Keeping an eye on the weasels of the world

Now you’re walking ’round like you’re front page news.
(I’m not your) Stepping Stone – The Monkees

Mike Nesmith of the Monkees wrote “Different Drum,” that was made famous by Linda Ronstadt (and the Stone Poneys.) He is widely credited with developing the music video. Nesmith inherited a fortune from his mother who invented liquid paper.

Anyway, they pay the big bucks as Watcher to make these life and death decisions and pick winners in the case of ties. This week I had to do that twice. Picking between such fine entries is really tough work. I expect a raise from the council. In the future I deserve at least twice what I’ve been making until now.

This week’s winning entries have to do with the way the media makes Palestinian terrorists and their sympathizers into front page news.

On the council side I voted for Mere Rhetoric’s NYT: “Angry Israeli Commandos” Turned “Ship Of Protesters Into Bloodbath” to break the tie. Mere Rhetoric exposes the dishonesty of the New York Times’ report like this:

I’m honestly not sure what’s going on here. They’re obviously trying to misleadingly imply – without actually lying – that Israel opted to raid the ship instead of delivering inspected cargo to Gaza. That’s not the confusing part. The idea is to maintain plausible deniability by writing only things that are not strictly false, all the while still leaving the reader with an inaccurate impression. It’s similar to putting the word “angry” in front of “Israeli commandos opening fire.” The fact that the commandos were angry is true and the fact that they opened fire is true, but the implied cause-and-effect is false insofar as the Israelis were highly disciplined and didn’t open fire until the mob was set to successfully kidnap and kill soldiers.

On the non-council side Elder of Ziyon’s Gaza: The “staggering quality of the very ordinary” won the vote. The Elder writes:

Instead of putting Gaza in context, the media and NGOs have grotesquely twisted the story of Gaza into a parody of objectivity. Gaza is presented as being one of the worst places to live in the planet, and this is simply a lie. Egyptians a few miles away are poorer than Gazans but do not get pledges of hundreds of millions of dollars to make their lives easier. People in sub-Saharan Africa can only dream about the daily caloric intake of the average Gazan, and they are not spending their days emailing letters to the editor about their lack of Arabic World Cup coverage. The idea of a new dress shop opening at a high-end mall, as shown  in the second photo above, does not jibe with the the narrative of extreme poverty or of “slow genocide.”

The media’s constant efforts to portray the Palestinians and Israel as aggressors is not reportage but advocacy. This week’s winners expose the methods by which the media plays these tricks.

Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! * - Mere Rhetoric - NYT: “Angry Israeli Commandos” Turned “Ship Of Protesters Into Bloodbath”
• Second place with 2 votes – Joshuapundit - EU’s Bizarro world view of Gaza
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes – The Colossus of Rhodey -The Pledge of Allegiance … in Spanish?
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Corporate Political Speech In Washington Senate Race
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - The Glittering Eye – One More Point On Making Excuses
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote - The Provocateur – Glenn Beck’s Conspiracy Theories
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Bookworm Room -The banality of perversion
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Right Truth – Violence on the rise in US hospitals, or is it?
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Snapped Shot – The Flotilla of Humanitarian Fools
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Razor – If I Could Speak as Natalie’s Mother…

Non Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! * – Elder of Ziyon - Gaza: The “Staggering quality of the very ordinary” Submitted by The Watcher
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes - Pajamas media — Bruce Brewer - I’ve Become an Enemy of the People for Speaking the Truth About Islam Submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes – Weekly Standard/Stuart Koehl – Don’t repeal “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” Submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Dick Morris – Obama and Incompetent Executive Submitted by The Provocateur
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – IowaHawk - The Golden Girls From Brazil Submitted by JoshuaPundit
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Common Sense Political Thought – Why would we want someone like her running things? Submitted by the Colossus of Rhodey
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Hot Air -Video: Dem Rep ends up with egg on his face in Bernanke hearing Submitted by Mere Rhetoric
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Common Sense Political Thought - Why would we want someone like her running things? Submitted by the Colossus of Rhodey
• Zenpundit – Rogue State Pakistan Submitted by The Glittering Eye

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