06w23:1 Andrew Mitrovica on the media Posted June 7th, 2006 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2006 week 23 number 1 (Andrew Mitrovica on the media) Sometimes things happen which seem to show that the MSM is a world unto itself, engaged in exhibitionism rather broadcasting, or god forbid, informing. Take last summer’s CBC strike/lockout, when CBC employees thought the rest of the country cared about their squabbling. (Uh, no it was August, there was better things to do, and other channels to watch). Now, they think Canada’s had it’s own 9/11 (uh, no not yet and let’s hope it stays that way). Anrdew Mitrovica made excellent points about this on this morning’s Metro Morning (link below). Admittedly, I live in my own little bubble and don’t get out as much as I used to. But it seems clear that the media are blowing this thing way out of proportion, even if I don’t really have first hand accounts about no one caring. So what that some kids were planning to blow up the Peace Tower? I mean really? Isn’t this old and boring and so franco-canadian circa 1970? And big deal that there was mention of beheading the PM? Why is no one is laughing at these ridiculous plans, plans made ridiculous by the very fact that they were caught. If they’d been really serious about being a menace to society, they would not have been. Which remains an understandable concern about who might be out there. But can it not be said that the grandiose foolishness of these plans reveals their fundamental incompetence to carry them out? The beheading of the Prime Minister for example – how exactly was that supposed to happen? At what point were the RCMP going to be looking the other way long enough for some spotty boy to do the deed? Please. And yet it’s being turned into something serious as opposed to the stupid fantasies of teenagers. And we should remember this – take away the USA’s war on terror propaganda and rhetoric, the flaccid ideas about a war on freedom and hating our way of life, the fact that these are Muslims, and you just have disillusioned young men who are as dangerous as those that became the IRA, the FLQ, the ETA and on and on …. which is why it’s a good thing they were stopped in their tracks before they did any real damage, but let’s not forget that throughout history teenage boys have always been prone to do stupid things because they found a hero: instead of 43 year old Qayyum Abdul Jamal in 2006, you could read 35 year old Guy Fawkes in 1605. Are we going to behead Jamal and have Jamal dummies burned in effigy for the next four hundred years? Will this become the much sought after June holiday? Further, when news of this broke on Friday night I remembered something I wrote last July, when London had happened and everyone was supposed to be scared to ride the subway. At the time, our Minister of Public Safety (or whatever the exact title is) Anne McLellan essentially threw her hands into the air and said it was a matter of time before it happened here. Nothing much we could do about it. Let’s have a national discussion to prepare for the day. A defeatist attitude that pissed me off. Why, I questioned, should this be so? Was CSIS incompetent? I’m glad to see that they in fact are not, and that as I wrote those words then they were in fact doing their job quite well. But, as Andrew Mitrovica reminds us, buying their side of the story without question isn’t a good idea. We know all too well how the US media got most of the American public convinced that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 with their negligence of skepticism. We further know that Gitmo probably houses innocent people, which (hopefully) will one day lead to criminal charges toward those responsible. The media’s exhibitionism and frenzy for an exciting story has convicted these boys before trial, and fed latent bigotry and xenophobia which makes me question whether Canada’s famed tolerance isn’t simply the result of laziness and docility on the part of the bastards to be vocal about it until something like this comes along to make them feel secure in expressing their ignorant points of view. Anyway, this Goodreads is merely a response to current events. More stuff from the backlog is on the way. – Timothy ——————————————————————— Media need to ask tough questions | Andrew Mitrovica http://tinyurl.com/zrl3p “The headlines were disturbing. ‘Terror Suspects Plotted in Toronto.’ ‘CN Tower Threatened.’ I didn’t pluck these ominous headlines from weekend newspapers blaring word of the police case against 17 alleged ‘terrorists.’ They were written three years ago by scoop-thirsty papers announcing another suspected cabal of terrorists plotting mayhem and murder in Toronto. The news stories accompanying the headlines quoted seemingly unimpeachable documents and conveniently anonymous intelligence sources that provided chilling ‘details’ of the nest of terrorists conspiring in our midst. ” Credibility Of Charges? | CBC Metro Morning (Toronto) http://cbc.ca/metromorning/media/20060607MTRJUN7.ram “Andy Barrie spoke with Andrew Mitrovica, former national security reporter with the Globe and Mail.” —————————————- Long links made short by using TinyUrl (http://www.tinyurl.com) To remove or add yourself to this list, go here http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com emailed by Timothy on Wednesday 07 June 2006 @ 1:59 PM
