Important questions, all.
But to me, there's a much more interesting, faith-related query: why are Americans so willing to believe whatever their media tells them about Russia, China, etc?
It seems like only yesterday the Internet smart-set was snarkily writing snark about the eager water carrying performed by venerable outfits like the NY Times. If the Pentagon claimed Iraq possessed a chemical weapon dispensing robot sent backwards in time to prevent the American revolution (because they hate freedom!) you can bet there would've been a NYT/WSJ, etc editorial insisting that 'as incredible as it sounds, these astounding charges bolster the President's call for swift and decisive action.'
But now, with the Russia/Georgia conflict occupying context and history resistant minds, there's a rush to laugh at counter meme accounts (the meme being: brave little country fighting totalitarian giant led by new Hitler) and celebrate the 'truth' pouring out of our apparently rehabilitated media.
Go to Gawker.com: it's a conventional meme celebration! The considerable snark capabilities of that web pub have been turned against any and all who challenge whatever CNN et. al. are saying.
And this, while F18s continue to bomb Iraqi and Afghan targets (also known as 'people').
While listening to NPR (an outlet which uses the intense awfulness of just about everything else on the dial as a marketing point) I heard a lot about 'Soviet era jets' flying over Georgia but nothing about the Grad missiles which got this bloody party started.
And you know what? That's the media's job; they're shills for power. To quote Matt Taibb:
All journalists are cowards. Hitchens knows it, I know it, everybody in this business knows it. If there were any justice at all, every last goddamn one of us would be lowered, head-first, into a wood-chipper. Over Arizona. Shoot a nice red mist over the whole state, make it arable for a year or two. A year's worth of fava beans and endive for the children of Bangladesh: I dare anyone in our business to say that that wouldn't represent a better use of our rotting bodies than the actual fruits of our labor.
[...]
from -
Shoveling Coal for Satan
<http://www.nypress.com/17/26/news&columns/MattTaibbi.cfm>
So yes, the media -- with exceptions everyone will note -- is terrible and should be put to better use bringing delicious beans to the world's bean loving children.
You know it, I know it, everybody know it.
And yet, they want to believe.
.d.
-- "Surrender Dorothy!"
W. Witch, Western Div ...................... http://monroelab.net/blog/