Paranoid with reason

So An interesting piece over at Newsday by Ellis Henican. I wrote him a letter with my usual verve and he had the nerve to call me a bit paranoid. So i wrote him back with this. It really was a perfectly fine article. But there remains a curious desire to remain in denial about the level of denial the major media has been in about the Iraq war.



thank you. I know you must be a busy man but, hey, it's Sunday afternoon - so here goes:

PLEASE keep writing about the Downing Street Memo. If you read no further - that is the most important thing I want to say. I don't mean to accost a good writer at a good paper - but i do wonder why more papers have not pointed out the obvious biases of the major media in America.

i liked your column and i am clear that there is not one monolith called the "media" - I should have said "the televised news media in america is remarkably uniform." It goes from center right to far right. that's about it. Now i don't expect to see Noam Chomsky on Hardball every night - but there are plenty of clear thinking liberals who simply are ignored. a few random examples of this bias:

Pat Buchahan has a job on MSNBC. Al Franken on the Sundance channel.
Ollie North went from criminal to host is a few easy steps.
There is an entire cable network devoted to the concerns of business, not a single show about the concerns of labor.
Robert Novak, the one person who could tell us who outed Valerie Plane, a major crime - is gainfully employed by CNN without a care in the world.
In the entire run up to the war the people who got the mike on TV news were war hawks and military analysts. Those against the war were marginalized or ignored. And, the event that crystalized my thoughts on this:

What in the world was a male prostitute doing with a press pass to the White house? The belligerent refusal of the TV news networks to investigate how this could have happened was haunting and bizarre. To be crass about it- this story had it all - sex, deceit, politics and pictures. Perfect television. The Bush White House got a pass. I can only imagine what would have happened if Gannon was in the Clinton White House, working for a Left wing blog. In the end that story may have lead to nothing - but we shall never know.

And what the Left had to say about the war 2 years ago was pretty much what the Downing Street Memo confirms. If the television media had been doing its job at the time - i wonder how many lives would have been saved. And I am not a no war ever peace nic. I supported the war against the Taliban. String them all up and throw them off Empire State Building. I would have also supported a covert, muscular, war against Saddam - funded by us - fought by them. The guy is a son of a bitch. But not one American should have died, and to find out that we were lied to about it - then to have it take the hammering of millions of bloggers, to get major media to mention the memo after weeks of silence is shocking. We are talking about war in a democracy. Not price fixing or adultery. There does seem to be an ingrained fear of confronting Bush on the most important of issues, that actually is paranoia on the part of the press. They can't send everyone to the back of the room to sit with Helen Thomas. When did access become more important than truth?

I feel so strongly because I support our troops. What are we doing there? We need to know how this could have happened. After reading Michael Kinsley's last piece of idiocy any wise person should ask - what is going on here? Where is the other side of the issue? Aruba, I guess.

Of course, I do not represent all of California - nor do i think your column represents the "media" - I wish it did - but my views are in line with a hell of a lot of people that are routinely dismissed. It does freak me out a bit to remember how ruthless the press was with Clinton over nonsense and then watch reputable newscasts lead with Michael Jackson and 5.4 earthquakes (that NO ONE cares about out here) while a war is on. Ted Turner rightfully called it the "pervert of the day" news. Distraction television.

As for paranoid. well, paranoia with evidence to back it up - is actually wisdom. Until David Corn types get the same amount of air time as robert novak types I'd say I am right to be paranoid. And to repeat the mantra - every day those who were against the Iraq war and ignored are proven more and more correct. and those neo cons are proven to be short sighted fools. Since Americans are giving their lives and their treasure as I write I pray that you and others get to the bottom of the Downing Street Memos. I am very paranoid that W has created a generation of terrorists determined to attack my beloved, but now bankrupt, country. Oh well, it is a generation before the bills come in and Haliburton IS employing more Americans.

yours in paranoia,