THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA'S VIEW OF THE UNITED STATES

Lash Goth - I am disgusted by your attack on helen Thomas.

If you wish to attack a journalist, perhaps you could focus your energies on demonstrable facts about their work rather than on appalling, and ridiculous, personal abuse.

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Topical: the novelist John LeCarre's strongly biased take...

(Excerpt)

America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.

The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.

The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible. Without bin Laden, the Bush junta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place; Enron; its shameless favouring of the already-too-rich; its reckless disregard for the world's poor, the ecology and a raft of unilaterally abrogated international treaties. They might also have to be telling us why they support Israel in its continuing disregard for UN resolutions.

Link to entire here:
The USA Has Gone Mad

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which is the biased part?

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LOL

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So if I called Bush slow witted I'd be on everyone's bad side?

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Lightwizard wrote:

Everybody ignore that last outburst from Lash -- I am shocked by it's crassness but I'm going to sign off now and have a good dinner and try to think of excuses for it.

I was purposefully making a point, which Craven picked up on, and some fell for.

It is OK for some, like PDiddie to make a blanket statement as she did on this thread about Bob Woodward... Plenty, including the 'shocked' LW have made numerous, sweeping negative remarks about Bush, others...

It has proven to be acceptable, when it follows the liberal view. When someone breaks from that acceptable path, suddenly it is shocking and crass.

And, you say political affiliation doesn't control thinking, decisions...

Think about it.

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dlowan wrote:

Lash Goth - I am disgusted by your attack on helen Thomas.

If you wish to attack a journalist, perhaps you could focus your energies on demonstrable facts about their work rather than on appalling, and ridiculous, personal abuse.

You don't feel so compelled to defend Bob Woodward? Why is that?

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Less vehement attack mayhap?

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Craven de Kere wrote:

Less vehement attack mayhap?

Perhaps it went over the top with 'jealous of Monica'. But Woodward a 'media whore'? Where's the fairness?

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It's not just my opinion, Lash.

Woody was voted "Media Whore of the Year":

Media Whore of the Year 2002

An excerpt:

The race for MWO Whore of the Year 2002 had everything seasoned WotY aficionados could hope for - suspense, drama, intrigue, and a few unexpected twists and turns.

Two veteran powerhouses, Tim Russert of NBC Champion Shills and Bob "Woody" Woodward of prestigious Washington Post Toady Farms emerged early to lead the pack throughout. But there were some surprises...

In the end, the contest came down a fierce and contentious fight to the finish between Russert and Woodward, both of whom had earned high marks throughout the year for the consistency, intensity, and dishonesty of their bias and overt willingness to sacrifice their journalistic integrity at the altars of exposure and corporate bosses.

Both were credited with steady, precipitous falls from respectability over time, and this common factor more than any other determined their strong finishes.

Russert's deterioration was seen as significantly more rapid and steep than Woody's. But in the end, it was Woody's longer-term decline, marked by stark and symbolic differences between where he started and where he ended up, that would carry him to a triumphant victory.

Contrasts were drawn between the intrepid, power-challenging, authority-questioning Watergate investigative reporter of the 1970's, and the obscenely slavish, weasely celebrity-reporter of the New Millennium, who relies on bizarre and dishonest devices (inventing facts) to achieve the outcomes his powerful patrons desire.

For this year's voters, the extreme and tragic transformation of Bob "Woody" Woodward - and his decadent journey from "All the President's Men" to "Ten Days in September" - represents a poignant microcosm of the national mainstream media's deterioration over the last thirty years.

So take a walk around the winner's circle, Bob Woodward.

You're the new MWO Media Whore of the Year - 2002!

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A generation ago, Woodward had a passion, a sense of outrage and the courage to risk what little he had in pursuit of his goal to unmask the truth and champion justice. Today, he is rather more comfortable, and has become accustomed to the perquisites of fame and fortune. He considers his past laurels sufficient to have satisfied the needs of his conscience, and finds no compelling reason to pick a fight. He is happy with his place at the feeding trough. He figures he's earned it, and has no desire to risk it.

timber

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You wont believe it, but all this is seldom noticed by international media!

