The Media is off its meds

The media has ADD. The evidence is overwhelming. And the media is apparently off its meds. We are bombarded by "breaking news" and the focus is decided for us. If a viewer is interested in finding out the latest news about the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, that viewer will be frustrated if something has happened that day in the world of "pop". This strange world is not exclusively the realm of the rich and famous. Consider the Peterson murder trial in California. It is a sad reality that pregnant wives are being murdered every year and possibly every month. Why did the entire nation have to know about this one particular case?

If Paris Hilton, Michael Richards, or Mel Gibson do something stupid and offensive it is not national news. When our government loses billions of tax dollars that is news. There has been evidence of war profiteering in Iraq since the early days of the occupation of Baghdad. It was the responsibility of the media to follow the thread of that story when it was fresh. Almost four years have passed since the invasion and the Democratic Congress is beginning to investigate some of the Iraq irregularities. They are beginning their chase late in the race.

I was in high school when the Washington Post doggedly followed the Watergate story. The high crimes and misdemeanors that have been committed by the Bush administration make the Nixon administration look like mischievous schoolboys, and the media have left them alone, and at times have treated them with kid gloves.

9/11 scared the hell out of everyone (with the possible exception of the Vice President), but the media had the responsibility to keep their cool and their bearings. In 2005 approximately 60% of Americans believed that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. The Bush administration is to blame because they purposely and repeatedly used the terms 9/11 and Iraq in the same sentences and paragraphs. The media has to share that blame. They reported that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but they did not do so in a manner that would dispel the myth. The media has abetted a concerted misinformation campaign since the election of 2000.

We can only hope that the Fourth Estate gets back on its meds and remembers the critically important role that they play in the funtion of our democracy. Until then beware of "breaking news".

The Wolf and the Cockroach

Tom DeLay is an ex-congressman who was repeatedly called on the carpet for ethics violations, and eventually lost his powerful post because of his apparent lack of morals and scruples. And yet, there he was in the CNN Situation Room being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer, who fawned on this exterminator while asking his opinions about potential GOP presidential candidates in the 2008 election. This is wrong on two levels. DeLay's expertise is in the area of strongarm, corrupt politics. He should not be considered as a source of intelligent information concerning legal political affairs. There is also no reason for the election of 2008 to dominate the news. With hundreds of our soldiers being killed monthly, New Orleans still in shambles, people starving and having to choose between food or medicine, and the destruction of our planet, why are we forced to listen to prognostications that will probably be meaningless when 2008 arrives?

Chaos and Confusion

It's no wonder that we find ourselves mired in the quagmire that is Iraq specifically, and the Middle East in general. Our current administration obviously has little or no knowledge of the history of Iraq, or the difference between Arabs and Persians, Sunnis and Shia.

We are told daily that Iran is supplying weapons and training that are responsible for the deaths of US soldiers. The evidence is grounded in serial numbers on IEDs. Americans are being targeted mostly by Sunnis who are the minority and feel disenfranchised by the US backed Maliki government. These same Sunnis are deadly enemies of the Iranian Shiites. Someone should tell retired general Grange (CNN analyst) that the hatred between these factions would not be overridden by the "common enemy" theory which he so ineloquently expresses.

The fact is that Iranian made weapons would be readily available on the black market. If Sunnis are using Iranian made weapons it is not evidence of collaboration between the Sunnis and Shia.

Our government has also conveniently forgotten that the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s was fought between Shiites (both Iranian and Iraqi).

The ignorance of the region is only surpassed by the amnesia of the UK. For half of the 20th century England was stuck in the quagmire that was trying to democratize Iraq. Several different approaches did not work. And yet, they remain our biggest ally in the folly that is the war to liberate Iraq.

Our government should listen less to the major defense contractors and spend some time with their noses in history books.

Molly, We Still Need You

I was always impressed that my local paper in Bloomington, Indiana would carry Molly Ivin's column every Sunday. It was a wonderful contrast to read her Texas-style commentary after slogging through George Will's demonstrations of a wide vocabulary trapped inside a closed, narrow mind. Molly repeatedly gored Bush using language and metaphors that even Dubya would understand. I cannot see Texas governor Perry without chuckling about Molly's nickname- "Good hair".

Molly's commentary on current events was always level-headed and would have appealed to even the most staunch blue-collar conservative. Molly's passing is not just a loss for the hundreds of newspapers that carried her columns, and to the magazine "Mother Jones", but it is a national loss.

Dubya's still in power, and you would have made hay with his recent "I'm the decision-maker" comment. Perhaps the best way America can honor your journalistic endeavors, Molly, is to impeach your fellow Texan and his boss Cheney.

Our loss is the Good Lord's gain- I can hear him chuckling already.