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May 21, 2004

HERE’S AN AMUSING MICHAEL MOORE FILM TRAILER.

More information here.

BLOGADS’ READER SURVEY RESULTS ARE OUT: Interesting reading.

THIS POLL suggests that the media really are out of touch on Iraq. Note these questions:

20. On the situation in Iraq today, where do you think most of the problems are being created?

1. In Iraq 23%
2. In Washington, DC, or 18
3. In the news media 27
4. (Combination) 21
5. (All) 8
6. (None) –
7. (Not sure) 3

27. Which of the following news stories upset you more?

1. The abuse of Iraqi prisoners
by U.S. soldiers 8%
2. The beheading of an American
civilian by Muslim terrorists 60
3. (Both equal) 29
4. (Not sure) 3

28. Do you think the media spent an excessive amount of time covering either of the following news stories?

1. The Iraqi prisoner abuse story 34%
2. The beheading of American Nick Berg 9
3. (Both were covered excessively) 35
4. (Neither was covered excessively) 15
5. (Not sure) 7

Seems like my emails are more reflective of general sentiment than the front pages of major newspapers.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing notes a report that mothers of Marines have “had it up to here with news media coverage.” Here’s the Tennessean report by Tim Chavez that he links to. Excerpt:

These local moms get their perspective from the telephone and from pictures sent home or over the Internet. They’ve quit watching and reading the news. They say the coverage doesn’t provide the full story. . . .

While the rest of us have seen the picture of the Army reservist holding the Iraqi prisoner on a leash a thousand times, these mothers talk about all the pictures showing Marines holding children, laughing with children and even an old man kissing the hand of a Marine.

”My son calls at 3 or 4 in the morning, and he once told me, ‘I don’t care who you vote for, but vote for someone who is going to let us finish the job,”’ says Nancy Hayden of Nashville about her son, Justin. He is a Marine private.

Funny that we’re hearing less from them than from other parents who are saying bad things about the U.S. Read the whole thing.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here. And here. And, though less narrowly focused, here.

MORE: Nick Berg, by the way, tops the list of Google search queries for last week. Abu Ghraib — which has gotten more coverage — isn’t in the top ten unless you count (as you probably should) “lynndie england” for number 5.

STILL MORE: Reader Barry Dauphin emails:

Really good info on the poll and reactions to media. To add a bit to the mix, listening to NPR this morning was like all Abu Ghraib all the time. Story upon story about the intricate details of the process, repeating the same talking points again and again. Of course, it’s an important story and we need to understand as fully as possible what led to this. But NPR has it as virtually the only story. Any microscopic new detail (even ambiguous or hard to interpret details) are pushed zealously. The bottom line is America is the evil empire. The abuse discussed so far happened in approximately the same time window as CPA agreement with IGC. The fact that corrective measures were well under way before Sy Hersh seems completely lost on these folks. It is a minor, irrelevant detail. Other stories get pushed to the side because any program only has so much time to offer. Nada on Sudan. What UN oil-for-food scandal? Never a word about unrest in Iran. The prison shame is the only news. Unless it’s about higher gas prices. Curious how the “it’s about oil” folks don’t take the gas prices as evidence that it wasn’t about oil. Instead it’s evidence that the Bushies are incompetent. Jon Alter revealed the new meme which I see in the comments in other blogs. Incompetence will be the next indictment of Bush until something else can serve as evidence of how effectively evil he is.

Indeed. By contrast Mickey Kaus has constructive suggestions.

MORE STILL: Reader Tom McCobb emails:

I think all that is really needed is some plain talk from George Bush, regularly, frequently, and in a high profile medium. I long to see him on the t.v. saying “The media is not giving you the straight story and here is how….” What, is he afraid he will make someone mad? Andrew Sullivan is ‘spot on’ about this. All we get is unchallenged prattle from the media, and no riposte.

Indeed.

“ROCK SOLID EVIDENCE” that Chalabi spied for Iran? This is likely to embarrass some people.

UPDATE: Including some at The New York Times, apparently.

