11.5.03
Temporary Posting Break
As I am a graduate student and need to do some real work before the end of the semester, I will be taking a short break from posting on this site. As the rest of my teammates on this blog are absolute deadbeats, I would not expect, if I were you, to see any posts on this site for at least 2 weeks.But for those readers who just can't get enough punishment, I will be posting short items on the "other blog", which I encourage you to visit:
Black Box RecorderBOOKMARK IT! VISIT IT! LOVE IT! (Note: no affiliation with the band of the same name. I listen to real music - punk rock and roll and jazz.)
Now, I will go and begin my chores with a trip to the laundromat. But before I leave, let me get in one final parting shot at a group of people who really need to get their heads out of their asses:
Note to people concerned with "bias" and "media-watching".
It is absolutely preposterous to see websites and blogs devoted wholely to detecting "media bias", sometimes focusing on one single media outlet, and then not taking a good look at themselves, not exercising self-criticism, and not correcting their own bias and mistakes. This is what is known as hypocrisy.
Comrade hypocrites! You are not standing up for any principles, you are not upholding any higher ideals like truth, you are not contributing to an honest debate. Instead, you are adding to the intellectual and moral disaster that constitutes the contemporary American social landscape, you are lying, you are being self-serving pricks. At the very least, admit you that you are partisan and that you have an agenda - do not hide behind such ideals as "journalistic integrity", "truth", and "human rights" when peddling your point of view.Confused? Not sure as to what I am talking about? Let me give you two examples:
Their modus operandi is clear from their treatment of Israel Shahak, a noted Israeli scholar and human rights activist who died in 2001. According to CAMERA, Shahak - an Israeli citizen, a veteran of Israel's war for independence, and a Holocaust survivor - was "one of the world's leading anti-Semites". It is incredible that any American group could describe someone with a history such as Shahak's as an "anti-Semite" - but the charge flows freely from these self-appointed guardians of "accuracy". Christ, they even cast doubt on the fact that he was a Holocaust survivor. In the middle of an article designed to highlight Edward Said's "deceptions", they have this to say:
Israel Shahak, introduced by Said as a veteran Israeli human rights campaigner and Holocaust survivor...As far as I know, they've never even retracted their bullshit campaign in the late 1980s which alleged that the Palestinian refugees fled their homes due to the infamous "Arab broadcasts". This fairy-tale had been demolished as early as the 1960s - but they went ahead and built an entire advertising campaign around the "broadcasts" in arguing why innocent refugees should not be allowed to return home. They didn't even respond to Christopher Hitchens - Christopher Hitchens - when he wrote asking for even a single documented instance of an "Arab broadcast" (detailed in his article "Broadcasts", originally published in 1988). But hey, if someone can send me proof that CAMERA ever did retract this blatant lie, I'll admit I was wrong.
But pretending like the BBC is some kind of "enemy number one" in this respect is ludicrous. How often do Chomsky or Said turn up on mainstream American television? And where was all the media attention when Scott Ritter was traveling around the world, declaring that Iraq had no appreciable stocks of WMDs or even WMD materials anymore? More importantly, and more to the point, if you are going to accuse an organization, including the BBC, of "bias" in a particular article - and especially if you have way too much time on your hands and you run a blog devoted entirely to accusing and condemning the fucking BBC - and then it turns out you are wrong, ADMIT IT AND PUBLISH A RETRACTION. This is especially important if you are also accusing them of having an irrational, anti-Semitic hatred of Israel.
So, Comrade Blyth of Biased BBC, the next time you publish crap like this, accusing the Palestinians of shooting a reporter (they didn't - it was the Israelis) and stating that the BBC called Miller's killing a war crime (they didn't - they were reporting on the International Federation of Journalists' call for deaths like Miller's to be treated as war crimes) and claiming that they were "bashing" Israel (for christ's sake, come up with another term!), consider whether a) you are actually comprehending what you read, b) whether there is any real proof for your allegations, or simply a statement from the Israeli army or the Conservative party, and c) whether you will make the effort to exercise a little intellectual and moral honesty if your "bias"-detection apparatus breaks down and you are wrong.Have a nice day and see you in two weeks.
