I watched the news, as usual, this morning and saw the bad news of more killing in Iraq but something the talking head said stuck with me and I realized that it has always bothered me.
Its the tendency to localize deaths. In that, they'll talk about a couple of dozen people dead and then follow that up very quickly with how many of those people were Americans. I understand the desire to make the news mean something to each person watching it, you know, identifying with the loss but it is insulting to those who died and didn't happen to be American, what about the nameless Iraqis? What about the other members of the "coalition" forces? What about people that lost their lives in the conflict and weren't American? Don't their deaths mean just as much as the death of an American? Maybe their deaths mean more, I mean, we're only over there fighting to protect our oil interests and to find those pesky WMD's.
Yes, its tragic that 3 Americans died among the 350 in the latest high definition tragedy to be paraded out by Fox, CNN and all the other big media sources. But its alot more tragic to me that those 350 PEOPLE died in the first place, I don't care that they aren't Americans, I care that they are humans and they died needlessly. Quickly mentioning the total dead and then the number of Americans totally glosses over the tragedy of all the deaths.
I'm also kind of sick and tired of the talking heads delivering pretty horrible news with their TV smiles on. Um hey, asshole, you're talking about people being BLOWN apart and you're smiling about it? Show some friggin' empathy and wipe that shit sucker grin off your mug. There's one reporter in particular who seems to actually derive a sexual satisfaction by reporting bad news from Washington, she's got a sly, seductive grin as she talks about budget shortfalls, lies and corruption.
And, in my in-box this morning, this article, Why Can't The Media Call Bush a Liar? that examines the US media's reluctance to call foul on much of anything that ShrubCo has done and is doing. The article highlights the pretty outrageous conflict of interest represented by the president and vice president and their oil interests going into Iraq. It amazes me that Bush gets a free ride and he's attacked a foreign country, allowed the mastermind behind 9/11 to run free and is spending taxpayer money faster than any president in history. And yet, no one in the media seems to notice or care. I care and I will be doing my damnedest to get that smirking prick out of the White House. Even if John Kerry were every bit as reprehensible as George Bush, which he is most definitely not, then I would still want to make the change. Bush is a corrupt lying thief pretending to care about America when he really doesn't give the first damn about anyone but his pals, his supporters and the criminally stupid poor people who think he's doing a great job even while he lowers their standards of living even more.
Stupid Spam of the Day
By the way, Doreen Coleman, thanks for the offer of a Free Sex Crochet but I'm not even sure what that is and that means I'm even less likely to want it.
0 comments:
Post a Comment