JON ALTER COMES OUT OF THE CLOSET. On Air America, no less. “For many of us, this validates what we think of media types like Alter: they pretend to be sober, restrained, and sometimes even ‘balanced’ — but in private they are all shrill partisans. (Strictly speaking, Alter wasn’t in private while on Franken’s show, but he was on Air America, which is close enough.)”

UPDATE: This sort of thing makes reports like this more credible, doesn’t it?

STACY TABB IS DEEPLY UNHAPPY with the “Little Miss Hooters” contest.

BERG KILLERS ARRESTED? “BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi police have arrested four people in the killing of American Nicholas Berg, an Iraqi security official said Friday.”

MORE STORIES OF ARAB PRISONERS BEING ABUSED:

ARAB prisoners beaten and tortured, innocent bystanders killed by gunfire – another damning human rights report.

But the difference this time is that the violence is being perpetrated not by coalition forces in Iraq, but by the Palestinian Authority, and the victims are its own people.

The report, partly funded by the Finnish government, claims Palestinian cities are in a state of near anarchy, with people on the payroll of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority (PA) blamed for 90 per cent of gangland violence.

It highlights numerous incidents of torture of prisoners and refers to the killing of civilians in gunbattles between Palestinian factions.

It is another blow for Mr Arafat’s organisation, which was recently accused of misusing £134 million of European Union funds. Mr Arafat was accused of signing cheques to people linked with terrorist activity.

I’m sure Ted Kennedy will have comments.

JONAH GOLDBERG has thoughts on liberals, conservatives, and intellectual roots.

DONALD SENSING is claiming vindication.

JAMES LILEKS:

Listening to a radio host discuss this column by Fritz Hollings. What caused the war with Iraq? Simple! Charles Krauthammer used his super-powerful Jew Beams to cloud the minds of hapless pliable goyim. Then Bush realized he could win reelection by getting that overwhelming number of Jewish voters.

I know this sounds naive, but I still expect better from Senators. Better writing, better thinking. But I am coming to believe that the Senate is one of the biggest dunce-clubs around.

As Hollings famously noted, there’s no IQ test. More on Hollings here, with this observation: “I’m glad that the Jesse Helms, Fritz Hollings, and other holdovers from the bigoted, reactionary South of yesteryear are finally leaving the Senate. They have been a stain on the institution.”

UPDATE: More here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Still more on Fritz Hollings and his history of racial remarks.

UNSCAM UPDATE: More charges of an oil-for-food coverup at the U.N.

THIS JUST WON’T DO: If I’m going to read about Matt Yglesias and a handful of busty Mexican hookers I want it to be on Wonkette, the natural home for that kind of thing.

Note to those too lazy to follow the link: the hookers are the subject of a recommendation, not a report.

GOOD NEWS in Fallujah. I do believe that the Marines know what they’re doing.

STUART BUCK has an oped comparing abortion photos to those from Abu Ghraib:

Abortion protesters have commonly publicized photographs of aborted fetuses, and one famous short film (The Silent Scream) even shows ultrasound images of an actual abortion. Yet these tactics typically result in criticism aimed not at the abortion providers, but at the protesters themselves.

Typically, these protesters are accused of sensationalism and exploitation. And it’s not always just criticism: Two political candidates were even arrested in Britain last year simply for peacefully displaying a picture of an aborted fetus.

In a sense, this is understandable. Pictures of abortion are gory and upsetting. No one finds them pleasant. As a result, the reality shown in the pictures is ignored, while displaying the pictures is treated as an offense against good taste.

But how does this square with the reaction to the pictures of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib? Recall that a few American soldiers forced prisoners to pose for sexually explicit pictures, images that were graphic and distressing.

Yet, disturbing as the photos were, opponents were adamant that they should be made public. Democratic Sen. Carl Levin said the photos “absolutely” should be released, and that “any effort to hide this kind of material will not work.”

Unlike Stuart, I’m pro-choice. But he’s right about the double standard. (But I’ve come to the conclusion that pictures like this one should never be published. Ugh.)