| Thursday, December 01, 2005 |
| Ma'an, do these guys love a free press or what!?! |
(partially straight-up jacked from firedoglake)
This is awesome. Staffers with the Arab news service Al Jazeera have started their own blog called "Don't Bomb Us". This is in response to recent revelations that Bush and Blair were in serious discussions as to whether Al Jazeera's international headquarters in US friendly Qatar should be bombed during the campaign in Fullujah. Blair eventually talked Bush out of it, but apparently memos/minutes exist in the UK. This is, of course, after Al Jazeera offices were bombed "accidentally" in Kabul and Baghdad relative to each country being invaded by US troops. These bombings occured despite the fact that as with all news organizations in the effected regions, Al Jazeera notified the US military of their location in an attempt to prevent being accidentally bombed.
How do I love thee, let me count the ways
- Paying commentators to endorse policy
- Government sponsored propaganda to support policy distributed as legitimate news stories
- A male escort posing as a White House reporter for a right wing rag asking silly questions while Helen Thomas is forced to the outskirts (not to mention demonized - eh, Scottie?)
- Using reporters to leak classified information in retaliation of critical comments and then hoping to hide behind their ethical responsibility not reveal their sources
- Shutting down newspapers in Baghdad
- Paying Iraqi newspapers to print phony stories written by the US military
- Bombing legitimate news organizations
(don't blink, don't you fuckin' blink)
IN ADDITION: I have nothing against the bombing of Al Jazeera offices in Kabul during the Afghanistan campaign. This was a conventional war and these things are necessary, but Iraq was/is unconventional. We are there to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, among other ever-shifting reasons, and to bring freedom and democracy to it's people. You don't start out by bombing the press. That's just stupid. And if you're unsure why, now is where you spend a little more time trying to understand the significance of the first ammendment and how we apply it to a democracy. We either want to give them what we got, or we don't. And don't you dare try and tell me we don't. |
posted by MindSquash the Brain Worm @ 6:26 PM   |
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