That heartens me somewhat. There is a tendency though here to see ‘anti-war folks’ as all having the same political/economic bent. Witness ymar’s incredible statemment of my position on free trade.

I don’t get the time to read much from Chomsky and I often thought his stuff bordered on the ‘conspiracy theory’ side of the ledger. His positions on the influence of corporate America in US foreign and trade policy though are depressingly accurate in my view. The rhetoric from Washington regarding ‘free trade’ and the reality of trade policy are poles apart.

The notion amongst the conservatives that the US champions free trade and the rest of us are against it is a constant source of amazement. I should also state that the EU is just as bad and possibly worse in terms of barriers to free trade, they just don’t push the rhetoric.

This is not an altruistic statement on my part either. I am directly affected by US trade barriers, agricultural subsidies and preferential treatment for US companies. I can cope easily enough though, it effects the 3rd world in a far more devastating way.

I wonder what the public of the US would think if they were fully aware of what the likes of Monsanto get up to, and how trade policy is manipulated to suit the interests of narrow corporate concerns.

I’m not sure what most people want, but I figured out a long time ago, especially from reading Hunter S Thompson, that perfectly objective reporting is an illusion. So I do like knowing biases up front and being able to take that into consideration. I like to get information from a breadth of sources.

Anti-war folks I’ve met assume that because I disagree with them, I must only listen to Limbaugh or Fox, but the fact is that I never listen to Fox or Limbaugh, and NPR is my main radio channel (though its bias is fairly grating at times). I’ve got five feet of Chomsky/progressive/leftist literature in my library and I’ve read most of it.

I nearly blew coffee out my nose when I read that. Hilarious.

Boat loads indeed. 🙂

Can I ask what media you consider to be unbiased?

The notion that the worlds media, which is largely owned by conservative leaning plutocrats is a leftist propaganda conspiracy is bewildering to say the least.

Is FOX a good unbiased news service in your opinion?

Then one might wonder at Iraqi polls indicating that 44% rate the country as good and 69% expecting the country to get even better.

I consider the notion that the Iraqis are worse off now than under Hussein absurd and explainable by the relentlessly negative slant of Western reporting.

I have a good friend in Dublin who says that Irish and European media are even more biased than in the US. Europeans, he says, haven’t a clue about what’s happening in Iraq.

It’s deeper than that. The people of Iraq hated Hussein’s regime so much that they said it was right for their country to be invaded.

That’s rare. I can think of few historical examples where the majority of citizens, even in a dictatorship, wished their own country to be invaded.

As horrific as Nazi Germany or Stalin’s USSR were, I don’t think it was true in those cases. Cambodia under Pol Pot and perhaps North Korea are the only other recent examples I can come up with.

And it does surprise most anti-war folks when I mention those polls to them. They weren’t aware of those polls. They take it for granted that it is they who have the interests of the Iraqi people at heart.

It confuses the anti-war folks that to learn that the Iraqis resented the “peace” demonstrations intended to stop the war, which would ultimately keep Hussein and his psychopathic sons in power.

Progress … you are calling it an occupation, I’ll take what little I can get:-)

Here is a real American (the ideal, not the arbitrary geographic boundaries) patriot Gawd Bless ’em. Maybe it’ll rub off on you? Here’s hoping.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/05/30.html#a8501