Media Mega-Hyperbole Regarding Terrorism

The media could be front-line fighters against terrorism, simply by refusing to cover it, or to cover it briefly as cowardly acts of criminals. By acting bravely, the media could act to choke off the flow of recruits and resources to the misogynist criminal thugs who run terrorist organizations.

That the media choose instead to aggrandize the destructive behavior of these psychopaths, to offer them billions of dollars in free publicity, to further terrorist aims by fanning fear in an easily led population, is an act so heinous that there should be a criminal penalty for it.

I am aware that in the United States, the Constitution provides cover for the cowardly, dollar-chasing titillation that passes for news coverage from most major outlets. But honestly, the Constitution does not protect all speech (like crying “fire!” in a crowded theater). There must be some limit, if not motivated by patriotism, than enforced by law.

“But it’s News,” cry the journalists. “We mustn’t turn our face away.”

Fine, whatever. Be a witness. Make the information available. But stop with they hyperbole, already.

The latest attack in Paris was described everywhere I looked as “sophisticated”. Really? The most sophisticated thing about this attack was agreeing on a time to start shooting. In fact, the shooters screwed that up; starting half an hour sooner would have resulted in many more deaths at the stadium. Oh, I guess encrypted comms are sophisticated. They are indeed so sophisticated that absolutely everyone with a $50 smartphone can use them. And given the blatently-illegal-if-it-would-ever-get-its-day-in-court behavior of the NSA, maybe we should. Seven guys with guns and grenades, and improvised bombs? A supposedly fearsome organization such as Daesh should be embarrassed to achieve so little. And the media should freakin’ say so!

When I think of sophisticated, I think of ten megajoule naval railguns. I think of aircraft-mounted anti-missile lasers. I think stealth fighters, ballistic missile submarines, and spy satellites. I don’t think of seven guys with Kalashnikovs and grenades. Effective, for killing unarmed and unwarned civilians, yes. But sophisticated? Puh-lease.

Parisians are bravely making individual choices to venture out into the suddenly less-safe streets of their city, so as not to let the terrorists win. I applaud their choices. Meamwhile media trumpet trembling headlines of “a city in fear”. It’s a good thing the Nightly News is broadcast for free. If I was paying for it, I could cancel my subscription in protest.

If one single muslim gets beat up by drunken yahoos riled up by repeated media references to “Islamist radicals”, it’s the media’s fault, and that of the yahoos of course. If one single mosque gets burned, one swarthy youth gets hassled (or shot dead) by police, I hold the media responsible. The media sponsor terrorism the way beer sponsors football. The media create terrorism, offer it aid and comfort. And all for money, though well disguised with blather about freedom.

We don’t need hand-wringing coverage of atrocious acts in foreign countries to make us free. It’s an easy argument that this airtime and paper could far better be spent titilating news readers with details of the corruption of domestic politics, and the ridiculous posturing demagoguery of some of our political candidates. A truly free media might go so far as to unearth the web of corporations and lobbyists that torque the political system for the benefit of their rich clients. Where is that journalism? Why isn’t that front page news?

Oh yeah, because industrial conglomerates own TV networks, because evil corporations buy advertizing, and because unmasking demagoguery offends the fans of demagogues. Well never mind then. Move along citizens, nothing to see here.

If readers are as disturbed as I am by the banality of the media, they should say so. Write letters, boycott advertizers, petition congress for some legal relief. Don’t let the media tell you what to fear. The media is a powerful weapon. It’s about time we took that weapon out of the hands of those killers and turned it the other way around.