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My credulity is unstrained, Walter.

timber

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A media whore is someone who manages to get a lot of (hot)air time and has nothing to do with their physical appearance. I guess some would think he looks like a troll or pines for sex with some intern (male or female?) but that's something I don't believe I'd even read in the National Enquirer.

Overreaction often reveals a lot about a person.

Woodward's book which he's been peddling on the cable networks is, at best, journalistic sophistry of the pedantic criticism ilk and his commentary has been injected with some curious and blatant pandering.

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timber -- but is your credibility going through a sieve? Laughing

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Or maybe your credulity is unmelodic?

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Craven de Kere wrote:

So if I called Bush slow witted I'd be on everyone's bad side?

I will comment on that in a second, Craven.

Lash Goth says: "Helen Thomas is a slow-witted troll, who is jealous of Monica Lewinski, and keeps her job out of pity."

While calling Bush slow-witted will be seen as an unfair attack by those who do not share the view, Craven, Lash's calling Helen Thomas that was not the cause of my concern, as I believe you very well know.

It was, in fact, the sexualised nature of the rest of Lash's attack that irked.

"Troll" is, presumably, making the old attack on a woman that she is not sexually attractive. I find this offensive and irrelevant and disappointing.

"Jealous of Monica Lewinsky" - ditto.

As it happens, not knowing the minutiae of the White House press corps, I had no idea of Thomas' political persuasion. I would have guessed, had I given that a moment's thought, when Lash attacked her, but 'twas the nature of the attack I focused on.

I shall go and view the attack on Woodward and spew polemic if I see the need.

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dlowan wrote:

Craven de Kere wrote:
So if I called Bush slow witted I'd be on everyone's bad side?

I will comment on that in a second, Craven.

Lash Goth says: "Helen Thomas is a slow-witted troll, who is jealous of Monica Lewinski, and keeps her job out of pity."

While calling Bush slow-witted will be seen as an unfair attack by those who do not share the view, Craven, Lash's calling Helen Thomas that was not the cause of my concern, as I believe you very well know.

It was, in fact, the sexualised nature of the rest of Lash's attack that irked.
I was horrified and irked by the nature of PDiddie's sexualized attack on Bob Woodward...a whore! What if his mother sees it!
"Troll" is, presumably, making the old attack on a woman that she is not sexually attractive. I find this offensive and irrelevant and disappointing.
So, I'm not allowed to use the word, "Troll". Your sensibilities are very quaint, and very selective. Shall we take a stroll through A2K and judge each description of Bush, Cheney, Jerry Falwell, Rush Limbaugh...? You helped me prove the overwhelming hypocracy of those who spew out whatever they p[lease, and screech like banshees when the same is done by those they don't agree with.
"Jealous of Monica Lewinsky" - ditto.

As it happens, not knowing the minutiae of the White House press corps, I had no idea of Thomas' political persuasion. I would have guessed, had I given that a moment's thought, when Lash attacked her, but 'twas the nature of the attack I focused on.
Perhaps, you should read back and see that I responded to PDiddie's opinion that Bob Woodward was a media whore, and I think she sainted Helen Thomas. I wanted to see what would occur if someone stated opinions in a similar manner, only reversed their allegiences.
The result was even more telling than I'd imagined.

You were so rabid to pile-on, you didn't even read what preceded my comment.
I shall go and view the attack on Woodward and spew polemic if I see the need.
Please do, since you are obviously most fair and impartial judge of these matters.

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Why, thank you Lash! I will go and look - but after I return from work - I have had a quick re-skim through the thread, but I am part of the working rabble.....so I need to go.

THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA'S VIEW OF THE UNITED STATES

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