This Is What's Wrong With The Media

[fastTa]

Well said Kev.

I'm really disappointed by many of the posts in this thread tossing negativity around regarding the Iraq War and our overall mission to incubate freedom and democracy and eliminate the bad guys as best as possible. But....I'm not surprised...... the media has obviously gotten to alot of people and warped their judgement over the years. Unfortunately it is usually the younger generation that suffers from this. The "young" America wants everything done overnight, and if it doesn't happen overnight, they about it and then start finding a misguided way to channel their injudcious and dishonorable ideologies.

NOBODY ever said that the war against terrorism was going to be pretty nor did anyone ever proclaim to have the perfect plan in doing so. War is an inevadable reality if a nation plans on keeping these 'hornets' from stinging us here on our homeland. What happened to being dedicated to our defending our freedom and what happened to being unwaiveringly convicted to standing up for what is right? Some of the younger generation in this country needs a serious and rude wakeup call!

If anyone actually thinks that there were no WMD's in the Middle East, or more specifically Iraq, then they are truly without question naive. We ARE doing the right thing by doing everything in our power to liberate a hideously barbaric and oppressed area of the world. It will obviously take some time and a bunch of hard work. Instead of ing because you are unable to appreciate the efforts of those more bold and honorable than you can ever imagine, why not try to further educate yourselves and stand up for your country when it most needed.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

OK the purpose of this thread originally is to point out what is wrong with the media. After reading some of these post I realized that a lot of people are forming their opinions solely on the information that they are getting from the media. Which brings an underlying false belief to light. The medias job is NOT to educate or inform people what is going on in Iraq. Their job is to bring the news and what makes the news is things that are bad. Good things rarely make the news because people aren't interested in good news. It's likes to watch a race where no one crashes. It ashamed too. Ted Turner got aggravated at this fact about 30 years ago and started a news program on Sunday morning on TBS called "good news". I enjoyed watching it. It didn't last very long. But it proves the point. If you are solely getting your information on the news you are missing 95% of what I going on in Iraq.

Now what are you hearing on the news. Most if not all is the bad news coming out of Baghdad and central Iraq. Wait a minute. What about the rest of Iraq? Do you hear anything bad coming from northern Iraq? No. Do you hear anything from southern Iraq. Every once in a while. Almost 100% of northern Iraq is calm and peaceful and enjoying life liberty and freedom. Probably 95% of southern Iraq is too. Estimates but educated people I hear is that number is about 80% in central Iraq. It's the Shiites who are causing the problems. They want their power back. Because with power comes money. Here's why.

There are basically 3 regions of Iraq. North which are Kurds, central which is predominately Shiites, and south which are Sunnis. If the country of Iraq was divided into 3 countries which better represented the ethnic groups this is the way to divide it. But there is a problem with that. The oil fields are in the north and the south, not in the central section. The north and the south would have money for an economy. They would grow into economically robust countries. The central would become a land of economic hardship, death, despair and a famine filled country. And as everything else in the world it would be blamed on the United States and George Bush.

So it would be in the best interest for central Iraq to be part of a country that includes the north and the south. And since it would be blamed on the US if it didn't then it is in the best interest of the US too. Really everybody would be better off.

The problem is as in everywhere power corrupts. Many examples can be seen of this all over the world. There are just a handful of people who are able to rise above this and do what is the best thing to do in the long run. One person who has done a better job of this than most is George Bush. A lot of people will laugh at this but let me tell you why I think this is. Don't get me wrong. He is not perfect by any means.

Before I begin I have to say this, too many things are being blamed on George Bush that are not in his power to control. This is a downfall of our education system. We have a separation of power in the US.

You can not solely blame spending too much on Bush. Congress decides spending not the president. Yes the president can veto spending but congress can override the presidents veto with 75% of the votes.

