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Am I the only one who in a deeply cynical mind believes that the three twenty four hour news channels along with the networks must be rejoicing at the news of a school massacre?
I can’t help but think that these news channel wannabes must thank their gods of tragedy and mayhem for this latest horror at Virginia tech. Something finally came up that could make them look busy and more importantly concerned with matters of more consequence than the death of Anna Nicole Smith.
For weeks on end we had to absorb an unbearable dose of what they called “the latest” on her death, paternity test results etc while genuine news was happening all over the world but completely off the radar.
It does not take much to find newsworthy information we wished the networks could elaborate and expand on. One such event affected and upset me personally and that is the US bombing of a suspected Al Qaeda hideout in Somalia a few weeks ago.
Nothing came of said campaign and we were never told who was killed and more importantly how many innocent civilians did perish needlessly.
Another even greater point came to my mind right away and that is of course the question “by what right does one country (USA) bomb another when it deems it necessary on its own?” No one even cried foul anywhere around the world!
Can one even imagine if the opposite had happened? Had Somalia bombed the suburbs of DC, Philly or NY, the world would have stopped once again and the Somali government would have been called a terrorist regime. Retaliations would have ensued and America’s view and wrath would have resounded around the globe.
Another double standard perturbed me as well this past week; After the campus horror in VA took place, we were dealt non-stop coverage from every angle of the crime itself, the profile of the murderer (whom nobody called a terrorist) the effect on the students that survived the ordeal and so on.
Everyone involved was speaking of the psychological effects of such a traumatic experience and rightly so but the very next day we all got a reminder of a place that suffered similar attacks and much worse ones two or three times daily, Iraq!
A few terrorist bombings in Baghdad killed one hundred and sixty people and of course none of the networks spoke of the psychological toll there!
We are certainly never exposed in depth or detail to the toll this war has had on the children of Iraq and what may come of them as they grow up to be mature adults. The same can also be said of the American soldiers returning scarred for life and their families that are left to suffer the consequences of their emotional distress.
It seems that the network filters are hard at work finding ways to prevent America from seeing the daily realities of this ongoing slaughter where no one can or will win for there is nothing to win and certainly no prize to be had anytime soon.
We do not get to see the unbelievable number of coffins returning to the homeland to be buried, we do not see funerals or interviews with outraged parents. What we do get see and hear is praise for heroism on the part of the fallen and how they loved serving their country.
There has been a systematic editing of stories of defectors and their angle on the matter. The same powers that be have also decided that we would not be exposed to the stories of Iraqis who now live in so called refugee camps and that are going hungry everyday because of America’s “liberation” of their country.
In the eyes of the news networks it seems that twenty four hour coverage of one American story for days on end, makes more sense than bringing to the fore other tragedies around the world such as the terrorism now taking place in Morocco or Algeria, the elections in Spain or France and so forth.
Virginia tech was most certainly a tragic incident but more tragic I feel is the lack of focus on much greater suffering in the world from Sudan to Ivory-Coast and beyond.
It is time that “we the people” demanded better “equality and justice for all” news items from around the globe.
What do you Think?
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