MSM Fails The Test

From the Augean Stables blog: The Media and the Dysfunctions of the 21st Century: Address at the 7th Annual Herzliya Conference:

Let me cut to the chase. If this wondrous experiment in human freedom that was launched on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 18th century survives to the middle of the 21st century, historians will look back on the performance of the MSM in the first decade of that century, in particular its coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and give the journalists’ “first draft of history” an F.

- An F for failing to source-check – any impartial study will show that journalists systematically and incorrectly favored Palestinian over Israelis sources of information during the Intifada
- An F for failing to correct their errors — leaving Israel between libel and silence.
- An F for obsessively reporting the Arab Israeli conflict while people suffered from genocidal campaigns in other parts of the world
- An F for giving into intimidation and practicing access journalism without informing their public
- An F for scarcely mentioning the tidal wave of paranoia and hatred that currently dominates the Muslim media
- An F for echoing and amplifying the demonizing narratives told about Israel which they treat with unqualified credulity
- And F for allowing our media to be exploited by totalitarian forces as a theater of war rather than protecting that civic public trust from such vicious propaganda.
So when historians look back, I think they will identify the MSM’s appalling performance as one of the main sources the West’s vulnerability to Global Jihad at the beginning of this century. How else can we explain the astounding success of what, only a decade ago, seemed like a racist bad joke: Islam wants to take over Europe? You must be kidding.