Category Archives: Media

Maher's Moronity

Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time,” told Joe Scarborough he wants Bush impeached, but not for anything meaningful, such as, say, prosecuting an illegal and unjust war. Oh no, after all, Maher was down with the mob on that one—he wasn’t exactly unwavering in his opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Instead, the HBO host thinks impeachment proceedings ought to be initiated on the grounds that, on 9/11, after he had been told by Andrew Card that America had been attacked, Bush sat put for seven minutes at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School. The president was there “to read to a class and talk about education.”

Maher’s notion of an impeachment is as frivolous as the one initiated against Clinton.

Updated: Rotten Reporting Again (About Those 650 Thou Dead in Iraq)

Iraq, Journalism, Media, The Zeitgeist, War

The Associates Press (via Rational Report) reports that:

A “controversial new study contends that nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died in the three-year-old conflict in Iraq—more than 10 times higher than other independent estimates of the toll.”

Dubya and his Oh-What-A-Wonderful-War contingent dispute these figures. And so they should.

The latest Lancet report has never claimed 655,000 civilian deaths total, but rather that, “An estimated 655,000 more Iraqis have died as a consequence of the March 2003 military invasion of Iraq than would have been expected in a non-conflict situation.”

What we have here, once again, is rotten reporting. When the first Lancet report appeared two year ago, mainstream press also fudged the facts. I think I was the only writer who made the necessary distinctions. I explained:

“In the final days of Saddam’s reign of terror, i.e., in the 15 months preceding the invasion, the primary causes of death in Iraq were natural: heart attack, stroke and chronic illness. Since Iraq became another neocon object lesson, the primary cause of death has been violence, according to the report.
Since March 2003, Iraqis have suffered from an excess of deaths, if you will. As Dr. Les Roberts, author of the study, told BBC News, ‘About 100,000 excess deaths, or more, have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.’
According to the study, “The relative risk, the risk of deaths from any cause was two-and-a-half times higher for Iraqi civilians after the 2003 invasion than in the preceding 15 months. But ‘the risk of death by violence for civilians in Iraq is now 58 times higher than before the U.S.-led invasion.”

Update: My thanks to Bob Murphy and Sean Mercer for demanding further clarification: My point is non-ideological; I’d simply like to see accurate reporting. The 650,000 figure would include deaths due to a greater incidence of heart attacks, cancer, strokes, stress and displacement-related deaths, deaths associated with a lack of health care and potable water, etc. Thus, silly journalists build doubt into the report because they give the impression that this many people died directly because of the war. Rather, the figure represents both direct and indirect casualties of the invasion, which is why it’s believable.

It goes without saying that the report is a criminal indictment of the invasion. If not for the invasion, the leading cause of death in Iraqi would still be natural, as it was during Saddam’s suzerainty.

‘Respek,’ Andy Rooney

Celebrity, Hollywood, Media, The Zeitgeist

Have just finished watching “Da Compleet Second Seazon of Da Ali Gi Show,” on DVD. Great stuff.

I’ve never cared much for Andy Rooney, but I have some “respek” for him after watching how angry he got over Ali Gi‘s English. Remember, all the interviewed believe that the interviews our gangsta from the streets of Staines conducts for the benefit of his audience—the urban youth of the U.K—are “for weal.” And so politically correct are they that few dare protest Ali Gi’S abominal ignorance and English. Except for Rooney. Good for the “geezer.”

“I is here wit’ none other dan my main man Andy Rooney,” to which Rooney replies: “I am here; I am here, I am here.” Ali tries again, “Does you think that…” To which Rooney, raging like Rumpelstiltskin, retorted: “It’s ‘do you think, do you think.'”

Still, Rooney ought to develop a funny bone. I mean, when Ali feigned hurt over Rooney’s rudeness—”‘is it ‘cos I is black,’ (even though he is quite obviously not)—Rooney should have cracked up. On the other hand, this culture has deteriorated to the extent that it’s not easy to tell whether the Ali Gis of the world are “for weal” or not.

Remember, in Ali Gi, Sasha Baron Cohen—the comic genius who’s also behind the Borat and Bruno characters—is lampooning a creature whose utter illiteracy has been cultivated by the establishment as a form of authenticity. All his guests, with few welcome exceptions, are quite polite and rather accepting of his unabashed idiocy.

I can’t wait to see Cohen’s new feature film: “Cultural Learning of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”

Updated: Pacifist Protest à la Islam

Britain, Islam, Media

Fox News is even more politically correct than the Guardian. The latter at least described the hijackers of a Turkish passenger plane today as “two Turks.”

Fox’s Martha MacCallum left it at “two men,” also leaving viewers to puzzle over questions a news lead is supposed to answer upfront: What, Where, Who, Why, and How.

According to the Guardian:

“Two Turkish men who hijacked a Turkish Airlines flight from Tirana to Istanbul tonight surrendered to Italian police.
…The aircraft, carrying 113 passengers and six crew, was forced to land at Brindisi airport in southern Italy after it was intercepted by Greek and then Italian fighter jets.”
…it appeared that the hijackers did not have any weapons”

As I say, commandeering a passenger plane, weaponless, is a Muslim’s version of a Gandhian protest.

“Early reports said the men were protesting against the Pope’s plans to visit Turkey.” But Turkey, itching to enter the EU (the Pontiff is definitely uneager for Turkey to enter), spun the heist thus: “the Turkish transport minister told Associated Press that the hijackers’ aim was to seek political asylum.”

At least the faithful are looking for peaceful ways with which to respond to the Pope’s pacifist speech about the irrationality of Islam.

Update: According to CNN, via Jihad Watch, the Turkish hijackers were indeed asylum seekers; they had no designs on the Pope. The AP has, so far, stuck with the story the Guardian reported.