Wednesday - August 03, 2005

Russia Boots ABC Out Of The Country

The liberal media in this country never ceases to amaze me. TIME magazine goes to Iraq and interviews “insurgents” and publishes stories about how they make roadside bombs. NEWSWEEK interviews Palestinian suicide bombers. And the broadcast media is even worse. They all try to make the damned murdering terrorists look like peaceful, righteous humans who can do no wrong. The Palestinians are “oppressed”. The Chechen rebels are simply trying to drive out their Russian “overlords”. The Iraqi insurgents simply want the US to leave their country. The Muslim bombers in Britain simply want to have their voices heard. The US media have taken the freedom of the press concept way too far as ABC found out yesterday ....

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters)—Moscow is barring journalists from U.S. television channel ABC from working in Russia after the channel broadcast an interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Accreditations for ABC’s reporters would not be renewed and, in the meantime, they would be banned from talking to Russian officials, it said.

Free speech advocates have repeatedly criticized President Vladimir Putin’s government for restricting the Russian press, but this appeared to be the first action against a major Western media organization.

“ABC is now unwelcome to contact any Russian state organizations or bodies,” a Foreign Ministry statement said. It said broadcasting the Basayev interview “was a clear case of helping to propagandize terrorism” and accreditations for ABC workers would “not be renewed”.

There was no immediate U.S. reaction, but one official, who asked not to be named, said banning ABC journalists “would obviously be a concern”. ABC was not immediately available for comment. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists said: “This action reflects the Kremlin’s growing intolerance of any kind of criticism, especially in regard to its actions in Chechnya.”

CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper’s statement said Russia was “clearly trying to intimidate foreign journalists into censoring their news reporting on the war in Chechnya. We call on the (foreign) ministry to reverse its decision immediately.” Russia was outraged by the interview with Basayev, who is its most wanted man and organized the bloodiest attacks of the 10-year Chechen war. Moscow summoned the U.S. envoy to complain after it was broadcast last week.

The asshat “journalists” at ABC need to be kicked out of America too, as far as I’m concerned. I’m dead set against restricting the freedom of the press to cover the news but where do you draw the line? Did Edward R. Murrow go to Berlin to get Hitler’s side of things? Hell no! The media have a responsibility that comes with the freedom to publish anything they want. They are currently ignoring that responsibility and what they are doing is a criminal act of propaganda .... for the bad guys.

Somehow or the other, we have to find a solution to this problem. A press gone wild with righteous indignation, publishing stories with a decided preference for the murderers, criminals, bombers and terrorists is outside the pale and it is about time somebody reined them in. Gently though. We don’t want to limit their ability to keep us informed. We just want to make them act rationally, responsibly and be accountable. After all, that is what they expect of the governments they report on.

If the liberal American media doesn’t get its act together real soon, they may find themselves replaced .. by the blogosphere, and writers like myself who use a little common sense in what we report on. Yes, we’re an opinionated bunch but you know that. Here, you have a choice - you can go elsewhere and get another blogger’s opinion that is the complete opposite of mine. You also have instant feedback to question my sources and even my opinions. You can even argue among yourselves over what is being reported.

Perhaps that is where the mainstream media is going wrong - they are so used to just telling us what they want and distancing themselves from their readers. They just drop their opinions on us and walk away. I can’t do that. The comments and forums here are open and there are thousands of people out there right now at their keyboards just waiting to voice their opinion. That is freedom of speech, which is much more important than freedom of the press.

Maybe, just maybe, the framers of the Constitution had the blogosphere in mind when they wrote the First Amendment, which gives us the right to gather together, say what we want and complain to our government ....

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/03/2005 at 04:02 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias •  
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