[lbo-talk] Image Restoration via Truthiness: American Media and Russia

boddi satva lbo.boddi at gmail.com
Thu Aug 14 01:14:19 PDT 2008


I mean to say: "Instead, he acted like a thug..."

And with the "special operations" thing, I mean to indicate "black" operations in and around Iraq that the CIA will know are Putin but the American media will not.

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 1:11 AM, boddi satva <lbo.boddi at gmail.com> wrote:
> You're misstating the problem.
>
> Putin has overstepped, and for crooked reasons that are obvious.
>
> Russia felt provoked. Russia *was* provoked and they have been
> provoking right back for months. They should have realized how stupid
> this Administration is and waited for the next one, like everyone else
> in the world. Putin's invasion for oil into Georgia is folly.
>
> As for the Grad missiles, Putin has no moral ground to stand on on that issue.
>
> He could easily have won the PR war to which you refer, but instead of
> showing Bush up, he acted like Bush and gave the American media a Bush
> effigy to burn.
>
> Putin should have used air power only to take out the artillery (those
> are artillery rockets), had some "special operations" assets in place
> to show the Administration how uncomfortable he can make them in Iraq
> and seen to it that there were some really good-looking, sharp Russian
> flaks on American TV arguing the Russian case.
>
> He acted like a thug and now he's going to get hammered in the American press.
>
> Why would you expect different? After all, they are just going to call
> their buddies in the British press. Americans don't do international
> reporting. We leave that for the British and just copy off them later.
> If Putin wanted to win this in America, he had to send people to
> America. Otherwise, the story goes through the Brits and they are not
> exactly in love with Putin these days.
>
> On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 1:27 PM, Dwayne Monroe <dwayne.monroe at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >From time to time, we'll get into an argument about religion. How
>> should we feel about it? Can 'The Left' learn from Christian
>> organizing? Are we too atheist or not atheist enough? Why did I dream
>> of launching a nuclear strike against Heaven as a boy?
>>
>>
>>
>> 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/
>> ___________________________________
>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>
>



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