Whose Side Is Old Media On?

Over at the American Thinker, Alan Fraser has penned a good one about Old Media and their constant barrage of bad news concerning the War on Terror. It begs the question: Whose side are they on?

Well, let's take a look:

From the beginning of the War on Terror, the mainstream media has been working to bring home the bad news on the war, virtually to the exclusion of any good news. Even if they've had to fabricate it on occasion. Do you remember the "Mai Lai Massacre of the Iraq War?" It was a Time Magazine cover story in June of 2006. Christopher Matthews interviewed Congressman Jack Murtha (D-PA) on national television, and Murtha said that Marines, in cold blood, had executed more 20 innocent civilians in Haditha, Iraq. The media's story has been falling apart ever since.

Old Media jumped all over Mutha's comments as if they were gospel, but now that the truth has come to light and Murtha himself is the target of a slander suit, Old Media has become very quiet and withdrawn about the issue.

Alan continues:

On the front page of the January 26th Wall Street Journal appeared: "The Waiting -- Just Four U.S. Soldiers are Missing in Iraq. For Their Parents, it's a Lonely Vigil." This is a depressing and heart-rending story about the lives of those families whose solider sons are missing in Iraq. It's a subject especially disturbing to military families. In a time of war, this could be a good story to run if it were written to, let's say, provide a little balance to what otherwise might be an overwhelming supply of gung-ho-support-the-troops kind of stories. You know, a little sobering counterpoint to a plethora of overly flattering articles about the troops and the war. But do you think that's what's going on here? Of course not. There is no balance because there are virtually no favorable stories being written about the troops. From the MSM to Hollywood the media have an overwhelmingly negative view of our troops and they make that clear to us every day as they portray them as stupid, pathetic, often victims, often murderers, or against the war. And boy do they ever love stories about the infinitesimally small number who have turned against the war. The effect of such an article is to demoralize.

Which is exactly what Old Media has been trying to do, and their biggest cheerleaders for doing so have been the terrorists themselves. An excerpt of a letter from al-Zawahiri to al-Zarqawi, July 9, 2005:

"I say to you: that we are in a battle and that more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media. And that we are in a media battle in a race for the hearts and minds of our Umma. And that however far our capabilities reach, they will never be equal to one thousandth of the capabilities of the kingdom of Satan that is waging war on us."

So, whose side is Old Media on?

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Whose Side Are They On?
Alan Fraser
The American Thinker
February 8, 2008