Alternate reality
Sean Mullan
Issue date: 10/11/02 Section: Opinions
It is overly difficult to find a true liberal in America today. To be completely honest, I have struggled to find any here at Holy Cross in my first five weeks. How many other atheists, pacifists, and/or Green Party members actually attend Holy Cross? How often do you hear the point of view from this group, other then through visiting speakers? Instead I am barraged with religion at every turn and surrounded by apolitical conservatives. I hear girls say that they "want to have George Bush's babies" and guys say "Ronald Reagan was the best president ever." I would find it hard to believe if under 75 percent of Holy Cross students said they support tax cuts, welfare "reform," privatization, globalization, the Republicrats, the militarization of space (missile defense), and Clinton or Bush. Clinton and Bush: both bombed Iraq and Afghanistan. They share a lot more in common than most people realize.
The media and most publications in this country publish only the elite's point of view. The media now rests in the hands of only a few after a rapid period of consolidation. There is now talk of a merger between the CNN and ABC News divisions. What are we then left with? ABC/CNN, Fox, CBS, and NBC! What a selection. How often do you hear these news agencies report on the fact that over 3,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan? There was almost no mention of civilian casualties until the bombing of a wedding this past summer; they completely ignored all death until the majority of the bombing campaign was over. There was ONE report in the Boston Globe of around 1,000 civilian casualties in the spring, but that was it. Where were the pictures of all these dead men, women, and children? How many of you realize that the Israeli Army has been occupying almost all of the major cities in the West Bank again for months, as it did for a few weeks in April? I am sure everyone remembers the outcry from the media then, but since Israel is doing it for the second time, it is now "old news." Israel is our ally, so the media will not report how it is in violation of almost twice as many U.N. resolutions as Iraq, including one from a few weeks ago demanding withdrawal to the Sept. 28, 2000 border. With no independent mainstream news organization, we are being fed mainly what the government wants us to know.
The media and most publications in this country publish only the elite's point of view. The media now rests in the hands of only a few after a rapid period of consolidation. There is now talk of a merger between the CNN and ABC News divisions. What are we then left with? ABC/CNN, Fox, CBS, and NBC! What a selection. How often do you hear these news agencies report on the fact that over 3,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan? There was almost no mention of civilian casualties until the bombing of a wedding this past summer; they completely ignored all death until the majority of the bombing campaign was over. There was ONE report in the Boston Globe of around 1,000 civilian casualties in the spring, but that was it. Where were the pictures of all these dead men, women, and children? How many of you realize that the Israeli Army has been occupying almost all of the major cities in the West Bank again for months, as it did for a few weeks in April? I am sure everyone remembers the outcry from the media then, but since Israel is doing it for the second time, it is now "old news." Israel is our ally, so the media will not report how it is in violation of almost twice as many U.N. resolutions as Iraq, including one from a few weeks ago demanding withdrawal to the Sept. 28, 2000 border. With no independent mainstream news organization, we are being fed mainly what the government wants us to know.