Friday, August 18, 2006

Storm Track Disinformation: Our Main Stream Media At Work

From The Gathering Storm

Two recent articles caught my attention that took Time Magazine and the Washington Post to task over there reporting.

The first was from NewsBusters entitled “Why Time Magazine Can't Explain British Muslim Radicalism”.

NewsBusters reported that the subhead in the Time magazine article promised enlightenment, but failed to deliver on "Why do so many young British Muslims turn to violence against the land where they were raised?"

“Unfortunately, Time's leftward slanted editorial policies don't allow an honest answer. Rather than exploring the root causes of Islamic radicalism, which is, after all, the root cause of British Muslim radicalism, Time offers a sterile hodgepodge of random observations and politically correct standbys; they actually cite "disaffection" with Britain's foreign policy, as if that were a cause rather than a symptom of the disease. Buried within the article is the symptom that identifies the illness:
    • “And among those British Muslims surveyed, a remarkable 81%--a percentage higher than that for Muslims not just in France and Germany but also in Egypt and Jordan--said they thought of themselves as Muslims first and citizens of their native country second.”

They go on and hit the nail on the head.

“The Pew Research poll Time cites also found that 15% of British Muslims sympathize with Muslim fundamentalists. The problem here is that Time, and other western media, steeped in the dogma of cultural relativism, fail to realize that a Muslim fundamentalist is not just a Christian fundamentalist who happens to worship Allah and Mohammed instead of Jehovah and Christ. This reflexive and fashionable lumping together of all the major religions prevents Time, and most of the mainstream media, from seeing the fundamental differences that separate them. It's why Time couldn't answer its own question.

Next, the UK Telegraph took on their cousin across the pond and brought the Washington Post to task as explained by The Unalienable Right.

Links to two news articles occur adjacent to each other on the blog tracking site Memorandum today (See here and here), that seem to tell two completely different stories about the roots of the terror threat in Britain.
First from the Washington Post: Young Muslim Rage Takes Root in Britain

Unemployment, Foreign Policy Fuel Extremism

"...Britain has become an incubator for violent Islamic extremism, fueled by disenchantment at home and growing rage about events abroad, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
………In one of Europe's largest Muslim communities, young men face a lack of jobs, poor educational achievement and discrimination in a highly class-oriented culture. Prime Minister Tony Blair is the most outspoken ally of President Bush, and their policies in Iraq and Afghanistan are seen by many Muslims as aimed at Islam.
But from the UK Telegraph, contrast the article headlined "University students at centre of terror plots"
“The recruitment of Muslim students at British universities to take part in terrorist attacks is at the heart of the alleged plot to blow up passenger jets, it is feared.”
“Extremist Muslim groups had been detected at more than 20 institutions, both former polytechnics and long-established universities, over the past 15 years, Prof Glees said.”

The Unalienable Right said, “If the rage is being fueled by unemployment and lack of education, why are so many of the plotters tied to British universities? The view from the Post looks like nothing more than a rehash of the old left-wing "poverty causes crime" canard, re-tooled as the "poverty causes jihad" canard.

For the Washington Post- same PC crap, different group.

No comments: