December 04, 2006
It is increasingly difficult to distinguish between objective news sources, reporters and photographers and propagandists with clear agendas in the wire services. I was struck yesterday by a photograph of a Palestinian youth who was killed by Israeli soldiers after throwing rocks at them while they were dismantling a barricade in the West Bank.
As a practical matter, I can understand why these 'stringers' are not investigated or vetted. There are so many of them, all seemingly with cameras ready to shoot at the slightest sign of "Israeli/Western aggression," or more commonly, "Arab angst/grief." They get lost in the daily shuffle of news proliferation. The AP is a monopolistic organization that thinks so few people are noticing these kinds of "stringers" that it makes no difference what their critics think.
Unfortunately for them (and ultimately us), looking into wire stringers like Adnan Hajj and non-existant sources like 'Iraqi Police Captain' Jamil Hussein has given sufficient cause for concern that the wire services (and by proxy, our mainstream outlets) are crawling with agenda-oriented activists masquerading as journalists. Qais al-Bashir. Bassem Mroue. Sami Moubayeb. Majdi Mohammed. The Centcom list of fakes and insurgent propagandists. It goes on and on in the fog of the information war.
Keeping this in mind, a few of the Majdi Mohammed's photos seemed reminiscent of techniques seen in Pallywood productions, and still more seemed a little too close to terrorists and gunmen to be coming from a reporter who was truly being objective.
I had a bad feeling that Googling the images of Majdi Mohammed would reveal more photos verifying this gestalt. To my dismay, I was right.
Mohammed has an archive of AP photos that have run in numerous publications (news, activist and otherwise) around the world for several years covering the Palestinian/Israeli conflict that, for some odd reason, always seems to photograph the Palestinians dead, bleeding, dying, crying, "resisting," training foot soldiers or in riot mode. In other words, from a decidedly Palestinian perspective.
Israeli photos? A burning Israeli jeep, an Israeli bulldozer, and nothing. Plenty of balance there, no? More below the jump. Some more visual examples, if the links aren't working (they all should be, though):
This is the kind of content that gets lost and ignored by the mainstream press in the fog of the information wars. And they want it that way - there is so much information flying around the world so quickly that people who don't know any better or aren't wise to the media's nature get spun and respun on a daily basis.
The only counter-balance at the moment is the conservative blogosphere, which has done yoeman's work questioning, highlighting and neutralizing this polarizing and intentionally slanted coverage that has blanketed the Earth for the past few years. Without the right-o-sphere, Adnan Hajj would still be working. Dan Rather would still be relevant. Chris Matthews would be "credible." Bilal Hussein would be a media martyr instead of being exposed as an AP terrorist shill. Same with all of the aforementioned ME propagandists.
When it comes to these heated conflicts in the Middle East, the right-o-sphere is watching closely and is becoming increasingly dismayed by what we're finding under these MSM rocks.
Although the hill is a steep one, it is important to stay vigilant, ask tough questions and to pile up that evidence. The MSM isn't going to do it for us, and though they may try, they can't ignore it when its there right in front of them.
Posted by: Good Lt. at
12:36 PM
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Helicopter crash in Iraq kills 4 Marines
By QAIS AL-BASHIR, Associated Press Writer
"The crash occurred in Anbar province, where many of Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgent groups are based and where many U.S. Marines die in battles with the militants."
Posted by: BohicaTwentyTwo at December 04, 2006 01:46 PM (oC8nQ)
Posted by: Randman at December 04, 2006 10:03 PM (Sal3J)
Your right on! The whole story seems designed to wring heartache from some Missuri Mother worried about her son.
Mom's will worry in wartime, but walking around behind them saying 'your sons gonna die, your sons gonna die' is sick. Especially when it pretends to be objective news.
Thanks Good Lt.
We need to remain vigilant, that's for sure.
USA all the way!
Posted by: Michael Weaver at December 04, 2006 11:31 PM (2OHpj)
Posted by: Michael Weaver at December 04, 2006 11:33 PM (2OHpj)
the ony check and balance to the never ending barrage of anti-Western
propaganda the media pumps out. While the liberal blogosphere is
busy
trying to negate everything the conservatives do by attacking
conservatives on a political front (I'm not talking about the
uber-right religious nuts like Robertson and Falwell) while ignoring
what the media does, we see just exactly
where everyone stands. It seems the conservatives are the only
ones (in the blogosphere at least) who can multi-task, as liberals have
a one track mind; beat the conservatives, even if they have to loosely
align themselves with America's enemies. They really think we're their enemies and not so much the anti-Westerners and Islamofascists.
What many liberals do not understand is that we should be together - in
this regard at least. But they're so wrapped up in the political
aspects of liberalism vs. conservatism and who has power that they are
blind to real dangers. These people, the anti-Western media and those
they propagandize for, don't care whether you're liberal or not in this
country. They would gleefully watch ALL of us drown. Especiallyhedonistic
liberalism. You want to wear your jeans down past your pubic hair
line? We'll fight for your right to do so. You want to
create art like the Piss Christ? We'll fight for your right to do
so. You want to shout unpopular rhetoric? We'll fight for
that too. We may criticize you for it, but that's not the same.
What the liberal blogosphere is inadvertantly
saying, or doing, (or not saying or doing, however you want to look at
it) is giving the anti-Western media carte blanc to continue to
advocate for the downfall of Western civilization of which liberals are a
part. It's much like the old adage about poking holes in the boat
because you don't like where the captain is taking it.
They say, "I love my country! I AM patriotic!"
I'm not so sure. If they were so patriotic and love their country
so much, why do they advocate so strongly to become more European-like?
There are a few smart liberals out there who are beginning to "get it".
They admit it meekly and only when backed into a corner, but at least
it's in their head.
Posted by: Oyster at December 05, 2006 06:56 AM (YudAC)
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