The Sun Also Rises…

One can obviously tell a great deal about the agenda of a publication by what headline a certain newspaper chooses to lead with and today is a terrific example of such an instance. Matters like these are usually of the more trivial variety, but we have all seen this stunt before – yet in the case of at least one newspaper, there seems to be hope that it has learned its lesson. I am speaking, as I usually do, of The New York Times, which unlike its fellow New York paper, The Sun, did not blow out of proportion the Hamas attack on a commercial center in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. There is mention of speculation that the rockets have “Iranian fingerprints on it” – but certainly not to the degree of The Sun, which leads with: “Iran Role ‘Clearly Visible’ in Attack”. This story is of import dually because Israel is celebrating its 60th Anniversary of statehood and because our good president is joining in the festivities; otherwise these kind of attacks are almost commonplace and certainly do not warrant front page coverage. The New York Sun, however, is known to have a more conservative bent and therefore is considerably more likely to help the administration beat those war drums, unfortunately much like The Times did in the run up to the invasion of Iraq. ‘But I thought The New York Times is the most lefty newspaper on God’s green earth!’ Perhaps compared to other corporate media, yes – but that is what made it all the more surprising (and for the Bush administration, effective). I am therefore hopeful this same horrific propagandistic agenda will not succeed a second time.