Monday, June 18, 2007
Oh, Sorry. Did We Kill More Of You Civilian People?
US bombers have just killed a dozen more Afghan kids.The overall civilian toll is impossible to estimate. And it is propaganda for both sides. However the most reliable calculation puts the number at as high as eight thousand.
There are no statistics for the number of Afghans killed by Canadian troops but they too will be mockery of a mission designed to "get rid of the Taliban" (a new report says they are stronger than ever) and bring peace and stability to the country.
When Canada says it will help do this by bringing in a hundred huge Leopard tanks, you know what the truth is...or is not.
We mourn every Nato soldier killed in Afghanistan but we spare few thoughts for the Afghans. We should. Killing them in numbers far higher than those who died in the World Trade Centre will have two results: no peace and reconciliation; a tragic breeding ground for more hostility and hatred of the fair-skinned invaders. That means the Taliban will not be short or recruits to drive these latest marauders out, just have done to all the others in the past.
It is time to come home from Afghanistan and Iraq and then at least one side will have stopped killing.
Posted by John Scully at 3:12 AM 0 comments
Monday, June 18, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
PEARL AND SWINE
The movie about beheaded U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl goes on general release next week.It is called "The Mighty Heart." Pearl was executed because he was a journalist seeking truth, trying to expose wrong; In this case a link between Al-Qaeda and the Pakistani security service.That was in 2002.
This year alone,and it's only June, over 50 journalists and their assistants have been killed. Nearly 130 have been jailed and in a new form of terror against the press, nearly 70 so-called cyberdissidents have been imprisoned. Just take a look at where the assassinations continue to occur. (Note:a special thanks to the CPJ for the statistics):
RUSSIA: Under Vladimir Putin, 11 journalists have been murdered in the last five years. None of the cases has been solved.
PAKISTAN:Eight (including Pearl) killed over five years.
IRAQ:115 Iraqi journalists, 72 per cent categorized as murder, including reporters killed because they were women.
COLOMBIA:40 murdered in the last five years.
Few of the names are a famous as Pearl's but they all stood for pursuit of truth and died for it.
Someone should tell the CBS Evening News what truth in journalism means and explain that half-truths and innuendos might get higher ratings but insult all of those whom we remember lying in their graves having tried to tell the truth.
The story I'm talking about ran high in the line-up on June 11. Clearly it was a CBS attention-grabber. It sounded like there had been a dramatic new development in the hunt for a cure for Alzheimer's. In this newscast all the data about this pitiful disease was good.At least that's the spin CBS gave it. I thought I mis-heard. Did he say "might"? Did he say "could"? If so the whole story would be a gross over-hyped distortion, a desk-designed sleight of hand. So I went to the transcript. Be disgusted along with me if you believe in truth, and weep with me at a dishevelled network that'll get the audiences'attention at any price...as long as it does cost them their lives. (The capitals in the following edited extract are mine.)
CBS:For the first time, scientists are TARGETING what THEY BELIEVE MAY be a root cause of Alzheimer's: brain damage from clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid.
“We COULD be QUITE CLOSE to slowing or stopping the progression of disease,” said Dr. Paul Aisen of Georgetown University said.
There's other PROMISING news: Improvements have been made in diagnosing the disease through brain scans and blood tests.
Doctors BELIEVE THEY WILL ONE DAY approach Alzheimer's the way they do heart disease — by identifying who is at risk and prescribing drugs and lifestyle changes to keep them healthy." CBS News, June 11, 2007.
That is not journalism. It is cynical exaggeration, speculation and manipulation of a story that has no cold,hard facts. And the credibility of journalists sinks a little lower.
This is not what Daniel Pearl died for. Nor did those other brave, dead souls who held the sword of truth in our name.
This year alone,and it's only June, over 50 journalists and their assistants have been killed. Nearly 130 have been jailed and in a new form of terror against the press, nearly 70 so-called cyberdissidents have been imprisoned. Just take a look at where the assassinations continue to occur. (Note:a special thanks to the CPJ for the statistics):
RUSSIA: Under Vladimir Putin, 11 journalists have been murdered in the last five years. None of the cases has been solved.
PAKISTAN:Eight (including Pearl) killed over five years.
IRAQ:115 Iraqi journalists, 72 per cent categorized as murder, including reporters killed because they were women.
COLOMBIA:40 murdered in the last five years.
Few of the names are a famous as Pearl's but they all stood for pursuit of truth and died for it.
Someone should tell the CBS Evening News what truth in journalism means and explain that half-truths and innuendos might get higher ratings but insult all of those whom we remember lying in their graves having tried to tell the truth.
