September 17, 2006

Quoth he ... Never mind!!

You know who the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus was. I know who the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus was. We all know who the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus was. None of us had heard of him until last week, but the "news" media have put an end to that.

But nobody in the “news” media seems to know who the late Ayatollah Khomeini was!!!

The newsmedia have told us, ad nauseum, that Pope Benedict XVI, when making his insulting remarks about Islam, was “merely” quoting -- guess who -- the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus.

But no-one in the mainstream newsmedia -- yes, no-one -- has yet bothered to discuss the triple misrepresentation of President Ahmadinejad’s remarks about Israel. Triple misrepresentation because:

1 – What President Ahmadinejad actually said was that Israel "should be eliminated from the pages of history.” He did not say “Israel should be wiped off the map.”

2 – The Western newsmedia never bothered to report that President Ahmadinejad was merely quoting the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

3 - And, of course, the Western newsmedia never bothered to mention that the distorted translation of President Ahmadinejad’s remarks was the work of the New York Times reporter Nazli Fathi.

The Western newsmedia have even gone to the trouble of publishing the full text of the Pope's horribly boring lecture (it is available at hundreds of sites online). Not one Western news organ, however, has yet published the full text of President Ahmadinejad's speech, whose mistranslation was discussed here, and which was infinitely more interesting and readable.

The Western newsmedia have once again revealed the hypocrisy of their pretensions of liberalism. None of President Ahmadinejad's speeches contain a single offensive word against any other religion or race, while the Pope's speech was clearly offensive for the adherents of another religion. And yet the Western media have made it their mission to defend the Pope...

You may have noticed that I did not say the Pope intended to offend anyone. In other words, I am not saying the actual content of his speech was offensive. In the same way that the Western newsmedia have refused to discuss the actual content of President Ahmadinejad's speeches, I won't bother to discuss the actual content of the Pope's lecture.

Update: President Ahmadinejad, who has long suffered from the Western media's distortions of his words, defends the Pope:

Iran plays down row over Pope (This news item appeared this morning in the online edition of Edinburgh News, later to disappear and be replaced by another news item! The Press moves in mysterious ways.)

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today said he respects Pope Benedict XVI, in a move seen to be downplaying the pontiff's remarks on Islam and holy war...

Ahmadinejad said: "Regarding the issue of the Pope's comments, we respect the Pope and all of those who are interested in peace and justice."


Vatican: Ahmadinejad defends Pope

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly defended on Monday Pope Benedict XVI over his quotation of Medieval commentary linking Islam to violence. Addressing a joint press conference with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Ahmadinejad said "we respect the Pope and everyone must be interested in peace." Speaking one day after Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei accused the pontiff of being part of a "US-Zionist crusade" against Islam, Iran's president said the pontiff's words were taken out of context...

"There is no doubt that there are those who release incorrect information," Ahmadinejad was also quoted as saying, hinting that Benedict's words were "modified."

5 comments:

Gregg said...

The western press hasn't been liberal for years. They are driven by the mighty dollar and not much more.

You don't really believe that we trust our press as a valid news source, do you?

Al S. E. said...

Gregg, the fact that the United States hasn't imploded from shame over its government's crimes proves that its people still believe most of the lies that their media and government tell them. I mean the lies about the supposed benevolence of America's motives, its supposed desire to spread democracy and freedom, and so on and so forth.

Unknown said...

"They are driven by the mighty dollar and not much more."

I was just thinking that.

VINCE LANE said...

Anybody who is for Bush's impeachment is alright in my book. He's pure moron.
RR

Anonymous said...

It's amazing how many crimes my government is committing. These crimes are being committed right before nearly 300 million citizens without major attention by the media. Take for example Bill S 3930 which now gives the President power to torture anyone and takes away the civil liberties of U.S. citizens. It is truly accurate what Chavez said at a meeting at the United Nations last year when he said something to the effect that Americans rather watch superman than read or gather information about the crimes their own government is committing. The U.S. media does a horrible job (except for a few) with respect to telling the full truth and motives behind the current administration.