Letters to the Editor
robotempire
Published Letters: 49 Editor's Choice: 9
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Sullying the name of journalists...
[Read the article: First Amendment martyr?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Like another letter-writer said, you don't have to have a degree or certification course to become a journalist. However, what you must have is an interest in telling a story for its own sake. You don't tell it to further a cause, you don't tell it to prove a point. You tell "the day's happenings" (journalist of course is a descendent of the French journal, or "daily") because people want to know.
The question of "What is a journalist?" depends much on the motivation of the person who doing the reporting. Someone like Wolf, a self-professed "activist and anarchist" is clearly not reporting the day's happenings out of some benevolent desire to inform people who would not otherwise have known about the event. The fact that he dubbed himself an activist/anarchist at the time of the incident is proof enough. It is sad that this idiot managed to circumvent legal proceedings then chickensh*t his way out of it by giving up the tape while not testifying. The guy is reprehensible and an embarassment to the human race.
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The Hitler Gambit
[Read the article: Goodbye, Baghdad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It only took the author 100 or so words to compare the United States to Nazi Germany -- kudos.
You're right though, there should be no doubt that America is definitely trying to perpetrate a holocaust on the Iraqi people. There is nothing we love more than bad press and villifying ourselves to the world audience.
Give me a break. Salon's current events/politics articles are mostly unreadable due to the ridiculously over-the-top rhetoric contained in each and every one. It's an America-bashing echo chamber that singes my fucking eyebrows.
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"If the jackboot fits..."
[Read the article: Goodbye, Baghdad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It only took the author 100 or so words to compare the United States to Nazi Germany -- kudos.
If the jackboot fits . . .
You're...joking, right? You're either joking or you have a pitiably poor understanding of both historical and current events.
I'm sorry Baghdad is such a shithole, but it's not the fault of the Americans. It is the fault of your heroes, the terrorists/insurgents/whatever the name du jour is.
If any of you intellectually-lazy heathens would bother to watch anything but network news or read anything but Salon.com or dailykos, you would be able to get more than your myopic view of what's going on over here.
Now, if any of you would like to come embed as an independent journalist, we would be happy to have you in Al Anbar Province. You'll rapidly change your attitude about what is going on over here as your eyes are unavoidably exposed to Da Troof instead of only what you want to know.
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Three things to get:
[Read the article: The Bill Moyers documentary on our failed and barren press]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]George Bush is holding our troops hostage in Iraq. The ransom he demands from the American people is enough money to secure the oil fields long enough to divide them among his friends.
Someone better send out for pizza and cigarettes before he kills them all
Funny, I don't feel like a hostage.
Of course, I'm in the military and don't agree with your POV, so I must be an uneducated, blundering idiot.
Anyway, the media certainly is liable for the current state of affairs. But whose fault is that? It's the fault of the consumer -- you and I. We have never, ever provided any incentive to move away from advertiser-supported news. PBS exists and it's great; it even presents both sides of a political issue every now and then.
I live in Al Anbar Province -- Fallujah -- every day. I wake up here and I go to sleep here. I know for a fact that the histrionics so many people throw themselves into over Iraq are unwarranted. Do I wonder every day why the FUCK we are here? Yes, I do. Do I look at Iraqis in the eye every day and see progress and think maybe there's hope for our mission here? Yes, I do.
What exactly Marines and soldiers are doing here is something I would bet 90% of the American public has very little, if any, idea about. And of that 90% I would wager that three-quarters have any desire to actually find out. Instead they visit echo chambers like Salon.com and have their own opinions reflected, magnified and radicalized ("Bush death squads"? Get real.). The opportunity is out there on the wonderful interweb to educate yourself and recognize that not everything is black and white.
Say it with me: echo chambers are bad. Whether it's the echo chamber of the pre-March '03 media or the Salon.com echo chamber, they are bad. They do nothing to provide you with any more information other than what you want to hear. You think Salon doesn't have bills to pay? Of course they do. You think they have any vested interest in seeing Iraq go well? Of course not.
So it goes with the "gatekeeper media." Before the invasion the money -- and political hay -- was to be made by calling for war. That's what sold papers and got people riled up, got them excited, lusty. Now what gets people excited? The notions of troops being "held hostage" by George Bush (I haven't even seen the guy over here) and American death squads roving Baghdad terminating all sentient life.
Get real, get a grip and get over your preconceived notions of what you think is happening over here.