FANTASY LAND: US Media--------------
We have criticized the NY Times in the past, and we want to say something good about America's flagship publication when they truly earn it. This Sunday's front page story on Obama really proves that the NY Times can still do insightful, hard hitting, investigative reporting.
What was the subject you asked? Why whether Obama had smoked reefer during his adolescent years. No time or expense was spared getting to the facts. Dozens of friends and classmates of Obama were interviewed. Sort of makes you proud that the NY Times would go out on a limb for this type of important thing. Talk about the peoples' right to know in a democracy!
Obama, of course, has written that he did smoke a little as a teenager. But this fact didn't deter the courageous reporters at the NY Times. After gathering all the facts and testimony, they concluded that it is hard to pin down exactly how much and how often Obama had smoked. And in the type of a logical analysis that the NY Times is famous for, they laid the blame squarely on Obama. Why, he hadn't been forthright in his book! He should have specified how many joints and on what days!
But trash journalism is really what the NY Times is all about. Dressed up in college degrees, its stories are no more informative than those in the Post or the Daily News. In fact, the other two NY papers would never publish something so pseudo intellectual and boring.
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Pretty good news about Iran.
The UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Saturday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been making "good progress" to solve Iran's nuclear crisis.
"Good progress" has been made in finishing the outstanding issues on Iran's controversial nuclear programs, ElBaradei told a group of high-profile diplomats at a key security conference in the southern German city of Munich.
ElBaradei is expected to issue a report around Feb. 20 on IAEA's inquiry into Iran's nuclear activities.
But this is good news only if you live outside the US. Media bubble. The NY Times didn't carry the story. You would have to read it in China View News:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/09/content_7584706.htm
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Well, bad news out of Russia. Our military buildup and invasions of other countries have kick-started the arms race:
Vladimir Putin has used one of the last major speeches of his presidency to deliver a defiant message to the West, accusing it of unleashing a new arms race that left Moscow no choice but to retaliate in kind. Less than a month before presidential elections that his hand-picked successor is almost certain to win, the speech removed any lingering doubts that Russian foreign policy might become less aggressive after Mr. Putin steps down.
“It’s clear that a new arms race is unfolding in the world,” said Mr. Putin, one that Russia did not start. And he vowed that Russia would respond to the threats by developing newer and more modern weapons that were as good as if not better than those possessed by Western countries. “We are being forced into retaliating … Russia has and always will have the answers to these challenges,” he said.
In addition, a new report written by Frida Berrigan (guest on Activist Radio last week) states that: "The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration is pushing for an estimated $150 billion to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons...This proposal would build on the Bush administration’s quiet surge in nuclear weapons spending...The U.S. is still spending one-third more than the Cold War average on nuclear weapons."
But to read the NY Times or to listen to CNN, such stories don't exist. Nothing is said or printed about the new arms race, because that might call into question America's gigantic increase in military spending. Not good propaganda, so Putin's statements and the US nuclear buildup just didn't happen. For this news, you would have to go outside this country to the Independent in the UK:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/a-new-phase-in-the-arms-race-is-unfolding-says-putin-780183.html
