Publius' Forum

-By Warner Todd Huston

The story of James Kim, who died of hypothermia in a remote part of Oregon after setting out on foot to seek help for his stranded family, was a sad capper to the year 2006 for many. A lot of things went wrong for the Kims as they started out for a holiday trip only to have it end in disaster.

Spencer H. Kim, James Kim's Father, has today a plea appearing in the Washington Post titled The Lessons In My Son's Death. It is a message to Oregon's emergency services community to help stop another tragedy such as befell his son from happening to anyone else.

He has many suggestions from better marked roads (his son accidentally drove down an unmarked logging road and ended up stranded far from help), to timelier emergency services and better tracking of cell phone and credit card usage. But his last point was, to my mind, the most tragic and least sensible of the troubles that befell his son and daughter-in-law.

And that tragedy was supplied by the media.

Finally, the Federal Aviation Administration classification code for Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) to limit media presence during a life-or-death search-and-rescue operation should be more strictly enforced. A TFR is used to restrict aircraft operations within designated areas to separate "non-participating" aircraft from those engaged in official activities, including search-and-rescue operations.

Unfortunately for James, aviation authorities acquiesced to media requests to relax restrictions and allowed low-altitude media flights in the area while the aerial search was still underway. This untimely and irrational decision caused many rescue helicopters to abandon their operations for one full afternoon due to dangerous conditions created by media airplanes. It took personal pleas to Washington to get restrictions reinstated. The search, not media interest, should be the top priority.

(I bolded the last line for emphasis)

Who can doubt that, in the rush to get the story, the media has, once again, turned human tragedy into mere fodder for their air time? And, it is entirely believable that a media more interested in their own needs did nothing but get in the way of the people who were trying to save lives.

Just as the Media lends credence and succor to terrorists by slavishly reporting their every propagandistic word and deed, so they insinuate themselves into the lives of people suffering great emotional distress just so that they can "get" their story.

The media has a lot to answer for in general, but now, according to Mr. Kim, they have the death of James Kim added to their list of black deeds.

I'll close with Father Kim's brief memorial to his son:

With his last heroic determination to rescue his family, James proved himself to be a man of action. My son deserves a legacy worthy of that man. As a tribute to him, I am determined to follow his lead and do all I can to prevent another senseless tragedy.

Labels: James Kim, Media Bias, MSM, Publius Forum, Warner Todd Huston

-By Warner Todd Huston

One does not need to look much farther than the Newspapers in the USA to understand why we may lose this war against Islamist fascism and terrorism. At the very least, the Kansas City Star's Mary Sanchez displays her desire to condemn everything American and to make excuses for Muslim terrorists.

Using the "six imams expelled from an airplane" story as a springboard to wag a finger in the face of we ignorant Americans, Sanchez warns that we just don't get it where it concerns distinguishing between "Muslims who are a threat, and those who are not."

Naturally, it isn't the fault of any Muslim, either. No, it's all the fault of those uninformed American Christians.

Funny. I missed the part where Christians flew planes into the World trade Towers, or when Christians cut off Nick Berg's head, killed journalists and soldiers, and perpetrated so many suicide bombings.

The only crystal-clear thing is this: similar incidents will occur. We are at the beginning of a long process to gain a better understanding of, comfort level with, Muslims in the United States.

Once again, a "journalist" places the onus of understanding on us and asks nothing of those poor misunderstood Muslims -- you know, the Muslims who are perpetrating so much violence the world over?

Were she in the 1930's, Sanchez might well have been the type to plead for us to "understand" the Nazis, too.

Amusingly, Sanchez made an effort to sound like she was attempting to come from the middle ground.

"Can't we all get along" dialogues are not going to help us much right now.

An argument she promptly demolishes by claiming that Muslims are better informed on world politics.

Many Muslims are better attuned to world politics, world faiths, than many US-raised Christians. Sometimes this is due to them being immigrants, or having closer ties to foreign lands. But erasing this global gap is a first start in disconnects between Muslims and Christians within the United States.

It is a bit hard to believe that Muslims are better informed, though, considering that literacy is many times higher in the west than it is in the Muslim world. Muslims are more prone to wild-eyed conspiracy theories -- a Jew behind every door and an American paying for it -- than a Daily-Koz reader on a full pot of coffee, clutching the latest issue of Mother Jones magazine.

For Sanchez, this is another opportunity to push multiculturalism and to scold us about how racist we really are.

Then she says that "can't we all get along" is not much help because her solution is to tell us to bow to the enemy's wishes. After all, we aren't cosmopolitan enough, not worldly enough to understand those poor, put upon Muslims. Sanchez feels it her duty to let us all know that it's really all our fault anyway.

Labels: Islam, Media Bias, Muslims, Old Media, Publius Forum, Warner Todd Huston

-By Warner Todd Huston

As I reported on Newsbusters the Associated Press is refusing to back down from, nor give satisfactory evidence for, its November report that 6 Iraqi Sunnis were burned alive in sectarian violence, a claim heavily disputed seemingly by everyone but the AP.

The AP based their reports of this grisly violence on the word of a single "witness" they named as Iraqi police captain, Jamail Hussein. Unfortunately for the AP, and despite quite a lot of effort by quite a few people, this captain of Iraqi police cannot be located so that the story can be substantiated. The AP, however, continues to claim that he exists despite the paucity of evidence.

And, also as reported on NewsBusters, Editor & Publisher posted a story making fun of Conservative Bloggers for attacking the AP assuming that they had discovered via a post on the Winds of Change Blog that this captain Hussein had been found. E&P gleefully claimed that folks who criticized the AP for the lack of proof of the existence of the mythical AP source, such as Michelle Malkin, would have to "eat crow" since they imagined him finally found.

Since E&P's taunting of Conservative Bloggers, no further confirmation of the existence of captain Hussein has been brought forth and his existence is still shrouded in mystery.

Well, now disgraced CNN News Chief Eason Jordan has stepped up his own criticism of the AP's refusal to settle this dispute with a plaintive call to the AP to come clean on a new site called Iraqslogger. Jordan wrapped up his call to bring the AP to account with: "Until this matter is resolved, the AP's credibility will suffer."*

Editor & Publisher dutifully reports this little conflict as if they are merely practicing good journalism while conveniently forgetting their gleeful attack of Conservative Bloggers of only three weeks ago.

Still, despite Editor & Publisher's faulty memory, this Capt. Hussein controversy rolls on making the AP out to be liars, Editor & Publisher to be partisan hacks, and Conservative Bloggers to be right... again.

* And Eason Jordan should know from suffering credibility. For some background on why Eason Jordan left CNN try this story, Blogger's Success- CNN's Eason Jordon Quits.

Labels: AP, Eason Jordan, Media Bias, Old Media, Publius Forum, Warner Todd Huston