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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Gray Lady, Grim Agenda |
| 2007-06-05 |
| Terror plot? What terror plot? That's what The New York Times seems to be asking, even as most news outlets are giving front-page coverage to the recently foiled scheme to blow up JFK Airport's fuel pipeline. The paper's goal seems to be getting America to lower its guard - which can only lead to disaster. The suspects were "Short on Cash / And a Long Way From Realizing Goals," one Times headline insisted yesterday. Regarding two of the men arrested, a second headline asserted that "Neither Seemed an Extremist." Indeed, on Sunday the paper barely covered the arrests of three suspects behind the plot: Its main story appeared 37 pages back. A second piece undermined the significance of that story: "Plot Was Unlikely To Work, Experts Say, Citing Safeguards and Pipeline Structure." OK, so these guys had no weapons or mountains of money on hand. But they had deep, passionate intent - to do grave damage to this country. And they represented a brand of terrorist that might be even more deadly than al Qaeda's thugs: the kind that builds hatred toward America and takes it upon himself to vent that hatred in some deadly freelance plot. While their crude planning might often - thankfully - fail, such plotters need to succeed but once. Even a partial success could be horrific. Yet far more important to the Times than the prospect of a plot aiming to out-do 9/11 were front-page stories about: * The debate over the legality of detaining "boy fighters" in the Guantanamo prison camp. * How the brick laying trade in India is benefiting peasants. * Proper upkeep for "the most treasured violins." Let's be clear here: The "paper of record" isn't guilty of merely poor news judgment. It's got an agenda. Numerous newspapers understood the gravity of a plot against New York by terrorist upstarts from a seemingly unlikely part of the world - the Caribbean, just a few hours from U.S. shores. The Washington Post, for example, put the story on its front page Sunday. Nor is the Times' coverage of this story a quirk: The paper has downplayed several other terror cases because the plotters were "merely" in the "talking" stage. Last month, after the Fort Dix Six case came to light, the paper ran a piece called "Informer's Role Draws Praise and Questions" - casting doubt on "the legitimacy of the investigations" because of the role of an FBI informer. None of that should matter. The point is, an unknown number of ruthless actors around the world - some in our backyard - continue to emerge and threaten the nation. No doubt the 9/11 plot also once seemed like something no one could pull off. Mayor Bloomberg yesterday had the right approach: "We take every single potential threat to our populace very seriously . . . [Cops] go through every single potential threat. If it turns out not to be substantive, that's the best scenario we could possibly hope for." For the Times, though, the only terror plot worth worrying about is . . . a successful one. It ought to be ashamed of itself. |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #3 #2 tu - where can I contribute to their (one-way) bus fare? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-06-05 16:25 |
| #2 Send a buncha illegal Mexicans out to the Hamptons to piss on Pinchy's bushes. I'll bet he'd want an airstrike called in |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-06-05 14:53 |
| #1 If I didn't know THIS was Scrappleface I would swear it was true. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2007-06-05 11:51 |