At The Baffler, Geoff Gilbert writes
Media Misdeeds and Blind Spots. An Excerpt:
The mainstream media is complicit in our country’s permanent war footing, through (at least) three editorial choices that frequently misrepresent our government’s role in the world: analysis of U.S. foreign policy absent consideration of international law; criticism of the U.S. military and its enemies according to different standards; and consideration of current U.S. actions without taking into account its actions in the past. These blind spots highlight the violence of our enemies while failing to account for the role of our own violent acts in the perpetuation of war and terror abroad.
Ryan Goodman and Sarah Knuckey at the national security blog Just Security analyzed a New York Times article last year about U.S. drone strikes in Yemen, noting the absence of qualification for terms like “Qaeda fighters,” even though the only information cited regarding the identity of the militants is attributed to unnamed government officials. The absence of qualification lends credence to the officials’ otherwise unsubstantiated claim.
The passage also asserts the alleged militants were planning on attacking “civilian and military facilities” in “southern Yemen,” raising questions about whether the militants were directly threatening U.S. persons—a condition of the new terms announced by President Obama in May 2013 for using lethal force outside declared areas of hostility. And a Reuters report on the attack asserts the targets were in al-Bayda province, where the U.S. does not possess civilian or military facilities.
The mainstream press’s decision to overlook the potential conflicts between policy and practice misrepresents the ongoing legal questions surrounding the compliance of U.S. drone policy with international law, one of the issues that prompted Obama’s statement on the official rules of engagement.
Nor does the drone program conform to the government’s preferred narrative of precision warfare, another myth the popular press frequently circulates. […]
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2011—CPAC kicks off GOP primary season, but no-show Palin still dominates:
So a week after our inaugural 2012 cattle call, the first real-life Republican cattle call starts today, at the three-day CPAC shindig in DC. Most of the contenders (and not a few of the pretenders) for the nomination will speak at some point over the next couple days, and then a straw poll will reveal that Ron Paul is the frontrunner to win the nomination, or something. (Fun fact: the CPAC straw poll is about as accurate in predicting the Republican nominee as a close inspection of the entrails of a goat sacrificed to honor Ronald Reagan's birthday. In '07, Mitt Romney won, and we all remember his valiant campaign against Obama in the general. In '99, Gary Bauer came out of nowhere to seize the hearts and minds of CPAC attendees, catapulting him into 8 years in the White House. And in '95, Phil Gramm triumphed over Bob Dole, and wasn't at all the first candidate to drop out of the '96 race.)
And with all this hot and exciting talent on the agenda—Herman Cain! Donald Trump! (please run, Donald, please)—who's everyone talking about?
Sarah Palin, of course. Who won't even be at CPAC, for "reasons" that she "explained" with an inimitable word salad last week
Tweet of the Day
Refresh my memory: how long were Bush, Cheney, Rice & Rumsfeld suspended over Iraq lies?
— @PaulBegala
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: The morning's Twitter chatter: Obama & marriage equality. Conservatives once again invoking rape.
Greg Dworkin rounds up DSK & Brian Williams news. Old school journo grouses about
Vox. Is Walker too extreme for the Gop? How one word could save Obamacare. Nobody wants
King to succeed. Running against Obamacare where it's working. This morning's measles news roundup.
Armando weighs in on the latest
King stories, and we discuss how & why compromises like state exchanges and smaller stimulus bills happened in the first place, including some juicy rules esoterica! Later,
King gets even stranger. Are these plaintiffs even real?
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