The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Our Worthless Media

Posted on | March 3, 2014 | 72 Comments

Ace highlighted this Saturday, but in case you missed it, here’s Walter Russell Mead at the Public Interest:

Politico report calls it “a crisis that no one anticipated.” The Daily Beastreporting on Friday’s US intelligence assessment that “Vladimir Putin’s military would not invade Ukraine,” quotes a Senate aide claiming that “no one really saw this kind of thing coming.”
Op-eds from all over the legacy press this week helped explained why. Through the rose tinted lenses of a media community deeply convinced that President Obama and his dovish team are the masters of foreign relations, nothing poor Putin did could possibly derail the stately progress of our genius president. . . . Headlines like “Why Russia Won’t Invade Ukraine,” “No, Russia Will Not Intervene in Ukraine,” and “5 Reasons for Everyone to Calm Down About Crimea” weren’t hard to find in our most eminent publications. . . .
American experts and academics assume that smart people everywhere must want the same things and reach the same conclusions about the way the world works.
How many times did foolishly confident American experts and officials come out with some variant of the phrase “We all share a common interest in a stable and prosperous Ukraine.” We may think that’s true, but Putin doesn’t.

One hates to wear out the Munich analogies by overuse, but this was in fact exactly the attitude of British supporters of appeasement in the 1930s: Reasonable civilized people simply cannot get it through their heads that there are people in the world who are neither reasonable nor civilized, and who can only be deterred by force.

The elites who run our government and the elites who run our media share the same kind of blindness, an acquired blindness that one can only obtain by attending the finest universities.

 

Comments

72 Responses to “Our Worthless Media”

  1. Bob Belvedere
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:48 pm

    Damn well put, Jeff.

  2. Bob Belvedere
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:50 pm

    The fucking flag they use [actually abuse because it belongs to Tsarist Russia] DOESN’T MEAN A DAMN THING.

  3. Jeanette Victoria
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:54 pm

    According to my friend in the media there Russia is sending in provocateurs all across the Ukraine they are trying to goad Ukrainians into attacking then they can claim self-defense

  4. Bob Belvedere
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:54 pm

    How long have you been coming here? We all well understand the grave threat the Leftists In America pose to us. But – and listen closely – it has nothing to do with Putin, except, perhaps, that he no longer fears us because he thinks we’re so stupid for letting the Communists gain power here.

  5. Bob Belvedere
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:54 pm

    They’re trolling, eh?

  6. Jeanette Victoria
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:55 pm

    Yup typical bully stuff poke and harass until there is a response and then cry they are the victim.

  7. Bob Belvedere
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:56 pm

    Seek professional help – STAT.

  8. Bob Belvedere
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:57 pm

    Standard Operating Procedure.

  9. Bob Belvedere
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:58 pm

    I second the motion.

  10. Jeanette Victoria
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:58 pm

    Also VK is based in Moscow some of my Ukrainian communities have simply disappeared. There are refugees from the chimera escaping into Lviv

  11. Bob Belvedere
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 6:59 pm

    Spengler is a grand disappointment.

  12. Charles
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 7:04 pm

    That reminds me, I lent Mikhail Bulgkov’s book “The While Guard” to a leftie friend a decade ago, and he never gave it back.

  13. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 7:17 pm

    Putin is pro-family, pro-Christian, and anti-socialist.

    Regarding the latter, from Davos: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123317069332125243?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB123317069332125243.html

    Why would anyone apologize for standing with those bulwark institutions of Western civilization?

    I certainly won’t.

  14. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 7:35 pm

    Thanks for the tip; I’ll check that one out as well.

  15. JeffS
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 7:48 pm

    AH-HA!

    This article explains, at least in part, the laser like focus of “Liberalism is Nonsense” (now posting under the nom de blog of “Liberals are Bolsheviks”) on how Putin Is Our Friend™.

    And by “in part”, I mean that “Liberalism is Nonsense”is ignoring how the Eurasianist movement is merely fascism with a new flag. Way to go, dude.

  16. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 7:59 pm

    Putin is pro-family, pro-Christian, and anti-socialist.

    Regarding the latter, here’s his speech at Davos on the matter:

    http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123317069332125243?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB123317069332125243.html

    That may be many things, but it’s most definitely not liberalism/Bolshevism/socialism/communism.

  17. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 8:04 pm

    You can stand with Hussein Obama’s criminal marxist regime all you want.

    I stand against Hussein Obama’s criminal marxist regime and find Putin to be a useful ally in that fight.

    Frankly, Putin seems to be the guy who has the courage and ability to take on Hussein Obama’s marxist delusions.

  18. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 8:07 pm

    I am never going to apologize for being pro-family, pro-Christian, and anti-socialist.

    Look – it’s still a relatively free country and you’re free to stand against the family, against Christianity, and against free enterprise all you want.

    Jesse Myerson and Sandra Korn are probably looking for some comrades.

  19. JeffS
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 9:23 pm

    Tsk, tsk. Deploying the “Have you stopped beating your wife?” card, huh? For shame! That rhetorical trick is the sort that lefties play all the time. Ain’t gonna work, “Liberalism is Nonsense”.

    Putin and this “Eurasianist” movement views the entire West as “liberal”. Hence, we are all their enemies. Once you stop looking at Putin as being some sort of ally that we should trust, I’ll listen.

    Until then, you’re just another effin’ troll.

  20. StrangernFiction
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 9:28 pm

    They’re both evil.

  21. RS
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 9:38 pm

    Get ready for another Gleiwitz incident.

  22. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 3rd, 2014 @ 9:40 pm

    Look – I see a tactical advantage with Putin on this, at least for a little while.

    Obama’s obviously delusional, the world knows it, and we’re thus going to have plenty of opportunities to hammer Obama as the legitimately intelligent individuals in the world run circles around him.

    We need to make the most of these opportunities and hammer Obama’s approval rating into the low 30s.