Monday, September 21, 2009

Media Idiocy

I just watched an "in depth" report on Afghanistan on the CBS Evening News. It had an interview between Katie Couric and the Pakistani foreign minister. This guy at one point said "you can't leave without finishing the job".

I fell out of my chair.

It was Pakistan through its ISI that helped set up the Taliban in power in Afghanistan. These guys created the monster and now they are saying, through their foreign minister, "you can't leave"?

The Pakistani foreign minister claimed to be "an ally" of the US in the fight. But he wanted the US to hand over the technology and equipment of the drones being used to hunt down Al Qaeda and Taliban in the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This from a country that took atomic weapon knowledge and spread it amongst rogue states via A. Q. Khan and some secret actions by unnamed government organizations in Pakistan.

None of this was mentioned in the CBS report. Instead, the watcher was left with the idea that the Pakistanis were completely reasonable and the US was simply being obstinate for no good reason.

Just how does this "news reporting" help anybody? It spreads half truths. It assists a foreign power in planting a message it wants in the heads of Americans that can be used against their government and them. Why is CBS playing this kind of role. Why is CBS claiming to be in the "news" business when all it is doing is handing a microphone to a foreign minister and letting him get his message across with all the half-truths and untruths that he wanted? How does that help Americans? Why is CBC in this business? Is it being paid off by Pakistan? Strange!

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