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Seeing the world though dung-colored glasses

7 comments on Seeing the world though dung-colored glasses

Seeing the world though dung-colored glasses
: The Guardian‘s daily update tries to make it look as if we’re losing. Getaloada the headline:

Small successes outweighed

Confusion, looting and tension about Syria overshadow the few achievements of this war

It’s bad when you can fisk a headline.

Well, let’s see. We took Tikrit, the last major city in Iraq. Saddam is in control of nothing. I would say that is the mark of victory.

Our POWs were free. Let’s say that again: Our POWs were free.

The buses are running again in Baghdad as even al-Jazeera admits that order is returning.

Syria is not answering our scolds with taunts; it is acting like a dog that’s under control.

And we have arranged a meeting of Iraqi leaders this week to start creating Iraq’s first democratic government.

And all that happened in the last 24 hours. Looks like a pretty damned good day to me.

7 responses to “Seeing the world though dung-colored glasses”

  1. Roberto Avatar
    Roberto

    But what about the pottery? WHAT ABOUT THE POTTERY?
    Why didn’t the human shields worry about the musuems–did they think the Iraquis would respect this stuff? While I think it’s a shame, I don’t want to see Marines blasting away at some guy hauling off a bas-releif.

  2. neil Avatar
    neil

    That’s right.. you address only the headline, which was probably not written by the journalist himself anyway, and ignore the article, which makes no attempt to compare successes to problems or evaluate them as minor. The article, indeed, says that the “liberation” phase of the war is nearly complete and that “Iraqis are now free.”
    When the right-wing media cops have to resort to bashing poorly-written headlines in leftist newspapers, you know they’ve won.

  3. MoronWatch Avatar
    MoronWatch

    Mocking headlines wouldn’t be necessary if the editors actually read the stories, rather than having a point of view and sending reporters out to verify it.

  4. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    Neil,
    I work for a newspaper, and you’d be surprised at the number of readers who never get past the headline on most stories. Hence the fisking of headlines, especially if they don’t reflect the article, is vital.

  5. neil Avatar
    neil

    Sure, a lot of readers never get past the headline. And any reader who doesn’t read past the headline is bound to miss some critical information. In most articles that I’ve seen about the war, the critical information that would be that the successes are not unqualified, that there are some costs and some tensions. Do I see anyone fisking any of those headlines?
    The fact I don’t only indicates that the fisking squad thinks it’s more important that the people who aren’t fully informed receive information that’s prejudiced towards their opinion rather than the opponent’s opinion. And this is not a particularly respectable goal in my view.
    “You must judge a book by its cover, because that’s how most people judge it”?

  6. neil Avatar
    neil

    sorry.. “…the critical information that would be missed is that…”

  7. Puce Avatar
    Puce

    People at Baghdad uprising abouts American agressive! Goodbye Bush, you as not the good!

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