[Vision2020] This Just In! Be Very Afraid (Molly Ivins)

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (July 29, 2006) Spokesman Review -

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This just in! Be very afraid!
By Molly Ivins 

July 29, 2006

State of play in the Middle East: Lebanon, extensively damaged plus a
half-million refugees; Syria, tired of being dissed; Israel,
disproportionate. Are you kidding? Did it work last time they occupied
Lebanon? Condi Rice, undercut by neocons at home? Iraq, completely fallen
apart. Iran, only winner? Everybody else, mad at Bush. Most under-covered
story, collapse of Iraq. 

And what do I think this is? A media story, of course.

>From the first day of 24/7 coverage, you could tell this was big. By the
time Chapter 9,271 of the conflicts in the Middle East had gotten its own
logo, everyone knew it was HUGE. I mean, like, bigger than Natalee Holloway.
Then anchormen began to arrive in the Middle East along with people like
Anderson Cooper and Tucker Carlson - real experts. Then Newt Gingrich - and
who would know better than Newt? - declared it was World War III. Let's
ratchet up the fear here - probably good for Republican campaigning.
 
By then, of course, you couldn't find a television story about the back
corridors of diplomacy and what was, or more importantly, what was not going
on there. Between Anderson Cooper and Tucker Carlson, it was obviously World
War III, and besides, there were a bunch of American refugees in Lebanon who
couldn't get out, and so, elements of the Katrina story appeared, Thank God
Anderson was there.

Meanwhile, people who should have known better were all in a World III SNIT
over Chapter 9,271. Actually, they all knew better, but it was a better
story if you overplayed it - sort of like watching a horror movie that you
know will turn out OK in the end, but meanwhile you get to enjoy this
delicious chill of horror up your spine. . What if it really was The End? I
mean, any fool could see it could easily careen out of control, and when
George W. Bush is all you've got for rational, fair-minded grown-ups, well,
there it is.

If I may raise a nasty political possibility: One good reason for the Bush
administration to leave Chapter 9,271 to burn out of control is that this
administration thrives on fear. Fear has been the text and the subtext of
every Republican campaign since 9/11. Endless replay of the footage from
9/11 has graced every Republican campaign since. Could it be that 9/11 is
beginning to pall, to feel as overplayed as Natalee Holloway? Fear is
actually more dangerous than war in the Middle East. For those who spin
dizzily toward World War III, the Apocalypse, the Rapture - always with that
delicious frisson of terror - the slow, patient negotiations needed to get
it back under control are Not News.

All we have to fear, said FDR, is fear itself. And when we are afraid, we do
damage to both ourselves and to the Constitution. Our history is rank with
these fits of fear. We get so afraid of some dreadful menace, so afraid of
anarchists, Reds, crime or drugs or communism or illegal aliens or
terrorists that we think we can make ourselves safer by making ourselves
less free. We damage the Constitution because we're so afraid. We engage in
torture and worse because we're afraid. We damage our standing in the world,
our own finest principles, out of fear. And television enjoys scaring us.
One could say cynically, "It's good for their ratings," but in truth, I
think television people enjoy scary movies, too. And besides, it makes it
all a bigger story for them.

What's fascinating about this as a media story is how much attention can be
given to one story while still only about a fifth of it gets told. The
amount of misinformation routinely reported on television is astounding. For
example, "Israel is our only democratic ally in the Middle East." How long
has Turkey been a real republic and ally?

The more surprising development is how completely one story drives out
another. At other times, the collapse of Iraq would have been news.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, chocolate in one hand, a drink in the other, body thoroughly used
up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO. What a ride!'"