I’ve never been so pleased to have canceled my cable television service last year as I am today. That broke my channel surfing habit and limits my accidental exposure to atrocities like what The Anchoress rightfully terms “the Michael Jackson Death-Spectacular.” Her commentary on it is scathing and a must-read. It’s sad, and repulsive – people are exploiting this man’s death as much as they exploited his pathetic life. She also notes that
We don’t hear grim daily reports about the tragic deaths of our armed-forces members, anymore. Apparently, the press only finds such war-time deaths worth covering when they can be used as a handy stick to browbeat a president they hate.
So much for the “good” war, the War That’s Worth Fighting, the war we need to abandon Iraq to throw our resources into and win. So much for the ceaseless demands to lift the ban on coffin coverage. Mr. Koppel apparently now finds it “unreasonable to remind everyone of who these young people are and what they look like.” Which is about what you’d expect.
I think the US press is slightly pressured to not report the negatives of war too often and sometimes seems to present it in a fluffy, friendly way to avoid the realities of it. The internet seems to be the best way to get real ideas on what is happening. I am not trying to be too critical of the US, though. Its great in comparison to China, where i currently live. Many social communities have been shut down this week and my girlfriend’s comments on a chinese blog were removed. Crazy, and very boring!
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“great in comparison to China,” sheesh, talk about damning with faint praise.
But Tom, do you mean now they’re presenting war info in a friendly, fluffy way? During the Bush administration war reporting was negative to the point of dishonesty – Chrenkoff garnered a huge following just by compiling positive info that the media tended to suppress by putting the most negative info front and center, and positive info near the end.
I hadn’t heard about the media crackdown in China – what reasoning do you think is behind it? Related to the Uighur riots?