Monday, March 07, 2005
I don't agree with his Bart-killing policy, but I do approve of his Selma-killing policy.
I want to preface this post with the qualifier that just because Scott McClellan says something, doesn't mean it's false. When he says it's absurd to suggest that the U.S. could have intentionally targetted Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena for assassination, he's absolutely right. It's absurd. The entire notion of absurd. Absurd.
Speaking of absurd, here are some things that are absurd:
Regardless of whether this incident - absurd, regardless of who was at fault - is part of the larger Administration strategy of delegitimizing journalism as a profession, that exact topic is one that needs to be exposed. This, in fact, is fodder for a book or a cover story in a major magazine. Instead, Salon will write one (very good) article, a journalism blog another (Jay Rosen and the "decertification" of the press). Maybe it's just a matter of time before the attack on the Fourth Estate becomes a matter of public knowledge. But whether it is accepted as "the way things are" or the actual object of outrage for people who've had just about enough is up to us.
I think accepting this as "the way things are" would be absurd.
Speaking of absurd, here are some things that are absurd:
- Jeff Gannon, a male escort and fake reporter, getting into the White House Press Corps, apparently wrangling invitations to the annual Christmas party.
- The U.S. government saying that the Iraqi government wasn't doing enough to secure human rights in that country.
- The U.S. invading a country that posed no immediate threat to us, that was by no means a "hot zone," in a search for banned weapons (the locations of which were not ever in doubt); meanwhile leaving unsecured sites, since looted, with enough explosives to keep an insurgency running for decades.
- The GOP pretending that the Democrats were traitors for being against the Dept. of Homeland Security - which the Democrats proposed. This includes conflating Max Cleland with Saddam Hussein.
Regardless of whether this incident - absurd, regardless of who was at fault - is part of the larger Administration strategy of delegitimizing journalism as a profession, that exact topic is one that needs to be exposed. This, in fact, is fodder for a book or a cover story in a major magazine. Instead, Salon will write one (very good) article, a journalism blog another (Jay Rosen and the "decertification" of the press). Maybe it's just a matter of time before the attack on the Fourth Estate becomes a matter of public knowledge. But whether it is accepted as "the way things are" or the actual object of outrage for people who've had just about enough is up to us.
I think accepting this as "the way things are" would be absurd.
