Letters to the Editor
lexsali
Published Letters: 73 Editor's Choice: 9
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And connection to Israelis who...EXCELLENT POINT
[Read the article: Giuliani's terrorist ties]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yeah, when will there be some reporting about that? For all the fist-waving about ties to terrorist-harboring government officials in Qatar, what about ties to Israeli companies that provide the bulldozers that raze people's homes, that provide the arms to Israel that help them violate UN agreements, government officials who pass legislation that stifles the Palestinian economy? Oh but wait. KSM is a known terrorist, while Israel, well, we all disagree about that. After all, KSM helped to kill thousands of innocent people on 9/11, but Israel, well, they're just protecting themselves. OK.
For that matter, what about ties to companies in the United States that participate in all sorts of war profiteering and the killing of innocent people, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Sudan, Rwanda, Kurdistan, Ethiopia? I'm sure you're already switching over to Google to eagerly begin reporting on these injustices.
What is so new about this? Oh wait, Giuliani has ties to a Muslim country's government. That must be bad, as I'm sure you know, one fundamentalist government official means the entire country is a Mohammedan cesspool.
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Why don't you have the courage to take this all the way?
[Read the article: The NYT's Michael Cooper demonstrates what real reporting is]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This seems really similar to the argument that I.D. proponents make that we should teach I.D. in science classes because it's "teaching the controversy". The implicit assumption is that ANY viewpoint or belief, however false, dumb, incorrect or misleading has merit on the sole basis that somebody believes it or asserts it to be true and further, that said viewpoint or belief deserves consideration equal to that of any and all other viewpoints and beliefs.
So, what you and others here seem to be upset about, is that reporters are now engaging in "teaching the controversy", and not sufficiently vetting the facts, which leads them to report all the true and false statements that people with varying agendas spew. Bottom line: you can't trust anything you read in the papers anymore, period.
OK, but why don't you take this all the way then? What about the countless controversies in this world with people of other races and religions? You can't trust the reporting on that either, can you? Everything you read in the papers about other nations has the potential to be false based on the source's and/or writer's agenda, doesn't it? In fact, it has even more potential to be false than domestic news. That means everything, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel/Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and countless more. Are you prepared to take this all the way? Are you prepared to accept the end conclusion, that what you have been reading in the papers about conflicts the world over might actually be false, or, at the very least, selective and agenda-based?
Reporting standards in America have long been decried by people in other countries as biased, unfair, blatantly incorrect, and one-sided. The press has the power to influence people beyond any other power on earth, and don't think they don't know it. Why else is the media in the US one of the most corrupt, corporate-controlled, ratings-obsessed in the world? We're being fed, not educated.
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Parallel
[Read the article: Giuliani's terrorist ties]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Michael Moore did a lot to expose Bush's ties to the Saudi Arabian government, which is the source of Osama Bin Laden, and has engaged in a long list of terrorist-aiding activities in the past. But in the end, his exposes were just treated like a bunch of conspiracy theories, and nothing ever came of them. I certainly hope these stories don't go the same route.
And no one's 'blaming it on the Jews'. Contrary to EDL's post, the two situations are complete parallels. Giuliani's ties to a Qatari government official that harbored a terrorist that helped kill thousands of people is exactly the same as our politicians' ties to Israeli lobbyists that facilitate murder and destruction in Palestine, and corporations that help cause death and destruction all around the world.
It is entirely possible to reject the policies of an unjust government like Israel's without hating the inhabitants of the country, just like it is possible to reject the policies of Bush without hating Americans. In fact, it's not just possible, it's a democratic right.
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Rhetoric
[Read the article: Giuliani's terrorist ties]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Um, EDL, thanks for pointing out how 'rhetoric' can be used to distract attention from the issues at hand. Bulldozers aren't weapons of mass destruction because, technically, they only kill a couple of people at a time, while other weapons are because they kill more than a couple of people at one time, and therefore, you're just pointing out that KSM was more of a terrorist than the Israeli government.
But no one would accuse you of rhetorical games.