The story I'm talking about ran high in the line-up on June 11. Clearly it was a CBS attention-grabber. It sounded like there had been a dramatic new development in the hunt for a cure for Alzheimer's. In this newscast all the data about this pitiful disease was good.At least that's the spin CBS gave it. I thought I mis-heard. Did he say "might"? Did he say "could"? If so the whole story would be a gross over-hyped distortion, a desk-designed sleight of hand. So I went to the transcript. Be disgusted along with me if you believe in truth, and weep with me at a dishevelled network that'll get the audiences'attention at any price...as long as it does cost them their lives. (The capitals in the following edited extract are mine.)
CBS:For the first time, scientists are TARGETING what THEY BELIEVE MAY be a root cause of Alzheimer's: brain damage from clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid.
“We COULD be QUITE CLOSE to slowing or stopping the progression of disease,” said Dr. Paul Aisen of Georgetown University said.
There's other PROMISING news: Improvements have been made in diagnosing the disease through brain scans and blood tests.
Doctors BELIEVE THEY WILL ONE DAY approach Alzheimer's the way they do heart disease — by identifying who is at risk and prescribing drugs and lifestyle changes to keep them healthy." CBS News, June 11, 2007.
That is not journalism. It is cynical exaggeration, speculation and manipulation of a story that has no cold,hard facts. And the credibility of journalists sinks a little lower.
This is not what Daniel Pearl died for. Nor did those other brave, dead souls who held the sword of truth in our name.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
KILLED ANYONE NICE TODAY?
The fighting in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon is ominous. With tens of thousands of stateless refugees imprisoned in squalor and poverty for fifty years, it is no surprise. The civil war of the 1980s had a similar genesis. The hysterical US has sent in extra firepower to their surrogate Lebanese army to put down the internecine fighting.
Why? An anonymous tip said Al-Qaeda was behind the uprising. To the Americans, the fragmented guerrilla group is behind every killing, every mugging, every bag-snatching in the entire universe, except in places that don't matter like southern Africa.Meanwhile, Israel has continued its "targeted assassinations," or murder, of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Gaza. Ironically, it is the Palestinians who are labelled terrorists, not the Israelis.
So why worry about the fighting in the refugee camps, which has now spread south? Because it is designed by Syria, the US and Israel to keep the Palestinians from settling down and running efficient civil and military authorities just as Hamas and Hezbollah did before the latest farcical Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the continued pounding of Gaza by Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships.
The Israeli onslaughts evoke not a whisper of protest from our very own heroes, Georgie the bush and Steve harp seal. They have been too busy saving the planet by running from the G8 conference as fast as their fat little feet could carry them. With Geldoff and Bono yapping at their heels, you can't really blame them.But someone's got to yap. At least the pop stars have guts to yap, yap, yap. Steve was so outraged that anyone dare question his ability to make a decent, moral decision he refused to meet Bono but had a really nice chat with the lovely, journalist-butchering "Vlady, baby" Putin.
So I am not dead yet. Those few outburst should shorten the odds. Naa. Who cares about an aging blogger with a new book about to hit the streets. The book is called "AM I DEAD YET? A JOURNALIST'S PERSPECTIVE ON TERRORISM." It will be available on Amazon.com and Chapters/Indigo next month.It is blunt, controversial, harrowing, downright scary, cheeky and often very silly. C'mon. Would I lie to you?
Why? An anonymous tip said Al-Qaeda was behind the uprising. To the Americans, the fragmented guerrilla group is behind every killing, every mugging, every bag-snatching in the entire universe, except in places that don't matter like southern Africa.Meanwhile, Israel has continued its "targeted assassinations," or murder, of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Gaza. Ironically, it is the Palestinians who are labelled terrorists, not the Israelis.
So why worry about the fighting in the refugee camps, which has now spread south? Because it is designed by Syria, the US and Israel to keep the Palestinians from settling down and running efficient civil and military authorities just as Hamas and Hezbollah did before the latest farcical Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the continued pounding of Gaza by Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships.
The Israeli onslaughts evoke not a whisper of protest from our very own heroes, Georgie the bush and Steve harp seal. They have been too busy saving the planet by running from the G8 conference as fast as their fat little feet could carry them. With Geldoff and Bono yapping at their heels, you can't really blame them.But someone's got to yap. At least the pop stars have guts to yap, yap, yap. Steve was so outraged that anyone dare question his ability to make a decent, moral decision he refused to meet Bono but had a really nice chat with the lovely, journalist-butchering "Vlady, baby" Putin.
So I am not dead yet. Those few outburst should shorten the odds. Naa. Who cares about an aging blogger with a new book about to hit the streets. The book is called "AM I DEAD YET? A JOURNALIST'S PERSPECTIVE ON TERRORISM." It will be available on Amazon.com and Chapters/Indigo next month.It is blunt, controversial, harrowing, downright scary, cheeky and often very silly. C'mon. Would I lie to you?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)