Bob Patterson: 'You got questions? We got Republican talking points!'

Monday, February 27

Bob Patterson

If you think that the Mainstream Media is doing a valiant job of maintaining freedom of the press in the face of a tightlipped administration, then I've got a question for you: How's Bob Woodruff doing these days?

Has the Ministry of Propaganda clamped an embargo on information regarding the news anchor's condition and progress? Is the fact that the Los Angeles Times reported (way down on page E-2 of the Friday, February 24, 2006, edition) that Doug Vogt, the cameraman, reported that Woodruff's wife told him that the anchorman is reacting to the sound of his family's voices, sufficient? Is that tidbit supposed to qualify as keeping the public informed about his condition and progress?

There have been rumors (mostly on the Internet Blogcasting Network) that Herr Goebbels was furious about the initial coverage of the wounded newsman because it indicated that the journalist was more important and newsworthy than the soldiers who were being wounded in Iraq every day, so he instructed his minions at the Ministry to stifle any medical updates indicating favoritism in coverage. Apparently most of the MSM was happy to comply.

Yes, all the injured parties in Iraq were created equal, but the essence of being an anchorman is making value judgments about which stories are going to get play and which are not. Some hospital patients get more coverage than others.



Sometimes a traffic accident in Malibu is big news, even if the one victim receives only minor cuts and bruises. http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2006/0.../news/news1.txt

The MSM seems to be satisfied that relaying Republican talking points, bucket brigade style, is "reporting." The public seems too intimidated to ask the MSM for more relevant information, as long as their favorites survive on American Idol.

Where is Waldo bin Laden? Recently an administration spokesman said that Waldo -- excuse me, make that Osama -- bin Laden's whereabouts were known, but that it was politically difficult to act on that information. Somebody (Herr Goebbels again?) shut that source up real fast. What the beltway boys haven't reported is whether the "We hear you" threat to "get" the fugitive from justice has been put on hold, while the Bush team fixes Saddam's hash, or if Osama has secretly been given a permanent stay of execution. (in return for no attacks on US soil, perhaps?)

In the old days an intrepid newspaper would send a reporter to find Dr. Livingston, but now, some mighty publications seem to have abdicated their role as investigative journalists and left it up to a free fashion publication to provide a logical sounding suggestion as to where binny is and why he is protected "by this (knock knock) invisible shield!"

Vice magazine in their issue Volume 13, No. 2, on page 42, has an item written by Edoardo Moretti which reports that the turbaned one most likely had his getaway planned before September 11, and that he is not in Pakistan, where the US might "inadvertently" bomb his ass to smithereens. He is, according to Moretti in a remote location in China where he is virtually untouchable. http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2006/0.../news/news1.txt

The suggestions made elsewhere that binny needs a kidney dialyses machine makes the picture of him existing in a cave in Pakistan an example of überludicrousness that only the MSM itself seems willing to pass along unquestioned. Is verifying this medical rumor beyond the investigative capabilities of Pulitzer Prize winning newspapers? Apparently so.

If a free magazine for fashionistas has done what the Daily Planet (with all the super talent on their staff) cannot accomplish, then the state of the art for Journalism in the USA has fallen to the level achieved by the hacks who worked in Germany for the official state run newspaper called the Voelkisher Beobachter (note for the fact checker: that's how it is spelled in William L. Shirer's book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.)

Could a name-brand pundit, perhaps, ask about the source for this quote: "But if, as in propaganda for sticking out a war, the aim is to influence a whole people, we must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public, and too much caution cannot be exerted in this direction."? Not bloody well likely because it is found on page 180 of Mein Kampf (Houghton Mifflin paperback edition.) [Note: if you don't cite the specifics, the quote is denounced as being too obscure to merit attention, and if you do provide the details about where it can be verified, it sounds too intellectual.]

Quoting from Mein Kampf is too dangerous for most American journalists because it might trigger a whisper campaign suggesting that the Simon Wiesenthal Center will pay $10,000 for a picture of the fellow who dared to include such a passage in his column. (I don't have to worry because my friends won't settle for one penny less than $15,000.)

Will any of the well paid folks poll parroting Republican talking points ever get around to including the concept of taqiya into a discussion of the merits of letting Dubai Port World run security at six of the US's busiest harbors?

"Under the Sunni princes, their enemies, the Shia'as, could be forced under pain of death to denounce 'Ali and the Imans. The hiding of one's true beliefs by taqiya came to be not only a matter of survival but of religious ordinance. The tenth-century Shi'a divine Ibn Babuya al Saduq, stated, 'Our belief concerning taqiya is that it is obligatory . . . . God has described the showing of friendship to unbelievers' as being possible only 'in the state of taqiya.'" (Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton by Edward Rice Harper Perennial paperback page 124.)

So, if you believe in the concept of taqiya, then it sounds like saying something that is untrue while swearing under oath on a Christian bible would not only be acceptable, but actually encouraged? If that's the case how will background check ever catch rascals who want to work for DP World, if they are actually disciples of this faction of Islam? It will be a tough assignment to screen out the bad guys if fanatics think that lying under oath is a good thing.

Check with the Ministry of Propaganda, while the DP World deal is on hold, about this taqiya thing. That might bollix up the entire security concept and ruin the deal.

Passing along Republican talking points seems so much easier than finding the aforementioned Edward Rice book and actually reading its 613 pages, just to achieve a tad more "in depth" and "fully versed in the topic" flavor for a column. (Perhaps it's time to revise my resume and send it to a media outlet that thinks he said/she said reporting equals fair and balanced? Producing comment for them would be so much easier.)

Does the MSM delve into back ground material at all? What does the green turban mean? ("the green turban that denoted a man who had been to Mecca and had fulfilled his sacred duty." Ibid, page 277. [Uh-oh, Using the term Ibid in a column sounds a bit too much like we are indulging in "excessive intellectual demands on our public" and the Ministry of Propaganda isn't going to like that!]

Claiming to be the World's Laziest Journalist means you try to get by with the very least amount of effort; not doing anything but passing along Republican talking points and calling it journalism isn't poor journalism. It's not journalism at all. Saying that it is, is like saying that someone who never fired a gun is a poor shot.

Adolph Hitler wrote: "What our authorities least of all understood was the very first axiom of all propagandist activity: to wit, the basically subjective and one-sided attitude it must take toward every question it deals with." (Op. cit. page 182) Karl Rove couldn't have said it better. Dissent equals treason!

Now, if the disk jockey will play the Horst Wessel song, we'll goose-step out of here for now. Have a nice week and think about learning to speak German, it might come in handy someday.

Link: worldslaziestjournalist@yahoo.com

Catherine

Great GREAT rant there Catherine!

These are among the issues that we need desperately to highlight as much as possible from now til November!



Thank you!

You're welcome, Sky.

However, I don't know about learning to speak German...Chinese is more like it.


Catherine

No need to learn Chinese, as they not interested in listening to us, just owning us. georgie-boy will interpret. I assume Chinese to be his first language, as English certainly is not.

There is no such language called Chinese, technically its called Mandarn. My HUM-120 Chinese Culture professer, would go crazy when you would call it Chinese language.

But back OT, if you need a counter to a Republican comment, just let me know.

To imply that Bush could even fumble around 2 languages is laughable.

He reminds me of that MADtv skit about the guy who speaks Dumbass and they other guy who can interprete for him.