11th April 2003, 8:35 PM
I am convinced that Fox News is attempting to spread the "chosen people" syndrome that comes with nationalism, and I'm saddened that people really connect with that. Somehow, on Fox News, two minority students ,who were protesting the war, came off as incoherent, while this old man who advocated using brutal tortures on terrorists came off as respectable. But there was more. Later, when a woman was advocating that we tone down our righteous attitude by avoiding the word "evil," the conservative correspondent stated, "The greatest power of the devil is that he can put evil right in front of our eyes and we don't see it." Talk about irony.
I am also worried by Fox New's vocabulary. Saddam and his "cronies?" What is this, Saturday morning cartoons? Generalizations of good and evil are what made us think that Saddam was reasonable in the first place...what made us give him anthrax...because, well, he was the enemy of Iran. When will we face the fact that the world is a bit more complex than checkers. I guess it's okay for the populace to believe that this is a Saturday morning cartoon where the good guys are going to win, but when it gets into the heads of the people that have to make world-altering decisions, that's when I get worried.
I guess this discussion of bias is all relative to the individual's perspective, which makes it pointless to discuss "who is more biased." However, after watching an hour of Arab television on C-Span, one cannot help but see the great divide between the Western view and the Arab view. Every single US news organization looks incredibly US-biased relative to Abu-Dhabi TV.
But it is not enough to simply remark, "Wow, look at that chasm." There must be a point at which the US recognizes that the Arab world, including Arab moderates, believes that the United States is a source of evil in the world. And if we act foolishly to this, we will make a sad assumption, one that scarily parallels the war for independence in Algeria. We will assume that they have offended us, and then very sad things happen. Because once we define this assumption, we clearly define who "us" is. And with an "us," there is a "them." Until finally there can be nothing but conflict.
I am also worried by Fox New's vocabulary. Saddam and his "cronies?" What is this, Saturday morning cartoons? Generalizations of good and evil are what made us think that Saddam was reasonable in the first place...what made us give him anthrax...because, well, he was the enemy of Iran. When will we face the fact that the world is a bit more complex than checkers. I guess it's okay for the populace to believe that this is a Saturday morning cartoon where the good guys are going to win, but when it gets into the heads of the people that have to make world-altering decisions, that's when I get worried.
I guess this discussion of bias is all relative to the individual's perspective, which makes it pointless to discuss "who is more biased." However, after watching an hour of Arab television on C-Span, one cannot help but see the great divide between the Western view and the Arab view. Every single US news organization looks incredibly US-biased relative to Abu-Dhabi TV.
But it is not enough to simply remark, "Wow, look at that chasm." There must be a point at which the US recognizes that the Arab world, including Arab moderates, believes that the United States is a source of evil in the world. And if we act foolishly to this, we will make a sad assumption, one that scarily parallels the war for independence in Algeria. We will assume that they have offended us, and then very sad things happen. Because once we define this assumption, we clearly define who "us" is. And with an "us," there is a "them." Until finally there can be nothing but conflict.