Week in Review
The biggest news: Iran's president gives President Bush and America a last chance to repent and convert to Islam. Once again, the mainstream mediocracy miss the point and spin it as either an important diplomatic overture disregarded or irrelevant bloviating. Since the real story was broken here Tuesday and then a couple of other places, word is beginning to spread in the blogosphere. Today the national radio network Family News in Focus picked it up after Christian media personalities Gary Bauer, Janet Parschall and Steve Adams went on the record endorsing this interpretation of the Iranian communiqué.
Bauer related this insight from Iranian scholar Amir Taheri: "Ahmadinejad's move fits into a 14-century-long Muslim tradition, initiated by the Prophet Muhammad himself, of writing letters to 'the rulers of the world.' . . . To each, the prophet's offer was simple: Convert to Islam and secure a place in paradise—or cling to your beliefs and face the sword of Islam."
"Can you imagine," asked Bauer, "what the media's reaction would have been if President Bush had sent a letter to Ahmadinejad if he wanted to convert to Christianity?"
Yes, we can. In other news:
o Hasta la vista, baby--Zacarias Moussaoui, the reality of spending the next 40 or 50 years in solitary confinement finally settling in, petitions the court for a do-over of his terrorism trial. Like, just scratch all that previous testimony. Um, we don't think so, says the judge. You're history.
o No more, Mr. Nice Guy—New presidential Press Secretary Tony Snow comes out swinging, accusing major media outlets, such as CBS News, of unfair coverage of the White House. Talking heads immediately cluck about being counterproductive and needlessly antagonizing the press. As if nice would actually get you anywhere. Come to think of it, wasn't that the same argument opposing action against the terrorists?
o Spin this--Somebody takes a poll and, lo and behold, it turns out Americans actually favor tracing private phone records in the pursuit of al Qaeda operatives, by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. It will be interesting to see how much traction this story gets in the mainstream mediocracy. (We're not holding our breath.)
Bauer related this insight from Iranian scholar Amir Taheri: "Ahmadinejad's move fits into a 14-century-long Muslim tradition, initiated by the Prophet Muhammad himself, of writing letters to 'the rulers of the world.' . . . To each, the prophet's offer was simple: Convert to Islam and secure a place in paradise—or cling to your beliefs and face the sword of Islam."
"Can you imagine," asked Bauer, "what the media's reaction would have been if President Bush had sent a letter to Ahmadinejad if he wanted to convert to Christianity?"
Yes, we can. In other news:
o Hasta la vista, baby--Zacarias Moussaoui, the reality of spending the next 40 or 50 years in solitary confinement finally settling in, petitions the court for a do-over of his terrorism trial. Like, just scratch all that previous testimony. Um, we don't think so, says the judge. You're history.
o No more, Mr. Nice Guy—New presidential Press Secretary Tony Snow comes out swinging, accusing major media outlets, such as CBS News, of unfair coverage of the White House. Talking heads immediately cluck about being counterproductive and needlessly antagonizing the press. As if nice would actually get you anywhere. Come to think of it, wasn't that the same argument opposing action against the terrorists?
o Spin this--Somebody takes a poll and, lo and behold, it turns out Americans actually favor tracing private phone records in the pursuit of al Qaeda operatives, by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. It will be interesting to see how much traction this story gets in the mainstream mediocracy. (We're not holding our breath.)
posted by Roscoe Daley at 6:37 PM
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