"There's always more of a response when I have a Trump peg," Sulome says of her pitches since Trump's election."Why are we giving in to this man's narcissistic dream?" she would like to ask editors. "When people lose sight of what's going on around the world, we allow our government to make foreign policy decisions that don't benefit us. It makes it so much easier for them to do that when we don't have the facts. Like if we don't know that the crisis in Yemen is killing and starving so many people and making Yemenis more extremist, how will people know not to support a policy in which we are attacking Yemenis?"
Applewhite agrees that this exclusive focus on Trump and other domestic issues could be detrimental to Americans' understanding of the world, and our ability to make sound political decisions.
https://www.cjr.org/covering_trump/trump-impact-foreign-reporting.php
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2018, @08:16PM (3 children)
Yemen is not much more of a country than Somalia is. It's a place where you can marry a 7-year-old because Muhammed married a little girl (age 6 or 7, counted in an incompatible calendar system) and he was the perfect man so you should act like him. It's a place where people are legitimately stupid. Warlords run around killing people. The central government is unable to control much of the country; they can not exert authority or even travel everywhere. Everything is tribal.
We didn't start that shit.
Sure, we drone strike the worst offenders. Obama did that a heck of a lot. Life is dirt cheap in Yemen; they were likely to die soon anyway. The life expectancy is 65 years.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2018, @11:21PM (2 children)
It's only a civil war in the sense that the Saudis are bombing the shit out of civilians (with weapons sold to them by the west).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:25AM (1 child)
The revolutionary war was a civil war of sorts; British were fighting British who didn't want to be British. Europe noticed, and the French intervened.
Europe also pitched in for the Civil War. That didn't make the war be not a civil war.
The USA helped Panama get independence.
Then there is Korea and Vietnam, which were also civil wars, despite lots of outside help.
It seems the norm for outsiders to get involved in civil wars.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:42AM
Not to mention Syria.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2018, @08:17PM
Ha, ha, ha, ha! Too late.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Monday February 19 2018, @08:20PM
The wall just got ten feet higher.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2018, @09:01PM
People that talk about him have their own narcissism to deal with. Discussing Trump or the alt-right on social media probably gives people a high from all the upvotes and retweets. Even just a couple days ago after the school shooting people were calling Trump out for making it about him, but in doing so they made it about him. It's a perpetual loop of idiocy and there's no way to avoid it short of living in a shack in the woods.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Monday February 19 2018, @09:02PM (3 children)
The US has almost never made foreign policy to benefit ordinary Americans, and to think it might at some point is pretty naive.
The Monroe Doctrine was announced in 1823 for instance and was the basis of incredible brutality in Guatemala for the benefit of The United Fruit Company only, the support of murderous right wing death squads in Nicaragua prolonged their civil war for 30 years or so and the CIA ensured the democratically elected President of Chile was overthrown and murdered.
Just 3 examples, there are no doubt lots more.
I am sure Mr. Trump has almost no influence on US foreign policy, he probably doesn't understand it anyway, and I'm sure the adults in charge are happy for him to sit in his room eating McDonalds, watching Fox News and Tweeting. Regular golf games will be encouraged also.
(Score: 4, Disagree) by jelizondo on Monday February 19 2018, @09:50PM (2 children)
You are quite right, but it is not the whole shebang.
In the past, even if U.S. policy was in favor of corporate interests, it was at least coherent with said interests.
Take the most recent developments. Arming and training the Kurds in Syria, which are a threat to Turkey’s territorial integrity, is a stupid move. The Turks (for all they faults) are an ally and NATO member. Results? Turkey moves towards Moscow, where they find support and Russia is happy to have more allies in the Middle East.
Then, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital sent the very clear signal that the U.S. is on the side of Israel and Arabs should take notice and not trust the U.S. as mediator between them and Israel. Results? There is rapprochement between Saudis and other Arab nations and Russia.
And both situations play into China’s plan for economic expansion into the Far and Middle East, with their Silk Road program. How are U.S. interests, even corporate interests, served well by helping China and Russia?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Monday February 19 2018, @10:24PM (1 child)
Those are all excellent points, and very well made.
I would put it down to the usual CIA failure to understand local cultures and failure to see the big picture.
A close look at the whole Vietnam debacle might show they've learned very little in the last 40 years.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday February 20 2018, @02:10AM
Oh, they learned plenty. They learned that their misadventures are won through the hearts and minds of Americans, not "local cultures." That's why they gradually seized control of American media, culminating in their plant Grand-Emperor-For-Life Baraq Hussein Soetoro officially legalizing the use of domestic propaganda against American citizens.
Anybody with half a brain can see it when watching mainstream media.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Monday February 19 2018, @09:17PM (3 children)
While I don't really have much of an opinion about her making a living out of trekking around the middle east writing a couple of articles and a book a year or not she does have another point and it's the worlds obsession with Trump, or perhaps I should say the media establishments obsession with Trump.
Leader of the "free world" and what not there still shouldn't really be a reason for all the "news". Most of it probably shouldn't even be classified as news since it seems to be more like hit-pieces or opinions or trivialities such as all his various tweets -- the current one is apparently him praying for the pupils that got gunned down in Florida and some pupils that survived telling him to fuck off. Is this really news worthy? News have just gotten a lot more stupid during the last decade or so it seems and I blame Facebook and Twitter. I doubt it was brought on by Trump, it has been going on for a few presidents now. So I don't think it's him personally, even tho his personality probably helps, but more that the idiots have to fill their 24-7 news cycle and there just isn't actually real news to fill it with so they have to resort to opinions and just rehashing the same shit over and over again. He fills the gap between "news" and "entertainment" better then previous presidents.
