Tuesday, April 03, 2012

And that's why they post "Don't feed the Tyrant" signs

Dar Addustour reports that Nouri al-Maliki, prime minister and chief thug of the ongoing occupation, met with Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Iraqi ambassadors to inform them (why?) that although Iraq still lacks basic services -- due to the war and the actions of the previous regime -- the county is ready to be a region leader.

And that's yet another reason the press shouldn't whore.

Nouri is the "previous regime." He's been prime minister since 2006. But thanks to the press making excuses and handing out awards for showing up, he can make these idiotic statements pretty sure that no one will call him out on them or really question them.

The American press, the dying American press, has been as responsible for corruption in the last decades as any government partner. Domestically, they have refused (repeatedly) to alert the public to what proposed laws would actually do. This is how we ended up with, among other things, the foreclosure nightmares, the economic crisis and so much more.

They have forgotten their role is to serve the people. Instead of focusing on how the news would impact people, they worhsipped the leaders. That's also how and why they sold the illegal Iraq War.

And you can see it at play in the foreign coverage today as well. The false assertions that the Arab League Summit was an Iraqi success and that Nouri was a success for pulling it off, that wasn't about providing real coverage, that wasn't about what it meant for the Iraqi people.

It was providing p.r. for a leader. A thug and wanna be dicator.

And confronted with their whoring, they can (and two did) provide a host of rationalizations. They can be highly inventive, in fact. It's just the truth and the supposed purpose of their profession that they sturggle with.

The Arab League Summit was a failure for Iraq. We go through reason by reason in Third's "Editorial: Successful summit for Iraq?." But in addition to that, stamping "success" on it for it taking place is also highly insulting to the other Arab countries.

Is the press really suggesting that the Arab League would risk their own members' lives? Or pretending that the Arab League (and individual countries) did not provide their own security?

The judgment and work of all the other countries are erased -- the same way the Iraqi people got erased -- to create the lie that Nouri al-Maliki is a success.

They have stroked the ego of the tyrant when they should have held him accountable. Let's hope they're willing to take accountability for their own actions as Nouri's newly inflated ego combines with his pre-existing paranoi to do heaven only knows what next. More secret prisons? More targeting of political rivals? More attacks on journalists?

But don't worry, Nouri just sues western journalists so those repeating the spin will be fine and dandy. It's the Iraqi journalists who will have to live with any real fallout. Just as it was the Iraqi journalists who were the most likely to be refused access to the summit. That didn't concern the west press last week either making clear that their motto remains "I got mine." That their actions are in complete conflict with their profession has not and, no doubt, will not occur to them. And that's the sickness eating away at their profession.

At least a billion spent on the summit (and on State of Law big whigs' homes apparently) and yet the Iraqi people still lack basic services. Instead of the shame he should be feeling over that, Nouri's bragging that, in spite of that, he's ready to step up and be the regional leader.

His sixth year of being prime minister and he still can't deliver basic services. And, remember, Iraq's not Eritrea. It's not struggling for an export, it's an oil rich company, one that the AP noted last week brought in $6.595 billion via oil in the first month of this year alone.

And yet Nouri lackey Hussein al-Shahristani (Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs) can tell AFP that the plan now is for Iraq to have fixed the electricity shortage by 2014. (Anyone remember Nouri boasting in 2010 and 2011 that it would be fixed by 2012?) That should be unacceptable. And, in fact, it was to the Iraqi people. That's one of the reasons that they took to the streets last year to protest -- the lack of basic services. And Nouri was so scared he swore give him 100 days and he would fix it. He didn't fix a thing but he doesn't have to because no one in the Western press appears to have the guts or ethics to hold him accountable.

If the press isn't providing accountability, why does it exist? If there's no watchdog measure to it, it's nothing but random gossip.

The following community sites -- plus Reporters Without Borders, Antiwar.com, Susan's On The Edge and On The Wilder Side -- updated last night and this morning:




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