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July 30, 2006
CNN, MSNBC, and the "Elite" media's Coverage of the Lebanese Civilian Victims "Humanitarian" Crisis: Is the Media Part of the Problem?!?!
Back in World War II the Allied Forces bombed the German city of Dresden almost to the point of complete obliteration.
The amount of destruction was appalling, and the toll of civilian casualties was enormous. Many to this day bemoan all that was lost in those aerial bombardments and the ensuing flames that consumed the city; after all, the beautiful city of Dresden was rich in history and tradition. Dresden was one of the foremost centers in Europe of Culture and the Arts, however, the Allies were faced with a quandary.
Yes Dresden was the city of beautiful broad Boulevards, Museums, and Palaces, it's buildings were architectural jewels, it's Art the Heritage of humanity, yet the Nazis were using it's industrial centers not to turn out delicate "porcelains" and other artistic fineries, but to churn out munitions and other supplies to feed the German war machine. It was crucially strategical for the Allies that they'd choke that vital lifeline of German supplies if they hoped to shorten the war, avoid greater Allied casualties, and ensure victory, in a struggle they were too close to losing as it was! Therefore the unrelenting bombing of Dresden was undertaken.
Imagine if the News Reels and the media had covered the bombing of Dresden the way CNN, MSNBC, and the "Elite" media does today with the Israeli bombing of the Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon, what public reaction in America and all over the world would have been! The world would have been enraged, public support for the war effort would have waned in the US, and Hitler (and eventually his successor) and the Nazi party would in all likelihood have survived and be alive and well today, in power, in Europe... and across the English Channel!
Night after night Anderson Cooper, Jack Cafferty, Paula Zahn, and their cronies, come on our television screens dolefully wringing their hands amidst the rubble, showing us harrowing images of utter destruction, and emotionally intense shots of hapless victims being rushed to the hospitals, wounded civilians, hysteric Shiite women screaming and raising their hands to the sky, and bewildered crying babies; it is gut wrenching! But, does this reflect the totality of what is really going on or is some of this "melodrama" being staged by careful "editing" that focuses only on the "sensationalist aspects" of what is shown us, for the sake of ratings???
Audiences in America have grown accustomed to watching the news, especially such conflicts, as if what they were watching were not real unfolding events, but some scripted Hollywood movie where an arsenal carrying, trigger happy, gun toting Bruce Willis or Rambo comes up at the very last possible minute to save the day. When things do not go according to this "script" in the public's eye, as has happened with the unforseen brutality of the events in Iraq, or with the civilian casualties now in Lebanon, these fickle audiences are turned off by the realities of the situation and promptly loose interest, or become isolationist and reactionary about it. Needless to say, the rating ravenous news media is more than happy to provide its audiences with all the melodrama and the pathos they have come to expect from such reportage, even if they have to hype what is sensational and grabs ratings, and down-play other more mundane aspects of any given situation.
The Israeli reprisal to the unprovoked Hezbollah aggression against it has been mostly aimed at surgically taking out the Hezbollah's infrastructure in southern Lebanon and the suburbs of Beirut, in order to neutralize their ability to keep launching the thousands of Katyusha and other rockets that have and are raining over Israeli cities killing civilians, launched from strongholds in such localities, and to downgrade Hezbollah's ability to wage war against Israel after having amassed, since the Israeli withdrawal for Lebanon six years ago, a significant arsenal of thousands of rockets and other sophisticated weaponry, provided them by Iran and Syria, which Hezbollah intends to use, as it has so often openly proclaimed, to annihilate the Jews and wipe Israel off the face of the earth!
The area that has been heavily bombarded by the Israelis is "Terrorist Central," the Hezbollah Headquarters and facilities in the suburbs of Beirut, a neighborhood which is mostly Shiite - whom on the other hand openly support, aide, and welcome amongst them Hezbollah, and many of whom are active sympathizers and or actual members and fighters of the terrorist organization.
It is a well known, documented, fact, that Hezbollah, has entrenched itself amidst the Shiite civilian population of Lebanon, purposely stores rockets and weaponry in the homes of its fighters and sympathizers, and that it launches them from these urban locations, again, purposely using the heavily populated neighborhoods from where they make such attacks, and those civilians living there amongst them, as "human shields" to deter the Israeli response, and or incite world condemnation of Israel, should it respond to the fire, which in all likelihood then will therefore result in so called "civilian casualties"!
This, along with the fact that, amazingly, many of these terrorists shoot these rockets and engage in this warfare from their own front doors, and neighborhoods, with their wives, children and other extended family, friends, and neighbors approvingly looking on, oblivious to the danger it poses for them, makes it more inevitable that there be so many "civilian casualties" when, naturally enough, the Israeli forces try to neutralize the threat.
Most of all the rockets fired by Hezbollah, raining over the Israeli civil population, have been launched from these Shiite suburbs of Beirut, or from the heavily populated, Hezbollah dominated, villages in the southern Lebanon.
Enter CNN, MSNBC, or should we more aptly say "Universal Studios Beirut - The tour" !!!
Posted by Richard at July 30, 2006 9:40 AM