You can not solely blame immigration on the president. We have laws currently saying what they are doing is illegal. Sneaking across the border is illegal. Enforce the laws we have now. That is not under the president's power to do. That is a state authority. Immigration is considered a civil law meaning it is the states responsibility to enforce. The states refuse to do it because they can't afford it. The president can not call out the military to enforce a states law enforcement issue. That is against the law. The president can also not call out the national guard. The guard is under state authority. Now what the president can do and should do is go to the congress to get federal money to send to the state to enforce these laws.

As for education oh boy could I talk there. Bush has doubled the funds to education and look what it has gotten us. What else can the president do here? Tell me what can he personally do. Get more funding for education. That has proved to not work. OK here is what needs to be done and you aren't going to like it. Get rid of the teachers union. Make teachers responsible for doing a good job. Now I know there are major problems in proving that but I do know on thing that needs to happen is make it easier to fire bad teachers. The way to make it better I competition. Vouchers vouchers vouchers. Make the schools compete for getting students. The school systems will either fix it or they will go out of business. Private schools can teach, why can't public schools.

As for "outsourcing" what can Bush do to control that. The president does not control how a private business runs. How can he fix that. Companies are going over seas for cheaper labor and to get around our oppressive tax system. Can you blame them? The biggest step to fixing this is scrapping the IRS. The fair tax www.fairtax.org my friends is the best way to fix this.

OK back to Bush. For 30 years the US presidents and the world have ignored the problems in the middle east because they wanted the oil there. Economies run on oil. Hence the term run like a well oiled machine. (OK I just made that up. LOL) George Bush should not have had to make the decision to go into Iraq. The UN and the rest of the world should have done that. They did not because they wanted their oil and the wanted to sell them stuff to get the money they made from their oil to run their economies. Proof of this is all around in the oil for food scandals. Lets go back to 1990. Saddam invaded another country. In 1991 we along with thirty something other countries went in and kicked him out of that country. Saddam then ordered his generals to sign a peace treaty where he said he would in 15 days turn over all research into WMDs. He did not do that. The UN should have ordered troops in to make them turn that information over. They did not. Instead the ordered inspections. Saddam played a cat and mouse game with them while continuing to develop WMDs. We see how well these inspections worked because in 1994 (I think) he used WMDs in the form of chemical weapons to kill tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds. So we have a history now of inspections not working. In 1998 Saddam ordered all inspectors out of Iraq. The UN should have ordered an invasion right then. Again they did not. They did not because France, Russia and Germany had veto powers. They vetoed it because they were getting money kickbacks from Saddam to power their failing economies (they had to pay for all of their social programs). So now what is the UNs answer? More inspections. Didn't we prove that didn't work already? Don't they ever learn. Meanwhile there are terrorist actions going on all over the world. In 2001 we had ours. Guess where the terrorist trained on how to take over airplanes? It was Iraq. They had a Boeing 707 they used to train the 9/11 hijackers sitting there in Iraq. The news media is saying there is no connection between Saddam and Iraq. That is not true. The hijackers trained in Iraq and if you believe Saddam didn’t know about it you are lying to yourself. He did know about it. Do you think they snuck a Boeing 707 into Iraq without him knowing about it, set up a training camp and trained a couple of dozen people on how to hijack an airplane without him knowing about it?

OK my point is this. At what point in time do you decide that you need to do something different because what you have been doing something isn't working? How long do you live with these terrorist action (Bee stings as Kevin put it) before you do what you should be doing regardless of the economy. It took a big person to stand up and do what needed to be done in order to make a change because what we have been doing for the last 30 years was not working. He knew it wouldn't be popular. That didn't matter. The future of the world was at stake and very few other people were big enough to make the tough decision to do it. If we didn’t try something different there wouldn't be anything to change for the better. We would still have terrorist being trained in Iraq and innocent people would continue to be killed all over the world. Yes innocent people, our soldier, Iraqi soldiers and people have been killed to try and make things better but what was the alternative? More 9/11s. Next time it could be a WMD. It still could be but they are not training on a Boeing 707or in Iraq on how to do it anymore therefore the chances of it are reduced. The price of freedom is not free.

