Life's Persistent Questions

If a tree falls.,,

and no one is there to hear it... well you know the rest. If suicide bombers kill, and no one is there to report them, does the Middle East stays peachy? NYT's John Tierney seems to think so. His latest column essentially asserts that the media coverage of the violence in Iraq amounts to nothing but bad journalism and sensationalism, which plays into the hands of the terrorists.

You got to be kidding me. Violence in Iraq is real whether you report it or not. Abuses in prisons (in Iraq, around the world, and even sometimes in Western democracies) occurs whether you report it or not. Are the stories of abuse at Abu Ghraib mere sensationalism--oh, all the sex among soldiers and forced onto the prisoners sounded like a bad B-movie--and no one should have reported? It would just go away if you guys just stop dwelling on it! I think not. Journalists these days seem to be pulled in all directions. Too much bias. Too much reporting and too little analysis. Then there is the channel that touts "we report, you decide" and ends up being the one that editorialize the most. What is a reporter to do?

I believe that intelligent and objective opinion making, whether by the media or the news consumer, is impossible without facts, and it is the job of these courageous reporters to collect and distribute these facts. If I want to know how well the museums are been kept, water plants running, electricity generating, oil flowing, the smooth traffic from Bagdad to its airport, the abundance of armored hummies and the humanitarian aids distributing in Iraq I will just listen to Rumsfield about his "known knowns." Oh wait...

posted by hedgehog @ 1:29 AM