Why all this fuss about Brian Williams' embellishment of a story?
Here's why; it allows our corporate media to wrap themselves in the banner of "integrity." Yup, our media have so much integrity that even a harmless fish story such as the one Brian Williams told is a career ender.
Meanwhile, any number of well orchestrated massive lies are peddled as gospel truth by the same media. The economic recovery, Putin's plan for world domination, Israel's search for peace, America's war on terror... you could go on and on and on.
What we're supposed to conclude from this story is that our corporate media have such a commitment to truth-telling that not the slightest violation of the code of journalistic honour can be tolerated. Therefore, we're safe to believe everything we see on the corporate news...
What a crock of shit!
Showing posts with label NBC News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NBC News. Show all posts
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Russia massing troops on Ukraine border... or not
Versions of this story have dominated Western media coverage of the Ukraine crisis for the better part of the past week. Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of troops, miles long tank convoys, all ready to swoop in on Ukraine whenever the whim seizes the unpredictable megalomaniac Putin.
Jim Maceda has a story at NBC that is a radical departure from the standard coverage of this story. He did something quite rare for a reporter in the Big Media arena; went to have a look for himself instead of regurgitating the standard talking points of dubious provenance. Over four days and a thousand miles of Russia-Ukraine border this past week, he saw no sign of a military build-up.
The usual anti-Putin hysteria, whipped up by the likes of Canada's big-talking lightweight duo of FM Baird and PM Harper, would have us believe that Putin is hell-bent on re-establishing the Soviet empire. This is not a point of view conducive to acknowledging that Russia has legitimate security interests in its own neighbourhood. It's also a perspective that requires near-total amnesia about the carnage that the Nations of Virtue have wrought in nations nowhere near their neighbourhoods over the past twenty years; Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, to name just a few.
It takes a powerful dose of self-deception indeed to imagine that the West holds the moral high ground in this discussion.
Jim Maceda has a story at NBC that is a radical departure from the standard coverage of this story. He did something quite rare for a reporter in the Big Media arena; went to have a look for himself instead of regurgitating the standard talking points of dubious provenance. Over four days and a thousand miles of Russia-Ukraine border this past week, he saw no sign of a military build-up.
The usual anti-Putin hysteria, whipped up by the likes of Canada's big-talking lightweight duo of FM Baird and PM Harper, would have us believe that Putin is hell-bent on re-establishing the Soviet empire. This is not a point of view conducive to acknowledging that Russia has legitimate security interests in its own neighbourhood. It's also a perspective that requires near-total amnesia about the carnage that the Nations of Virtue have wrought in nations nowhere near their neighbourhoods over the past twenty years; Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, to name just a few.
It takes a powerful dose of self-deception indeed to imagine that the West holds the moral high ground in this discussion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)