Sunday, August 19, 2007

Don't Take Your Eyes Off the Ball: Media Manipulation

Since waiting for Godot has taken up all my time and attention this weekend, I almost let one of the MSM media moments pass me by. For obvious reasons, I've been running the 24hr cable news as background music in the house for the past few days. An ad for one of those CNN Presents specials comes on in the middle of the war report. Gee, Christiane Amanpour is reporting on "God's Warriors."

They launch into a teaser. I barely pay attention, figuring it's another one of those Muslim Jihad type specials. But, wait, that's San Francisco. Those are Christians. Oh, my God, this is political correctness run amok! No kidding!

When you click on the link below, you will see that they have broken the special into three installments: Judaism, Islam, Christianity. Excuse me here. I don't even have to see the special to know it is manipulative. Let's see, by breaking it into three, CNN is automatically implying equivalency betweem Islamicist bombers and some metaphorical teenybopper Christian soldiers in the US. Is the implication that these wouldbe warriors are going to establish training camps, strap bombs to their bodies and kill innocents, take up arms? To top it all off, it is the Christian Right they choose to highlight in the promo. I'm not even going to touch the Jewish angle. Just one question, how many pizza joints has a rabid Hassid blown up?

They don't fool me. This is part of the great left-wing conspiracy to paint anyone who is offended at the crass materialism, moral laxity, and general decay that has come to constitute the norm in this country as Taliban of a different stripe. And, I guess, to the "Progressives," as they like to style themselves, the Christian Right is more dangerous that any Jihadi.

How can I take exception to a documentary I have never seen? Easy. By its very structure, it implies a moral equivalency which is not possible unless you are in a mirror universe. I generally respect the work Amanpour has done. I would be less prone to take exception if the documentary was simply as it purports to be about the "intersection" between religion and politics. However as presented-with the Warrior label- all bets are off.

Click here for the promo.

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