Thursday, December 21, 2006

On Tuesday's Grapevine, Brit Hume devotes a segment to an attempt to convey just how awesome things are in Iraq these days:

Huge Economic Growth

What country has seen a growth in its gross domestic project of 17 percent last year — and an estimated 13 percent this year? An increase in the number of registered companies of more than 400 percent and in salaries by 100 percent in three years? The answer — Iraq.

Newsweek magazine reports the economy in Iraq is "booming." And Newsweek acknowledges that this is getting little or no media exposure — writing — "there's a vibrancy at the grass roots that is invisible in most international coverage of Iraq." Speaking of Iraq — hundreds of people are lining up for what is becoming the hottest job opening in that country — executioner for Saddam Hussein. The Ledger reports people have sent messages through cabinet officials, government guards and clerical workers begging for the job. An advisor to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says picking a hangman will be very difficult "because so many people want revenge for the loss of their loved ones."

Another issue — where the execution will be held. One idea was to have it in Baghdad's largest sports arena. But most officials say it will probably happen at a specially built gallows at the American prison where Hussein is currently held — Camp Cropper. Hussein's death sentence is currently working its way through the appeals process.

Brit Hume's summary of the Newsweek piece, is, however, notably selective and one sided. To give just one example: while Hume reports a 17% increase in GDP for the year, he fails to note that another estimate cited in the Newsweek piece actually places GDP growth at a far less stunning 4%:

Estimates vary, but one from Global Insight puts GDP growth at 17 percent last year and projects 13 percent for 2006. The World Bank has it lower: at 4 percent this year. But, given all the attention paid to deteriorating security, the startling fact is that Iraq is growing at all.

Nor does Hume mention other aspects of the Newsweek peice, such as that much of the economy is built upon the spoils of government corruption, or that the economy would likely collapse without the presence of the country's greatest benefactor: the U.S.

Friday, Dec 1, 2001

Today's Grapevine is hosted by Chris Wallace, a Fox News "journalist" known mostly for his nakedly partisan interviews of prominent Democrats and his insistence that, contrary to all available evidence, he approaches his subjects in a fair and balanced manner. But on Brit Hume's Grapevine Wallace once again demonstrates how ideology trumps journalistic ethics at Fox News. In a segment headlined "Animal Rights Activists" Wallace claims:

Animal Rights Activists

There's at least one front in the war on terror — even the ACLU is backing. President Bush has signed a new law giving federal authorities expanded powers to prosecute animal rights activists—which the State Department warns are a more serious day-to-day threat than terrorists— for US companies overseas.

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act will make it easier for the FBI to wiretap and prosecute animal rights activists who target researchers among others. Such harassment ranges— from late-night phone calls, to vandalism, assault, and even death threats.

The opening sentence "There's at least one front in the war on terror -even the ACLU is backing" is completely superfluous, given that the ACLU is never again mentioned in the segment. In fact, the statement is little more than an unashamedly partisan swipe at the civil rights organization, and a libeous one, too, given that no evidence is given to support Wallace's contention that the ACLU opposes the so-called "war on terror." Instead, it is simply taken as a given that the ACLU's opposition to measures that curtail the rights of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals on U.S. soil is part and parcel with opposition to the struggle against radical Islamic terrorism. For Wallace and Fox News, you either believe that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are dispansable, or you're with the terrorists.

Next Wallace eagerly and enthusiastically promotes the ridiculous Fox News meme that there is an ongoing "war on Christmas." But this war is not only taking plce in the U.S. In fact, as it turns out, there's actually a global war on Christmas, as evidenced by:

Scary St. Nick?

And the "war on Christmas"— also goes on overseas. A ban on Saint Nicholas in Vienna's kindergartens is being enforced in response to pressure from Austria's growing Muslim population. City officials contend it's not about religion — that the sight of a large, bearded figure in school can frighten children. But one child psychiatrist says that's "total nonsense"— adding that Saint Nick is a "positive figure who encourages and rewards children."

Every year that I have walked this Earth, I have witnessed Christmas coming earlier and earlier, so that it has largely swallowed up Thanksgiving and is now even showing signs of encroaching on Halloween (and I'm not talking about Tim Burton's "Nightmare before Christmas," either). The economic inplications of the holiday season are enormous. I just recently learned, for instance, that the reason retailer refer to the Friday after Thankgiving as "black Friday" is because it is the frist day of the year that many businesses can actually report an operating profit, that is, their books are "in the black" for the first time that day. So the notion that the holiday season is in any danger is simply a laughable one. Of course, most Fox News commentators also seek to imply that the "war on Christams" is evidenced by the claimed fact that the holiday is becoming more secularized. However, one is left to wonder why it is a supposedly impartial news organization would report on this supposed secular turn as an alarming and corrosive development. That's not a fair and balanced perspective, but rather, a partisan, evangelical one. Ultimately, though, the fact that Fox has to go all the way to Vienna to dig up a newsworthy example demonstrates the extent to which this phoney war is manufactured, packaged and sold to the U.S. public exclusively by the conservative ideologues who run Fox News.