Anything But the Real Story
May 5th, 2009 by Wil Robinson
They’re starting them off young.
During an elementary school visit on Sunday, a fourth-grader came up with a question for former NSA/Sec of State Condoleezza Rice. And it wasn’t just any question. In fact, it was the kind of question that should have put so-called “journalists” to shame.
The student, Misha Lerner, wanted to ask: “If you would work for Obama’s administration, would you push for torture?”
But he wasn’t allowed to ask that question.
Because using the word “torture” is a no-no, and any kid with this much promise of one day being a real journalist has to be stopped now before it’s too late and he ends up with…I dunno, ethics?
Lerner’s teacher – supposedly one of those people that shape young minds and challenge their students to reach new heights – “rephrased” the question, omitting the dirty little word.
So instead, Rice was asked: “What did [she] think about the things President Obama’s administration was saying about the methods the Bush administration had used to get information from detainees?”
Sounds like the kind of dribble that the mainstream media would regurgitate – still so stuck on 9/11 talking points that they can’t think for themselves.
Poor kid. Only 10 years old, and already he’s been told to drink the Kool-Aid.
But I guess you have to learn sometime. Journalism isn’t about the truth – it’s about distracting people with a shiny object. When it comes to focusing instead on something that divides, isolates, or generates fear, if the media doesn’t do it – our schools will.
Meanwhile, NBC Nightly News was hard at work covering their mess. Monday night’s headline story about the Swine Flu noted that “it may be milder than the regular seasonal flu…” and then referred to it as a “strange” virus.
It’s not strange, you idiots. Just because it turns out (as many said but were ignored) that this isn’t the apocalyptic Ebola-style virus outbreak that the sensationalistic media hoped it would be, doesn’t mean you can now label it “strange.” How about just labeling it what it is – the fucking flu.
But of course, as The News Writer pointed out when all the hype began, now that the torture question (oops, sorry, the “methods used to get information from detainees”) is off the radar, the media doesn’t have to own up to yet another failure to actually report the truth.
Even the allegedly “lefty” media – the print media – are in on the “anything but the real story” act. Because if the story isn’t divisive enough to distort on the US networks, the print media will jump in.
A pregnant 20-year-old British woman, Samantha Orobator, faces the firing squad in Laos for drug smuggling. She was arrested last August (that’s 8 months ago – keep it in mind) for possession of 1.5 pounds of heroin. Of course, she denies the drugs are hers.
Human rights activists are all over this one. A pregnant British citizen, being held without access to a lawyer, facing the death penalty?
So story after story is churned out, all of them noting the horrible possibility of a pregnant woman being executed. Or about how she’s been denied a lawyer.
Despicable violations of human rights, no doubt.
But where is the outrage over Orobator’s pregnancy itself? After all, she didn’t get pregnant until December – 4 months after her arrest.
I didn’t know Laos prisons had conjugal visits. Or, I guess, another explanation is that she was raped.
But no, rape is no human rights violation. I mean, she probably asked for it, right? Or maybe it was that prison outfit she was wearing so provocatively. Or perhaps she tricked one of the guards into impregnating her in a ruse to generate sympathy for her release.
The BBC did quote a human rights lawyer in last Friday’s story who duly noted that “nothing that happens in that prison is voluntary.” But this angle was conveniently edited out by the time Monday’s version was published.
Unfortunately, our “journalists” are busy falling over each other to report the sensational aspect of a non-white, non-Christian foreign country attempting to execute a pregnant woman.
So the human rights issue of how she got pregnant in the first place isn’t newsworthy.
Of course, if Orobator was an Anglo-Saxon (instead of African descent), the story of her being raped in prison by Third-World “Orientals” would be too much for the media to pass up.
Tags: Samantha Orobator, media, swine flu, human rights, drug smuggling
I find the discussion concerning ethics, honesty, truth, etc. concerning journalism both amusing and strange.
By what measure has journalism ever been any of those values? Who came up with the notion there was unbiased journalism?
Everyone who is in the public spot light, whether it’s a politician, an entertainer, a religion peddler or a journalist … is using that public moment for their own purposes.
Sometimes what is reported can be parallel to public need - generally tho, what we get in the media is distortion and someone else’s agenda.
Besides, today’s journalism is just part of someone’s big corporation - and profits always come first.
There are so many days I’m ashamed of my profession and it’s practitioners. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t find a profession where the truth is actually valued, and then I remember, oh yeah, just because some of my colleagues don’t have the integrity of a fourth grader doesn’t mean I should give up.
Thanks Wil, for another great post.
Bill–
Interesting point - I don’t know who came up with those notions. And you’re absolutely right - profits come first (which is why publicly funded news outlets produce the best news).
Journalism is powerful - the power to influence, to be heard, the power of public voice, the power to convey facts, opinion, and information - and anyone with that kind of power also needs to accept responsibility.
In society, people with power are held to higher standards. More is expected of them, because with that power, they can either cause create problems or solutions. Doctors, people who write laws, judges, politicians, teachers, police officers, etc. - all these people have been given the public trust- and its’ expected that they use that trust for the betterment of society.
It’s like Spiderman’s Uncle Ben said: “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Newswriter–
The reason I got into journalism in the first place was because I wanted to affect change in the world. And as long as there are journalists like you out there, struggling against editors and publishers to print what’s newsworthy, I have hope that something will change.
But until then, I can’t help poking fun at the mainstream idiots and the farce that they have become.
The 4th grader questioning Condi on torture has us “lefties” giggling uncontrollably. Especially those of us who smelled something stanky in the newz during run up to this war in the first place.
I don’t feel sorry for Orobator if she was traffiking drugs, but I always feel sorry for rape victims, especially if that is what happened to her in prison.
Unfortunately, we still live in a world where it is legal to rape your wife in lots of countries.
Looking at the map just now made me laugh because it’s illegal to rape your wife in Turkey, but that is where a lot of drug traffiking, and sex slave traffiking goes on.
I watched the show in the last link last night and I had nightmares. I guess I’m still angry about what some rich jerks based in the US do to governments, and their people all over the world, including the shit they pulled in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Wil, if you haven’t read “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein, you should. I suppose I was a bit upset that even after taking macro and micro economics in college, I had no idea how International economics in practice is so brutal. I had to learn that from a Canadian economist who started out as a mall rat.
god. the media needs an education. one would imagine they WERE educated but from where and by who? my point exactly on the swine flu….godsakes. so sick of it all. love your posts. x janelle
Janelle,
I could be mistaken, but I think the first swine flu case in this country was diagnosed at a Navy Hospital here in San Diego. Stinks? I thought so. What did we miss while they were trying to scare the crap out of us?
First off, you are definitely politically incorrect by referring to ASIANS as ORIENTALS…
She knew what type of country Laos is…ITS COMMUNIST why do you think there are LAOS immigrants over here?
Yes she has human rights, but how many people was she really killing trying to bring those drugs over?
Arlene–
There’s no slipping anything by you. Such sharp wit and logic. Are you in politics?
yes I am. remember the name. you will hear it again. lol jk i am NOT that cocky =D this is my first time ever commenting on any type of “blogs.” but after reading this article, I could not help it.