Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Bad Press - Part 1
The wretchedly skewed MSM coverage of the Iraqi election is drawing plenty of fire from across the internet and blogosphere. While it might be possible to glean from MSM's coverage that over 8 million Iraqis made an historic first bid for representative government, big media is largely reduced to nitpicking over relatively inconsequential details.
Rich Lowry at National Review Online takes the angle that the Democratic Party and MSM have sunk to a level of querulousness that has them denying that good news is good. Along the way he mixes plenty of humor with his analysis.
This [...] querulousness has been on display in the reaction to the historic Iraq vote — indeed, historic leaps forward for self-government are strangely difficult for the media and Democrats to process. When Afghanistan voted last October, the Washington Post headlined its story "Afghan Election Disputed." In other words, the news from the most free and fair election in human history in Afghanistan was that it wasn't perfect. The Post reported that some voters' fingers had been mistakenly marked with the black pens that were supposed to be used on ballots instead of the indelible ink meant to prevent multiple voting. Horrors!
A report from Sunday's Iraq vote in a similar vein might go: "Iraqis voted in large numbers, but critics say the violet ink used to mark the fingers of voters was not the best shade of purple. Grape, eggplant and lavender are all attractive shades that were ignored by the bumbling Iraqi election commission. Voters' index fingers were supposed to be stained up to the knuckle, but reports are pouring in that in many cases the ink reached above or below the knuckle, and in some cases it was voters' thumbs that were erroneously marked."
It has been impossible to obscure all the good news from Iraq, but the media and Democrats have strained to find disappointments. They focused on the poor Sunni turnout, which John Kerry mentioned in his pooh-poohing of the election. It is important that Sunnis join the political process in Iraq, but this solicitousness for the sentiments of a formerly repressive minority — Sunnis are less than 20 percent of Iraq — is odd. No one on the Left piped up on behalf of South African whites — 14 percent of the population not universally thrilled with the election — when that country shifted to majority rule.
What's going on here? The heroic self-image of the Left is caught up with its opposition to fascism and its devotion to social justice and human rights. To see a Republican president topple a fascist dictator and do it increasingly in terms of the spread of justice and rights has to be irritating. What is left to do except cavil and whine?
Rich Lowry at National Review Online takes the angle that the Democratic Party and MSM have sunk to a level of querulousness that has them denying that good news is good. Along the way he mixes plenty of humor with his analysis.
This [...] querulousness has been on display in the reaction to the historic Iraq vote — indeed, historic leaps forward for self-government are strangely difficult for the media and Democrats to process. When Afghanistan voted last October, the Washington Post headlined its story "Afghan Election Disputed." In other words, the news from the most free and fair election in human history in Afghanistan was that it wasn't perfect. The Post reported that some voters' fingers had been mistakenly marked with the black pens that were supposed to be used on ballots instead of the indelible ink meant to prevent multiple voting. Horrors!
A report from Sunday's Iraq vote in a similar vein might go: "Iraqis voted in large numbers, but critics say the violet ink used to mark the fingers of voters was not the best shade of purple. Grape, eggplant and lavender are all attractive shades that were ignored by the bumbling Iraqi election commission. Voters' index fingers were supposed to be stained up to the knuckle, but reports are pouring in that in many cases the ink reached above or below the knuckle, and in some cases it was voters' thumbs that were erroneously marked."
It has been impossible to obscure all the good news from Iraq, but the media and Democrats have strained to find disappointments. They focused on the poor Sunni turnout, which John Kerry mentioned in his pooh-poohing of the election. It is important that Sunnis join the political process in Iraq, but this solicitousness for the sentiments of a formerly repressive minority — Sunnis are less than 20 percent of Iraq — is odd. No one on the Left piped up on behalf of South African whites — 14 percent of the population not universally thrilled with the election — when that country shifted to majority rule.
What's going on here? The heroic self-image of the Left is caught up with its opposition to fascism and its devotion to social justice and human rights. To see a Republican president topple a fascist dictator and do it increasingly in terms of the spread of justice and rights has to be irritating. What is left to do except cavil and whine?
# posted by mds : 3:55 PM
