Michael Yon reports on true atrocity in Iraq. To be concise, village cleared, booby-trapped, mass grave, and beheaded children – things the major media outlets have not reported.
Via Instapundit.com:
WHY DON’T AL QAEDA ATROCITIES GET MEDIA ATTENTION?
Because that might help Bush.
UPDATE: A journalist whose name you’d recognize emails:
Yon’s story doesn’t get attention because it is humiliating.It is humiliating because it is obvious that we media – and our allies in the state department, the legal trade, the NGOs, the Democratic Party, the UN, etc., – can’t do squat about such determined use of force.
Our words, images, arguments and skills can’t stop the killing. Only the rough soldiers and their guns can solve the problem, and we won’t admit that fact because the admission would weaken our influence and our claim to social status.
So we pretend Yon’s massacre – and the North Korean killing fields, the Arab treatment of women, the Arab hatred of Israel, etc. – doesn’t exist, and instead focus our emotions and attention on the somewhat-bad domestic things that we can ‘fix’ with our DC-based allies. Things such as Abu Ghraib, wiretapping, etc. When we ‘fix’ them, then we get status, applause, power, new jobs, ego, etc.
Please don’t be surprised. We media are an interest group not much different from the automakers, the unions, and the farmers.
Sadly, this makes sense. And this fits the pattern.
I wrote the following to the editors of my local paper:
Al Qaeda is cutting the heads off of Iraqi children and clearing entire villages:* Initial first-hand report of the atrocity: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/bless-the-beasts-and-children.htm
* Follow-up and comment of the absence of coverage of the real story in Iraq: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/update-on-bless-the-beasts-and-children.htmYet, there is no mention in your paper, the paper’s web site, nor the major media outlets for the most part. Care to comment?
Is the story not important enough to cover? Does it add too much to the argument for our return to Iraq for the RGJ’s (and other media outlet’s) taste? Does it paint American troops as less than the evil-doers the media seems to prefer reporting? Or, is the political agenda of the media to reinforce a sum negative image of “Bush’s War” and forget objective, fact-based, nose-in-the-dirt reporting we saw in previous wars and conflicts?
I am a veteran. I am a former Marine. And yet, I don’t get the feeling you and your colleagues in the media care about what is truly going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, just the political side of those far-away places and how it adversely effects our President and his policies. I wished we had never returned to Iraq without having thought the entire thing through better, but we are in a situation that no man can resolve without a rifle at his side and the firm resolve that doing this work will have a positive effect in the end for all who survive the battle.
Many accuse the RGJ of being a “left-wing rag”. Many accuse the media, in general, of being left-leaning and biased against not only our current Administration but also the military. Could it be that the absence of stories like the one mentioned in the beginning of this letter add to the argument against the media? Could it be that “support for the troops” is just a bumper sticker to today’s journalist and not something that is followed by deeds that actually have a positive, supportive effect on our troops in harm’s way?
I would love to see my new hometown’s paper take a step toward improving the coverage on what is really going on in those “far-away place” where our sons and daughters are fighting. I would love to see the true face of our enemy on the front page for all to see. I feel in order for these conflicts to end, true evil needs to be covered, exposed, and denounced. This is the only way to bring these conflicts to an end. So far, I see none of this in the RGJ nor in the media with few exceptions.
I would like to understand why this is the case and what your feelings are.
