Garbanzo Toons

How Well Do Newspapers Report the News?

The one argument that I've read from people who don't wish newspapers to fade away - as they seem to be doing, is that without our daily paper, there would be no reporters braving uncomfortable and disquieting situations around the world in order to inform us of the happenings in far away places and in our own back yard. That's almost a plausible excuse to keep newspapers being printed, until I think of the simply awful coverage of Israel from my local papers and the slim to nonexistent coverage of other trouble spots that don't involve Jews or Israel.

For example, how much do you know about the civil war that's been raging in Sri Lanka for the past 30 years? Sure, you may be aware of it, maybe you can even name the main players; the government vs. the Tamil Tigers. But what about the thousands of civilians who have been killed, injured, and displaced during this war? Where are the reports and the outcry from the various "peace" and "human rights" groups?

This war entered my view today because Vanderleun over at American Digest has a post on it.

In other news that hasn't been reported by my local papers:

(IsraelNN.com) For the second time in less than a week, a packed Brooklyn, New York, synagogue has been the target of threats of violence by intruders.

On Monday, according to Yeshiva World News, an Arab man in his mid-30s entered Boro Park's 'Sephardish Shul' and began making proclamations of jihad. Members of a Jewish volunteer security organization, the Shomrim, apprehended the threatening individual. They held him until police officers arrived at the scene, arresting the suspect. Detectives spoke with the "Middle Eastern man" at a station house near the synagogue.

Police officials reminded the community, "If you see something, say something." Security in Brooklyn's heavily Jewish Boro Park area has been stepped up during the Purim holiday.

Just two days earlier, a man wielding a butcher's knife burst into a Kerestir Chassidic synagogue in Williamsburg. He initially turned up unarmed and began throwing soda cans at the gathered worshipers, which hit one of them, and returned shortly thereafter with the bladed weapon.

The attacker was prevented from using the butcher's knife on anyone by a young man, described as a "friend" of the knife-wielding intruder, who then fled together with him.

The recent attacks come just over a month after Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn was targeted in a series of English-language jihadist videos posted on the Internet. The videos and accompanying texts singled out "770," but also intimated that all Orthodox Jewish organizations were equally worthy of attack by Muslims. The threatening material included images of the 770 synagogue and study house, pictures of the police van out front, and indications of which parts of the building are crowded at what times.

The source of the thinly-veiled threats, a group called Revolution Muslim, is domestic to the United States.

Yes, that was the entire article - from an Israeli newspaper. I'm guessing that this attack was roundly ignored by the American press in general, not just by my local papers. Can you imagine the hysterical outcries though, if a Jew intruded on or threatened violence during a service at a mosque? Yow!

And then there's this incident, the anniversary of which is today, the 1977 Hanafi Siege. I don't recall it at all, but back in '77, I had other things on my mind. According to Wikipedia,

The 1977 Hanafi Siege refers to an incident that occurred March 9-11, 1977, in which three buildings in Washington, D.C. were seized by 12 gunmen. They were held responsible for taking 149 hostages and the death of two people. After a 39 hour standoff all hostages were released from the District Building (city hall) – now called the John A. Wilson Building, B'nai B'rith headquarters, and the Islamic Center.

One of those killed was 24-year-old Maurice Williams, a young radio reporter from WHUR-FM, who stepped off a fifth floor elevator into the crisis. (The fifth floor is where the Mayor and City Council President have their offices). The gunmen also shot DC Protective Service Division, Special Police Officer Mack Cantrell, who died a few days later in the hospital of a heart attack. Then-D.C. council member, later mayor, Marion Barry walked into the hallway of the District Building after hearing a commotion and was hit by a ricocheted shotgun pellet just above his heart. He was taken out a window and rushed to a hospital.

The gunmen had several demands. They "wanted the government to hand over a group of men who had been convicted of killing seven relatives – mostly children – of takeover leader Hamaas Khaalis. They also demanded that the movie Mohammad, Messenger of God be destroyed because they considered it sacrilegious."[1]

Time magazine noted: "That the toll was not higher was in part a tribute to the primary tactic U.S. law enforcement officials are now using to thwart terrorists—patience. But most of all, perhaps, it was due to the courageous intervention of three Muslim ambassadors, Egypt's Ashraf Ghorbal, Pakistan's Sahabzada Yaqub-Khan and Iran's Ardeshir Zahedi."[2]

There's more, of course, but the main thing is that we have to keep reminding ourselves that attacks on Jews by Muslims are not recent. They began at the beginning of Islam. They continue to this day, because no matter how much the apologists want the world to believe that the fault lies with Jews, Zionists, Israel, or its policies, the sickening fact is, Muslims have always had a reason for oppressing and murdering Jews . . . and Christians . . . and any other infidel who happened to cross their bloody path. But they continue to deny responsibility for all of the death and destruction they have caused since their rise in the seventh century.

If our newspapers were worth the paper they were printed on, they would speak truth to power and report boldly and truthfully on the pathologies of Islam. Until they do, and if they ever do, I'm not sure I'll miss them.

Labels: American Digest, Hanafi Muslim Siege, islam, Jews, MSM, Muslim anti-semitism, Newspapers

posted by Harry @ 8:58 PM