Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Are The MSM Committing War Crimes ?

The way the MSM’s ‘Qana massacre’ meme is being shot to pieces, expect them to be demanding an immediate cease-fire soon. EU Referendum led off, while Confederate Yankee and NRO’s media blog also raise good points. Come to think of it, isn't this kind of pounding all very.....disproportionate ?

Ah yes, that's the thing, of course. The MSM have been seeking Israeli war crimes for weeks, but the only confirmed casaulty has been the English language. They tried to claim Israel was committing a war crime by bombing infrastructure but, strangely, few people were enraged by allegations of the ruthless murder of flyovers, while others wondered why, if screwing up the transport system was a war crime, Ken Livingstone wasn't on trial at the Hague.

Ditto, all the MSM's hysterical blathering about 'disprortionality' boiled down to a complaint that the Israelis weren't letting themselves get killed nearly enough. No wonder the MSM were so keen to carry Hezbollah's latest snuff movie. At least they don't have to try and conjure up some insane legal principles out of thin air to explain why the death of the innocent is genuinely horrific.

The Yang of the MSM’s desperate attempts to try to find some way – any way – to call Israelis war criminals requires the Yin of a determined effort to avoid the elephant on the table, namely that Israel wouldn’t be ‘committing’ these pretend war crimes anyway, if it wasn’t for Hezbullah committing actual, real war crimes by placing military assets in civilian areas. There’s no word games required here: it’s a gross violation of the rules of war – the more so, as it appears to be an act of deliberate policy. Libs keep yammering about international law, well, here it is: the blame lies with the side that positions their forces in civilian areas, not the attacker. Not that you’d know this from the MSM.

That’s the other thing. Liberals consider Qana proof positive of the evils of Israel, but it’s equally revealing about the MSM. We know Hezbullah likes to site its launchers in civilian towns. Partly that’s to make it harder for Israel to find them, but isn’t it also to garner favourable publicity when the inevitable collateral damage happens ?

It’s not as if the MSM - with a few honourable exceptions - has any apparent scruples about carrying even blatant propaganda. Consider the evidence from EU Referendum, it’s quite obvious that the pictures the MSM presented as representing a ‘rescue operation’ were nothing of the sort. At best, they were dramatic reconstructions. Yet, the MSM reported them as genuine. All of which raises the question: haven’t the MSM crossed the line from sympathetic observer of Hezbullah lunacy to active participants ?

What I’m saying is this: Hezbullah are conducting military operations from civilian areas secure in the knowledge that the MSM will not only use the consequences to indict Israel, but that they will do so in the teeth of the evidence. In other words, Hezbullah’s war crimes are predicated on the support of the MSM. The MSM’s reluctance to cover issues such as, say, Hezbullah’s policy of preventing the evacuation of civilians is not merely contemptible – it makes them a part of the crime.

By the way, lest any Liberals want to claim that our MSM – multiple layers of fact checking and all – is just being bamboozled by the slick media skills of Hezbullah, I would remind them of the death sentence passed on former commander of the Japanese Army in the Philippines, Tomoyuki Yamashita. The General was sentenced to death for atrocities committed by the men under his command, not because he ordered them, or was even aware of them, but because he should have been aware of, and should have acted to prevent, these atrocities. After Qana, the MSM can never again claim that they didn’t have grounds for suspicion.

If nothing else, can we be spared Fergal Keane’s ostentatious emoting ? Not when we now know that Father Fergal of the Fractured Heart has no problem with dead kids being used for five hour photo ops. This isn’t about journalistic ethics this is about basic, common or garden decency.

Equally, we are no longer talking about ‘bias’. The MSM’s reporting is actively aiding the commission of war crimes. Hezbullah puts civilians in harm’s way, the MSM uses the subsequent casualties to denounce Israel. Each feeds off the other, both are guilty. Just something to be borne in mind next time the MSM waxes lyrical about the West losing ‘moral authority’.

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