The hatred of the Muslims for non Muslims has been taught for generations. Just like the hatred for blacks have been taught for generations. It takes time to work that hatred out of the system. I have tried really hard to not teach my kids hatred for other groups of people. Other people do not do that. That is a very hard thing to change. How do you teach a people that have been taught to hate to not teach hate. It won't happen overnight or in a few years. It take generations for this to happen. But it has to start somewhere. George Bush has tried to start that right now in Iraq. If you want to change the world to a better place start by supporting what is going on in Iraq right now. This is it. It's time. Put on Van Halen's "right now". Remember the move independence day? There is a speech where he says "it's time to put aside our petty difference and join together". We need to do just that right now.

[TraceZ]

summary of Jeff's novel here

Well put. I cant believe how many people lose sight of the big picture in such a short time. I believe that is the biggest shortcoming of Americans, we expect immediate results and forget long term goals.

[TraceZ]

Jeff:

Your IM box is full.

[Joe 1320]

Well put. I cant believe how many people lose sight of the big picture in such a short time. I believe that is the biggest shortcoming of Americans, we expect immediate results and forget long term goals.

I second that.

[Dave-S]

Kudos to Jeff for taking the time to explain something more akin to the "big picture" in Iraq. That's where the media has let us all down as far as I am concerned. I have already said how I feel earlier but since this post was originally started with the subject of "what's wrong with the media", I still feel it's a downright shame that they can't paint the same picture that Jeff took the time to explain. They certainly are capable of that but they only report the news items that will improve their "ratings" and unfortunately, bad news almost always wins out over good news.

I still don't think we should have gone into Iraq, but now that we are there the media could go a long way in explaining exactly what the situation is. I do agree that "immediate results" are impossible to get and for that reason I feel we need to support Bush to get the job done. Unfortunately most folks in our country.......and around the world......have an incomplete and innacurate picture of how things really are in Iraq.

[Steel2686]

I have to say, great posts all around. Especially Jeff. Thanks for taking the time to type that out. It hit on many of the points I have felt since we first went into Iraq. Has the war been mishandled at all? Probably here and there, but overall, it's not the disaster the media would like us to believe it is. This is an entirely different kind of war. There seems to be a lot of Monday morning quarterbacks spouting off whenever they have an opportunity.

I am convinced no one else could have done a better job with this war. The fighting will probably never fully cease, but that's Middle East life nowadays.

[Maverick_82]

Makes me sick. Where's the articles about all the happy Iraqis? Where are all the great stories that countless men and women serving over there have brought home? Oh yeah... Buried in the "Will Never Print This" files.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060406/...ZhBHNlYwM3MjE-

if the media said that iraqis were "happy" then the soldiers would be hated just like the police (my future profession). besides even if a soldier came home and spoke out about the war, it would demean their significance in the world or the government would say that the emotion of their participation in the "war" makes them ill fit to judge.

also, do u know how much is being spent on our "defense"!?! over $440 BILLION!!! our defense budget makes up 46% of the entire world's military funding!!!

[Jeff_in_Atl]

....our defense budget makes up 46% of the entire world's military funding!!!

Yea but we have to take care of 90% of the world 's problems.

[Steel2686]

Yea but we have to take care of 90% of the world 's problems.

Well said, even if it's a sad truth.

[Maverick_82]

Yea but we have to take care of 90% of the world 's problems.

that is true however, we cause a great deal of trouble ourselves. Sept 11. was an attack made by Al Quada > based in Afganistan > the country we helped in their defense against the Soviet Union > after which we immediately left the country > leading to their decent into chaos > which lead to the formation of Al Quada > a group that our CIA trained so's to help them fend off the USSR > training which was used against the United States on 9-11-01.
Another issue was the "unprovoked" attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan; HOWEVER, the attack on Pearl was in retaliation to a US oil blockade between India and Japan. And as America did this we called ourselves "isolationists"!
And we have the nerve to get upset with France because of a few barrels of mustard gas, when many of the guns and training used to kill and execute soldiers and civilians overseas were given to these people by the United States!?! WTH!?!

