
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
April 22, 2013
US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer
April 19, 2013
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama's visit to Israel had no impact on public opinion or government policy
Morgan Housel: Gold collapse: The start of something big?
Pete Spotts: Livable super-Earths? Two candidates among Kepler's latest finds
April 17, 2013
Shira Rubin: Too much of a good thing? 'Palestinians' realize downside of foreign aid boom
Morgan Housel: BAD NEWS: EVERYONE IS RIGHT!
April 15, 2013
Kristen Chick: Egyptian Christians respond with harsh words to attack -- rocks, Molotov cocktails, and gunfire -- against main cathedral
Marcy Darnovsky and Karuna Jaggar: High Court to decide if you should own your DNA
Howard LaFranchi: US bracing for more Russian blowback after taking action against 18 more human rights violators
April 12, 2013
Mark Clayton: New cybersecurity bill: Privacy threat or crucial band-aid?
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jackie Robinson's Friend, Hank Greenberg; CNN's Jake Tapper; Texas County in the News is named for 19thC. Jewish soldier and Congressman
The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: FRUITY QUINOA STUFFED PEPPERS: A flavorful, colorful and edible vessel of delicately fluffy, mildly nutty filling combined with chewy apricots, tangy cherries, and crunchy pistachios
April 10, 2013
Peter Grier: North Korean missiles: Could US shoot them down?
Morgan Housel: Warning: Don't waste your capital being fooled by profit prophets
Donald Hensrud, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Take vitamin supplements with caution --- even approved, they may actually do damage
Eryn Brown: 74 DNA discoveries move cure closer for three cancers
April 8, 2013
Jonathan Tobin: What Part of No Preconditions Do American Jews Not Get?
Fred Weir: Is Putin finally trading his own party for a new power base?
|
| |
Jewish World Review
July 13, 2005
/ 6 Taamuz, 5765
Short memories and politically correct lies
By
Tony Blankley
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Radio talk show host Michael Savage led off his Monday night
show with a collage of sound bites from the weekend network television news
shows. The empty skirts and empty suits as he calls the news anchors
were heard filled with news about Washington's new baby panda, the
"disappointingly" mild Hurricane Dennis, the continuing non-news from Aruba,
the latest media thoughts on Karl Rove's statements from two years ago and
other similar topics.
What drove Dr. Savage (and me) to distraction was the de minimis
level of news about the terrorist attack on London which had happened
only 48 hours previously. CBSNBCABCCNNMSNBCFOX had all returned to regular
programming as it were within hours of this historic and appalling
event.
When the media thinks something is truly important, they find a
way to keep the story intensely reported. A few years ago, New York Times
Editor Howell Raines thought the failure of Augusta National Golf course to
let women join their club was terribly important, so he put the same story
on the front page of the Times incessantly. The lack of news coming out of
Aruba has not stopped cable television from putting on wall-to-wall coverage
of that non-event for almost a month now. But network reporting of the
Islamist terrorist attack on London subsided within hours, and only
re-appears when there are hard news events such as finding the bodies of
the terrorists.
But the media is certainly getting an un-useful cue from
government officials. Almost every top British official seemed to be taking
the attack far too well in stride. They have taken "stiff upper lip" to the
point of parody.
A very disturbing pattern of response in the West is developing
to terrorist attacks. Within hours of the event almost literally once the
dust has settled intensity of reporting slackens. Government officials,
perhaps still concerned about panicking a manifestly somnambulant public and
governing class, understate the danger and concern, and talk about the
terrorist attack largely as just another police investigation.
And, of course, the evil influence of political correctness
quickly suppresses honest language and clarity of thought. In the immediate
aftermath of the terror attack, reporters blurt out the truth. "In
terribilis veritas." Once they have calmed down, political correctness
regains control.
As has been noted by AndrewSullivan.com, the BBC offered a
particularly Orwellian example of political correctness:
"Early on Friday morning another BBC webpage headlined "testing
the underground mood," spoke of "the worst terrorist atrocity Britain has
seen.' But at 12:08 GMT, while the rest of the article was left untouched,
those words were replaced by "the worst peacetime bomb attacks Britain has
seen." ... In its round-up of world reactions, BBC online was also quick to
highlight the views of conspiracy theorists. The very first article listed
by the BBC started by quoting Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohammad
Emami-Kashani saying Israel was behind the London attacks. It was followed
by a commentary on Iranian state radio explicitly blaming the Mossad."
There were other examples of political correctness gone mad. I
saw a senior British law enforcement official on Thursday making the
explicit point that the words Islam and terrorist do not belong in the same
sentence. Yesterday, the head of the Scotland Yard press briefers finished
his factual account of various details with the statement that extremists
and criminals did these acts, and no one should "stigmatize any community
with these acts."
But, of course, no one was, nor should be, stigmatizing "any
community." On the other hand, while some very large percentage of the 2
million Muslims living in Britain are law abiding, it is also the case that
100 percent of the "extremists and criminals" so far identified by Scotland
Yard who attacked London were Islamic or more to the point "Islamist."
The danger manifestly comes from those Muslims either born or
converted who believe in the armed jihadist policy of terror attacks.
Political correctness started out as an externally applied
pressure placed by academic elites on regular people not to say certain
things that were judged improper.
But it has become a more dangerous phenomenon now. Government,
law enforcement, military officials and many regular citizens are beginning
to internalize the politically correct mentality. If government officials,
the media and increasing elements of the public actually begin to believe
that there is no relationship between Islam as currently practiced by some
percentage of the Moslem population and the mortal threat of terrorismthen
it will be hard if not impossible to mount an effective defense.
| BUY TONY'S LATEST |
| Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.).
|
|
The first lesson of war is to know thy enemy. While we should
never put people in that category who don't fit, it is suicidal to refuse to
acknowledge the accurate nature of the enemy. I have much more to say on
this matter in my book, "The West's Last Chance," which will be published by
Regnery in September.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Tony Blankley is editorial page editor of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2005, Creators Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|