the Arab World as being perpetrated by either a) the Bush administration or b) Israel. We knew the truth. We saw it live on cable. How could they � the Arab Street � not acknowledge that there are people that hate the US so much that they would do exactly the same thing that the so-called martyrs on the West Bank do with such frighteningly regularity?

It was easy. They have been fed a long and steady diet of misinformation and outright lies by their media outlets, with each being more outspoken than the last in their hatred of America and Israel. However, what Mr. Al Rashed just penned, may be the beginning of the end of that sort of treason against the truth. I would like to think that eyes will be opened and the truth in its various forms will be revealed. And that spectacularly erroneous �news� from biased reporters, editors and producers have the same sort of blowback there as here.

11 April 03 dpny

The end is nigh

Well, poor old Saddam Hussein. He�s either dead or quickly on his way towards becoming that way. And his people are free, or at least, freer. The Rumsfeld Doctrine of move fast, pack light and kick lots�o�ass has replaced the Powell Doctrine of move slow, pack everything and kick ass up to a point. A deafening silence surrounds North Korea. Kim Jung Mentally Il has realized that this isn�t the same gang of appeasers he dealt with before. He absolutely knows that any military adventures on his part will end up with him hiding in a bunker listening to American Thunder being dropped on his head 24 hours a day.

Losers, political and otherwise, dot the landscape like so many destroyed pickup trucks on the outskirts of Baghdad. The National Review has a list posted with the offending articles, penned by the likes of Chris Matthews and Maureen Dowd and looking very much like fools. I actually heard Matthews whining to Don Imus about President Bush and Iraq. Matthews, a former Carter staffer, apparently sees everything having to do with the military through the prism of Vietnam. This quote is especially ugly and will no doubt be used as a hammer on his reputation for the rest of whatever is left of his career:

�This invasion of Iraq, if it goes off, will join the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Desert One, Beirut and Somalia in the history of military catastrophe.�

And guess what? The American people are remembering this and are not watching his show in droves. The Fox News Channel�s ratings during primetime are huge and MSNBC�s are in the dumper. Can say that In blame them. On a recent tour of New York City, four out of five bars surveyed had FNC on. The other was tuned to ESPN.

The Million Pound Shithammer

Back in 1987 when I was a pompous graduate student in Greensboro, North Carolina, I got into a beer fueled argument with my good friend Kevin Taffe. At the time, he was convinced that Ronald Reagan was going to topple the Berlin Wall and the man behind it, Mikhail Gorbachev, based on sheer force of personality alone. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I came to the Ronaldus Magnus Fan Club late, not fully realizing his genius until the early 90s when the old Soviet Empire crumbled like a stinky French cheese.

I countered Kevin�s argument by saying something to the effect that Ted Turner was going to do more damage to the Soviet Union that Ronald Reagan ever could. My theory then was that Turner had just started overseas transmission of CNN to Europe and that the apparatchiks would see that the official line they were being fed daily in the Communist Party Press was an avalanche of dog shit and that their bosses were not only cruel, they were stupid as well. CNN, I opined, would change the way the middle managers see themselves and, subsequently, how they would view their country. It would hit the Eastern Bloc like a Million Pound Shit Hammer. I also shouted a prediction: that the Berlin Wall would fall in two years.

I was off by six months.

All that stated, Iran is next for the Shit Hammer treatment. It was no coincident that a pair of al Jazeera reporters got physically chased out of Basrah back to Kuwait by angry Iraqis who knew they�d been fucked by the Arab Propaganda machine.

Think about it; for more than a generation, the mullahs have run Iran like a feudal state and the young people are sick of it. They like American culture and want it now. Bet that some smart somebody, somewhere, creates an Islamic Mtv to capiliatize on this trend. Then starts the downward spiral. Smart money says that the mullahs� days are numbered anyway and they won�t make it intact more than another year. With an all but invisible push from us -- and our hideous youth culture -- the mullahs will be seeking asylum somewhere like Syria or Saudi Arabia.

Oil Drops

OPEC can kiss the days of $30 a barrel crude goodbye as the price in London fell to less than $25 today. Once the Iraqi oil fields start producing at pre-1991 levels, look for the price to hover around $20. Also bet that the economy, juiced by cheaper energy, will be roaring.

The big losers here: the left wing of Democratic Party that bet big on Iraq II thinking it would turn into Vietnam II. They predicted quagmire and got cheering Iraqis welcoming our troops and the prospect of $1.20 gas. When the economy comes barrelling back, they'll have nothing to run on except anger. That'll be good for 37% of the popular vote and Zero Electoral Votes.

Personally, I�m delighted. Nothing makes me happier that a bunch of hand-wringing lefties kicking their Birkenstocks off and bitching about How George Bush Lied to the American People about this War and How He Isn't really the President Anyway, I predict a freefall for candidates Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich and John Kerry . Gooberhead John Edwards will do okay running as Bill Clinton Lite. Hillary Clinton comes out a big winner because voted for the war, then "hid under the sofa" (to quote Dick Morris).

And Mr. Bush rolls to a 50 state electoral landslide.

10 Apr 03 dpny

Popular Uprisings

Kuwaiti News as well as FNC are reporting that popular anti-Saddam uprisings are starting to take place in Basrah. This certainly changes the nature of the conflict. This development is probably giving Howell Raines of the NY Times brain bubbles.

God bless'em. I hope the Iraqis enjoy there first days of real freedom. And I hope that the leaders of neighboring countries in the region (read "Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran et al.") understand that the world has changed and their days of living like despotic shitheads are numbered.

The Government is coming

I wrote in this space about a week ago that we would start seeing increase visibility of a provisial government for Iraq. I gave the process about two weeks. Lo and behold, it's happening. It also looks as if we're finding WMD as well.

The End

In every modern American Conflict, there emerge a new cadre of superstar war reporters. Some are in the trenches -- Ernie Pyle, Morley Safer or Arthur Kent all filed fantastic reports from the field. Others sit on the sidelines and comment -- Ed Morrow, Eric Sevareid and Bernie Shaw come to mind amongst others.

The clear wining in the later category is Vic Hanson. For those who don't know, Dr. Victor Davis Hanson is a classics professor at Cal State Fresno (where Dr. S worked at the Ag School) and his perspective on this conflict by comparing it to others from long ago -- and I don't mean Vietnam -- has changed my world view. His syndicated piece today offers yet another reason why we should not stop until the Ba'athist regime in Iraq is completely destroyed and they surrender unconditionally.

Mark Steyn is a genius

Mark Steyn writes a beautiful piece today in which he says that basically, the war was over two weeks ago and what we're seeing now are merely the death rattles. He makes a great point.

05 Apr 03 dpny