In general we get way to much reporting about things that happen in the USA. No matter what he does it's apparently news worthy. Take the US election as an example, its around the clock here to. One could almost believe we had a vote, there was even people here running around with those stupid signs "not my president" on them -- which would be correct, he isn't your president since you don't live in America. But when there is an election in Germany or France that is just like one giant yawn and a few days at best and even that is interrupted by Trump tweeting. Those are trading wise a lot more important for us or most countries in the EU.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Monday February 19 2018, @09:24PM
...that ship has sailed, capsized, and sunk. Not sure whose boat is legitimately flying that flag now, or even if anyone's is, but we surely aren't.
We are, however, clearly the leader in the "Most peculiar clown car" category. So there's that.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Freeman on Monday February 19 2018, @09:30PM
I have been talking to my wife about sources and credibility in "news" (facebook posts or other just as awful sources) for a long time now. I think I'm finally getting through to her. Perhaps schools need a class or two on how media lies. The old adage "Don't believe everything you see on T.V." doesn't even come close to scraping the surface of the issue. Journalists used to be credible, not in business, or working for Tabloids. Now, it seems there's not much difference between any of them.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 19 2018, @09:46PM
Maybe there should be less emphasis or outrage about certain tweets, with some innocent Trump tweets ignored entirely, but this is a bad example to pick. Sure, let's sweep the victims under the rug.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2018, @09:37PM (5 children)
The 'news' has finally shown themselves for what they are. Whores who run from one squirrel to the next.
I watched agape at the way Trump played them all. Over and over, he would say things slightly outrageous and the media and their sycophant followers ate it all up falling over themselves to correct him and put words in his mouth. They were waiting with baited breath to 'finally get him on that one thing (#6 will shock you)". They all have quickly adopted NY Post, FoxNews, and Dateline like tactics. Not realizing they were all talking exactly about the topics he wanted them to talk about and putting him at the center of them all. It worked because he understands their business better than they do.
In our new world the 'dinosaurs' showed themselves not to be gatekeepers, but designers of what we are supposed to find important. You can even google around and find quotes of news anchors saying as much. Once shown the trick people did not like it much. Instead of cleaning up their act they are devolving into worse forms of gotcha journalism. The days of investigative journalism are dead. That much was clear a few years ago when CNN fired most of its journalism staff to cut costs and have more 'millennial content' (it shows). Trump just gave it a good shove and they are finishing themselves off.
I have been studying this farce since early 2000. How it has imploded on itself has been quite the sight to behold. If you had told me 20 years ago that CNN would have the sort of coverage it has now I would have thought you quite the lunatic. Today, if you have gone on vacation and want to get up to speed on how to hate on Trump this week with the topic de-jour as dictated by the DNC it is the place to go. If you want real news. Well sorry that is not going to happen. The billionaires have drawn up the lines and you can kind of get your flavor of politics and opinions however you like. News? Forget it, well maybe if it fits our station type.
Think I am crazy? Try this, you may be able to do it, but you will find it hard for most people to do. Try this little thought experiment on your friends and family. Without going on to a search engine name one cornerstone of Hillary Clinton's campaign. Along the lines of "when I am elected I will do XYZ". Then do the same with Trump. You will find people can name several bits of Trump's campaign but not hers. We were inundated by it 24/7 so it should be easy, right? After they fail they will start babbling about how awful Trump is. Ignore that bit. Once they calm down have them try it again but without the hateful rhetoric (it can take a couple of hours). Our news overlords have realized facts do not mater. Opinions do (this will be the I hate trump tirade this experiment will show you). Why do you think most of their programming is opinion shows? People have been given opinions and some squishy 'facts' to back them up.
We have been played for years by these jackasses. That they find their position tarnished is quite fitting. They deserve what they have sown. Think I am still full of it? Look up why we eat bacon for breakfast. That is such a staple of our american breakfast we do not even question it. But before 1920 no one did that? How did that happen? Propaganda, advertising, money, and cherry picking doctors to say it is a good idea. Think that they just stopped with bacon? The guy who designed that advertising campaign considered it his duty to lie to us (for our own good). His work is the cornerstone of how our media and political parties act today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 19 2018, @09:51PM (1 child)
There's plenty of it being done by new outlets like ProPublica or even dinosaurs like the New York Times.
Breakfast? I'm loading up my 1/2 lb burger right now with bacon and cheese, cushioned by two glazed doughnuts.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 20 2018, @05:30AM
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/17/world/africa/niger-ambush-american-soldiers.html [nytimes.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @12:13AM
for a proper treatment of Edward Louis Bernays contribution to society, you should read Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday February 20 2018, @05:30AM
Bravo, an excellent summary
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday February 20 2018, @05:02PM
Summary: Trump made president by being the best troll in the world
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @05:24AM
If the response by Yemenis when faced with struggle is violence and extremism, then it's war. This is the same as the domestic BLM movement, where they kill each other far more than police officers kill them, yet they don't care, they are opportunists looking for someone to blame, and free shit from those same people they say are evil. Civilization has spoiled its pets.