Monday, January 01, 2007

Another reason the New York Times has a hard time keeping in touch with reality

John Burns of the NYT has written about Hussein's execution (story here). I just saw him on CNN International, where he said that "Americans are outraged" by what happened.

This is why journalists need to stick to reporting verifiable facts and stay away from the hyperbole that hurts their reputation.

Apparently there was some shouting at the actual execution, which seems in Mr. Burns' writing, to prove that the execution was "unruly" and had a "pell mell nature".

Okay, I don't know the first thing about Iraqi culture. But I'm willing to believe that -- given the numerous public demonstrations, chanting, shouting and what-have-you -- yelling at the execution is perfectly in keeping with Iraqi public behavior.

I'm certainly not outraged that there was some shouting at the execution. I'm actually amazed -- given the incredible barbarity of the Hussein regime -- that the Iraqi people didn't charge the stage and tear him apart with their bare hands.

Mr. Burns,
Stick with the facts...please stop trying to push "outrage" off on to the "American people", who are 1-not a measurable single entity and 2-much more likely to have a variety of opinions than you may want to believe and 3-probably couldn't care less about how the Iraqis actually behaved at the execution.

1 Comments:

At 6:22 AM, Blogger Karl said...

Mike-

Frankly, I think that the way the appeals process in capital cases 'works' in the United States constitutes emotional abuse of everyone involved.

OK, so carrying out Saddam Hussein's death sentence wasn't as perfect as a U.S. State (Presidential) funera.. Welcome, media, to the real world.

 

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