The list goes on and on...

besides, most of the aid we provide is given through groups in no way related to the military!

i love america and all, but we can be dumb as hell!!!

[Crazy Canuk]

The Amarican media is based on fear. Fear gets the attention of people and they feel they need to watch so the news rattings go up and they can sell more comercials and get more money.

Anyone remember the killer bee scare in the 90's? I read a report that stated that eventhough violent crime has gone down the reporting of it has gone up 100s of percent. Fear sells.

As for Iraq, I once thought if the US would convince the UN and Nato to step in and help that it would settle down there, now I don't know the US will get out and leave Iraq better at all. Now is the time that the Iraq people have to stand up and protect what was given to them, there freedom. Successful goverments are formed when the people believe and fight for a common set of values, it just can't be given to someone.

What's bad is countries like Iran are taking advantage of what is happening in Iraq knowing that the US realy has there hands tied with that fight and are taking liberties now. It would be in the worlds best intrest that Iraq is stable the question now is how.

[Maverick_82]

The Amarican media is based on fear. Fear gets the attention of people and they feel they need to watch so the news rattings go up and they can sell more comercials and get more money.

Anyone remember the killer bee scare in the 90's? I read a report that stated that eventhough violent crime has gone down the reporting of it has gone up 100s of percent. Fear sells.

As for Iraq, I once thought if the US would convince the UN and Nato to step in and help that it would settle down there, now I don't know the US will get out and leave Iraq better at all. Now is the time that the Iraq people have to stand up and protect what was given to them, there freedom. Successful goverments are formed when the people believe and fight for a common set of values, it just can't be given to someone.

What's bad is countries like Iran are taking advantage of what is happening in Iraq knowing that the US realy has there hands tied with that fight and are taking liberties now. It would be in the worlds best intrest that Iraq is stable the question now is how.

ah...canadian cynicism, it really brings a smile to my face, lol. i completely agree with u on all of that. i wrote a satire for an college english class final exam, i said that the US could use the tension with Iran to set up a DMZ between iran and iraq so we could keep troops there indefinitely, just as was done with north and south korea, lol. sadly, if politicans would come to hear of this idea, they would probably give it some serious thought, lol

not only has violent crime gone down, crime in the US has recently reached the LOWEST EVER RECORDED!!!

AND I WISH PEOPLE WOULD HONESTLY STOP BELIEVING THESE ARE WARS!!! THEY R "POLICE ACTIONS"!!! The US hasnt declared war since 1941!!!

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

AND I WISH PEOPLE WOULD HONESTLY STOP BELIEVING THESE ARE WARS!!! THEY R "POLICE ACTIONS"!!! The US hasnt declared war since 1941!!!

Well, we invaded another country and took out their government. If that ain't a war, than I don't know what is.

BUT...since congress didn't vote to call it a war...you can refer to it as "The Second Gulf Police Action" if you like. Just like the Korean Police Action, or the Vietnam Police Action, or the Persian Gulf Police Action.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...it's probably a duck.

[Joe 1320]

I WISH PEOPLE WOULD HONESTLY STOP BELIEVING THESE ARE WARS!!! THEY R "POLICE ACTIONS"!!! The US hasnt declared war since 1941!!!

I disagree. Wars don't have to be declared, that is merely stating the obvious. If we send in our military to fight, it's a war. It may be over in a few days, weeks or years. The bottom line is that it is fighting with heavy weapons, call it what you will....... it's still war.

The media is not based on fear. The media is based on controversy and that is what sells. It is also a self serving vehicle for the expression of political views by those in charge of the print and broadcast. The term sensationalistic journalism is what can be applied to the media...... journalism that twists the story to suit the purpose of the message being broadcast. The more controversy stirred, the better.