...it's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
i should turn this running theme into a rubric.
Here's the first few paragraphs of an SFGate article, this morning. SFGate, for those who don't know, is the San Francisco Chronicle and San Franscisco Examiner's joint website.
Mess-Hall Bombing Kills 26 Iraqi Soldiersi don't know who's responsible for the choice of headline, or the weird, confusing jumble of paragraphs at the top, AP or the SFGate editors. But don't tell me that the media does not make a conscious choice to emphasize the negative over the positive. They are on the side of the enemy.By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
(06-15) 09:02 PDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A suicide bomber walked into an Iraqi mess hall and blew himself up Wednesday, killing 25 Iraqi soldiers. The attack came as Iraqi and U.S. forces rescued an Australian hostage in Baghdad.
The troops, acting on a tip, freed Douglas Wood, a 64-year-old engineer who is a longtime resident of Alamo, Calif., during a raid in a dangerous Sunni neighborhood.
In a separate attack Wednesday, eight Iraqi policemen were killed when a suicide bomber slammed into two police cars in the capital. Thirteen bystanders also were wounded as two police cars burst into flames at the intersection in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood, police said.
Wood said he was "extremely happy and relieved to be free again," according to a message read by Australia's counterterrorism chief Nick Warner.
The raid took place as part of Operation Lightning — a broader counterinsurgency operation that began in Baghdad on May 29, Warner said. He added there "was specific intelligence and tips that provided a hint at what might be found at that location."
Wood was freed by the Iraqi army's 2nd battalion, 1st Armored Brigade, with assistance by U.S. forces in Ghazaliya — one of the most dangerous Sunni Arab neighborhood of Baghdad, Warner said. He added that "no ransom was paid" despite a request for a "very large" amount of money.
Wood was found under a blanket, and the insurgents told troops he was their sick father, said Gen. Naseer al-Abadi, Iraq's deputy chief of staff. The operation also resulted in the arrest of three insurgents and release of an Iraqi hostage.
"This is a great day for Iraq. We are proud of the way our soldiers conducted themselves," al-Abadi said.
Wood was abducted in late April by a militant group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq.
The Australian government refused to bend to the kidnappers' demands that its 1,400 troops be withdrawn from Iraq. It sent diplomats, police and military personnel to Baghdad to seek his release.
"I am delighted to inform the House that the Australian hostage in Iraq, Mr. Douglas Wood, is safe," Prime Minister John Howard told Parliament in Canberra, Australia.
Howard told reporters an Iraqi military unit, in cooperation with U.S. forces, rescued Wood.
More ranting: And don't tell me that the media is not against us, when the first time i heard word one about the following news story was by reading Mark Steyn's column, via Michelle Malkin.
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's kleptocrat strongman, destroyed a mosque the other day. It was in Hatcliffe Extension, a shantytown on the edge of Harare, razed by the "police." Mr. Mugabe is an equal-opportunity razer: He also bulldozed a Catholic-run Aids center.Where is the Time magazine cover story on Mugabe? Now that the media has successfully broadened the definition of atrocity to include what was formerly considered minor annoyances, doesn't what Mugabe has been doing in Zimbabwe clearly fall into that category?The government destroyed the town to drive the locals into the countryside to live on land stolen from white farmers. Quite how that's meant to benefit any of those involved or the broader needs of Zimbabwe is beyond me, but then I'm no expert in Afro-Marxist economic theory.
The point is the world's Muslims seem entirely cool with Infidel Bob razing a mosque. Unlike the fallout over Newsweek's fraudulent story about the Koran being flushed down a toilet, no excitable young men went bananas in Pakistan; no Western progressives berated Mr. Mugabe for his "cultural insensitivity." And sadly most of the big-shot Muslim spokespersons were still too busy flaying the Bush administration to whip their subjects into a frenzy over Hatcliffe Extension's pile of Islamic rubble.
Or, since the media is on the side of the enemy, does Mugabe get a pass because it wasn't the United States that destroyed a mosque?
interesting piece of info that facinates only me.
in 1994, the abc program nightline ran 4 episodes on what happened in rwanda.
in 2004, the abc program nightline ran 23 episodes on abu gharib.
I can't seriously believe that you are so naive to really equate Mugabi and the United States.
Perhaps a little analogy:
A convicted criminal is found to have told a lie.
A respected member of the community is found to have told a lie.
Which is surprising? Which might provoke a story in the newspaper?
IT ISN'T NEWS when dictators are oppressive!
Louie:
ABC also will run a week straight of programming on a missing white woman as thousands are killed in Darfur. To be generous we'll say that local news sells. To be realistic maybe we'll say that viewers don't give a damn what happens in Africa.
Nice rationalization there Preston. You do it so well. You even imply that America is racist:("viewers don't give a damn what happens in Africa"). Where do you such original material?