Eric Renderking Fisk asks: "What
happened to Journalism's dedication to the Truth? Or was there ever
such a commitment to the facts?"
June 14th, 2005
"The Passion of The Truth "
Part I - What happened to Journalism's dedication to the Truth? Or was there ever such a commitment to the facts?
A lot of things have forced me to take a look at this subject reciently.
“Deep Throat” turns out to have been a former member of the FBI, Mark Felt.
Dick Durban and other Democrats gets a pass from the Main Stream media for essentially calling our service men “Nazi’s” while giving Karl Rove
a hard time when he made the statement: “Conservatives saw the savagery
of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war, Liberals saw the savagery
of 9/11 the attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy
and understanding to our attackers.”
We never here about all the Men, women, and children are beaten,
assulted or killed all over the world in unspeakible acts, yet a young
and beautiful woman goes missing while on vacation and might have been
the victum of a sex crime... it's all over the news.
When I ask readers and neighbors: “What’s wrong with the media?” I get
similar answers – The Real News is confused with Bias, Propaganda… and
as one local New Hampshire veteran told me: “Not enough ‘Steak’ and too
much ‘Sizzle.’”
Here’s a perfect example: A few weeks ago, Newsweek retracted a story
that was written using questionable information and sources, while at
the same time the article was written from a perspective that’s in line
with the editor and writers personal agenda and bias. A few writers at
the newsmagazine clobbered together a story about the abuse that being
committed to members of Al-Qaeda who had been captured during the war
on terror.
Turns out much of the story was false since the information was from
members of Al-Qaeda who were trained to do one simple thing when they
get caught: Lie.
According to many international news sources, the Al-Qaeda training
material and information that was captured during raids in the United
Kingdom and Indonesia instructed it’s members of the terrorist
organization to do these things if captured:
Lie about being abused…
Lie about being tortured…
Lie about the Koran being desecrated…
Lie about the horrible living conditions.
What did Newsweek publish? What were the claims that these Al-Qaeda members made?
They were abused…
They were tortured…
They saw the Koran being desecrated…
They have horrible living conditions…
Newsweek bought the terrorist propaganda and published it as if it were
gospel. Now Amnesty International is calling Guantanamo Bay a “Gulag”
and former President Jimmy Carter says we should close that facility
down. But before we do that, I would just ask Jimmy Carter to name the
numbers of Al-Qaeda prisoners how many got the “Nick Berg” treatment?
How many heads of Islamic Fundamentalists have American Solders cut
off?
Granted, as someone here on The Fedora Chronicles has already stated…
we shouldn’t become what we’re trying to fight in an effort to win.
What’s disturbing is that this isn’t the first time a publication has
used bogus information and printed it as truth. The New York Times had
a reporter Jayson Blair who made up stories on the fly. CBS News
reported a story that used made up documents to back up what they were
trying to say. Outright lies. LIES… Lies for a political agenda.
You can’t present a news story with questionable sources, especially
from people with a clear agenda to do serious damage to this country
and the president. It’s irresponsible. You just can’t print a news
story for the goal of tearing down “Dubya” further with a story that
might have been written by someone with a questionable agenda from
sources like the Al-Qaeda members who were trained to lie about abuse
if they were ever caught. You can’t print a story with the intent of
damaging the credibility of the government for no good reason, and with
out understanding the long-term consequences or how your actions could
cause irrational people elsewhere in the world to harm innocent people
because of riots and retaliatory acts.
Newsweek was irresponsible. They ran with a phony story with
questionable motives from unreliable sources. The editors and writers
forgot The First Duty, that duty is to the Truth. Whatever the truth
is, where ever it takes you and regardless of the reliable sources form
where it comes from… you have to present that truth. You have to be
responsible to that truth with facts. Not as the facts should be, not
as how they could be or how you wish the world is; but the cold hard
facts as the really are and present them in a concessive way that the
people can understand and make their own conclusion.
Unfortunately there’s a level of gullibility with some people, they
want to believe their guy can do no wrong and the guy they don’t
appreciate can do nothing right, and they’ll believe anything from
anyone who supports this belief system. Osama says “George W. Bush is a
no good skunk” and there are people on the far left believe Osama for
no other reason then they’re upset leftist who are still bitter about
2000 election. Never mind the Osama is a terrorist and he’s telling a
lie to bolster his own agenda, it’s a beautiful lie some people want to
believe because they hate Dubya for whatever reason.
Who ever thought that some people would take the word of a know
international terrorist over the words of an American president simply
because of party affiliation?
Just as a side bar and to prove my credentials that I’m not a water boy
for “Dubya,” I think we’re long over due in getting out of Iraq. On
average 3 American service men or women die each day, and for what
reason? To paraphrase Jay Severin who’s on 96.9FM Talk out of Boston –
I’ll be dam’ned if in 15 years they take my oldest son to fight in
what’s essentially Viet Nam with out the trees out in the middle of the
freaking desert.
The International Community believed Iraq had Weapons of Mass
Destruction, we went in there, and found they’ve been moved or
destroyed… it’s time to leave. I don’t want one more person to die or
lose a limb in an effort to do “Nation Building” work in a country
where Iraqi people won’t fight for their own freedom. Why should
anyone’s son or daughter die for the liberty and democracy when those
who live there won’t do the same for themselves?
How about we “stay the course” elsewhere, like where Al-Qaeda is a real
threat. Use the MOAB where the insurgents are in Iraq if we have to,
then let’s get the hell out.
Back to my rant about The Truth in Journalism…
Is George “Dubya” Bush the worst President we ever had? Was Bill
Clinton? Is their real abuse at Guantanamo Bay? Maybe, who knows? I
doubt we ever will because the press is so desperate to sell it’s
product that they’re willing to stretch the truth and go for the
sensational headline that what’s real and what’s “razzle-dazzle” is
confused.
By the way… to tie this back to the beginning of this rant: The Truth
is the “Steak,” and the “Sizzle” is the Sensationalism that’s used to
hype the news to sell papers, magazines and to hook viewers for the
evening news broadcast…
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