Media in the 21st Century: Objective or Objectionable?

Approximately one month ago today, I watched the news coverage of Saddam Hussein’s execution on a major news network. I listened closely as an endless cavalcade of “experts” commented on all of the whats, whys, whens, and hows of the death of this horrible dictator. I also listened as both “sides of the aisle” gave their opinion of this event. I watched in utter disbelief to an American reporter who stated that the trial was unfair, that Saddam didn’t deserve to die, and furthermore, that the American government forced the hand of Iraq to get rid of Saddam as soon as possible. This is a man who may have been responsible for the deaths of up to and maybe in excess of 300,000 of his own people; not to mention over 1.5 million deaths due to wars that he started in the Middle East. This is a man who used a U.N. program, aimed at assisting those in need in his country, to build palaces and support his lavish lifestyle, all while watching his people starve to death. This is a man who was paying families of suicide bombers to kill Israeli men, women, and children. This is a man who developed a plot to assassinate a former President of the United States. All of these things and much more and this reporter sounded as if she would have been more pleased if Saddam had been returned to power in Iraq; essentially being allowed to continue his history of tyranny, death and destruction in his own country. Not to mention his potential for terror in the rest of the world. How soon we forget?

In a report from December 29, 2006, the news mentioned all of the “thousands” of people who are protesting the death of Saddam in Iraq and promising vengeance for his death. I listened, but did not hear one shred of news about the much larger majority of people in Iraq who were rejoicing that the tyranny, at least in their minds, was finally over. Iraq has two main groups of Muslims: Sunni and Shi’ite. Sunnis make up about 15% of the population; Shi’ites, a group that Saddam terrorized during his reign, make up about 65% of the population. Saddam was a Sunni Muslim.

I also watched as the news reported that we had “finally” reached the 3,000 milestone with respect to the number of U.S. deaths in Iraq. I thought about that word ‘finally’. I use the word finally in very different ways. For example, I finally lost that 10 pounds I need to lose or maybe, I finally finished that report. Finally is a word used when speaking of positive things in most cases, yet this news reporter used it when describing the death of a soldier, who in the minds of the media is sadly, nothing more than a number.

The worst part of the reporting of the Iraq war is that, believe it or not, there is some good news coming out of that new democracy. By the end of 2006, more than 2,600 projects had been completed. Energy has been supplied to over 1.3 million homes, 838 schools have been constructed or rehabilitated, and 15 hospital rehabilitation jobs have been completed. For more good news, visit http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTQwM2ExODNhMjRmMTczODM1OTc0MmVmNDRiNTM5MzE= . Yet, do we hear any of this in the mainstream media? That would be a BIG Negative!

In addition to all of this “true” reporting, can any of you remember the last time you saw a Presidential approval rating poll on the news on a consistent basis. Just a few months ago, it was a daily occurrence, yet now we hardly hear a word about it. What happened to change that? An election maybe?? Another example of true “objectivity” in the media today or another example of the media trying to hijack an election? The news in the 21st century is about as ‘non-biased’ as George Steinbrenner watching a Yankees-Sox game.

The news has made painstaking efforts to run the war in Iraq their way. They have also made what seems to be a successful attempt to use bias to win an election. And yet, they claim to present an objective point of view…not left…and not right. What a load of crap!