media rant

Nov 03, 2004 12:57

there is no joy in mudville, mighty kerry has struck out. the most disappointing thing that we're all feeling, i think, is the sense that it didn't have to be this way. here is a website i had bookmarked so that i could jubilantly read it over once kerry won (which i'd predicted): 21 reasons why bush will win.

back in the 2000 election, the surprise news of a young george bush's drunk driving arrest (contradictory to his statement that he'd never been arrested) swayed the opinion of many undecided voters, and helped gore barely win the popular vote. the author of this article thinks that with all past skeletons dug out of bush's closet, the democats have run out of ammunition. "Without this perfectly-timed political hand grenade, Bush would have won the election with room to spare...  In all likelihood, Bush won't face a similar devastating revelation this year."

he was wrong though, it just didn't take the democrats to reveal it. it was the leader of the International Atomic Energy Agency to the UN. you all heard the story, the 380 TONS of high explosives that the IAEA had accounted for before the war that had since vanished. he'd brought the news to the US govt. first, quickly realized they had no idea of the whereabouts, and so he brought the story to the UN, doing his job and warning the world. like nailing a lost kitten poster to a global telephone pole.

and yet.... the story went nowhere. it never became a scandal, and it should have been. a MAJOR one, and i'll give 2 reasons why i think that.

1) americans and iraqis are getting blown up by these types of explosives every day, they're coming from somewhere, and no one has a clue how long this stockpile's gone missing. this, over all the news of museum looting and public opinion turning anti-american, should speak to the bush administration's gross lack of judgement and understanding of the situation they had created. they mentioned the amount of tonnage we had removed from iraq- hey, that's great, but that's no excuse for leaving ANY amount unguarded.

2) the way the government did damage control PR was orwellian. every different branch gave a different story, each one putting forth a scenario they were "almost certain of" without backing them up with any proof. the military said saddam removed them before the war, and their proof was a single photo they declassfied showing a truck parked outside the facility. the white house said that the russian military took them just after the war, and they and the french (of course!) had been secretly buying saddam's weapons all along. their proof? I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E.

our government tried to introduce as much noise as possible to complicate the story and then acted like any notion we might have fucked up was ridiculous, if not treasonous. when a minnesota ABC affiliate came forward with a tape showing the roomful of explosives present and unguarded after the fall of baghdad, officials said there was no evidence the tape was of Al Qaqaa, the facility in question.

yesterday, election day, it was finally confirmed that the tapes were of Al Qaqaa. maybe it doesn't matter now, but in it the camera crew follows US soldiers as they broke open doors with the IAEA seal, looking no doubt for WMD, and finding only regular explosives, leaving. leaving broken locks.

with 10 days they had to cover this story prior to the election, i blame our lame-duck corporate media for not challenging our government for shit. they are supposed to be the skeptical voice to protect us, and they failed us, all of them, liberal and conservative. right leaning sources like the WSJ echoed the govt. explanations and said the UN was trying to sabotage bush's candidacy, and the left leaning sources refused to break the story for days and put the UN facts side by side with the govt. noise without pointing out the contradictions all in some play to appear objective. i blame dan rather for blowing the credibility of the liberal media over a poorly researched story on an irrelevant issue. from here on out i hope americans push our media to be as non-objective as possible. if the anger and hatred are the only forces that will drive lazy journalists to uncover the truth, then so be it. let FOX and CNN start a partisan media war with each other instead of trying to be exactly the same. let the noise of countering opinions cancel each other out, and maybe the FACTS will become clear, and people can start coming up with their own opinions again.
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