reality vs spin

John Cole, remarking on the thesis (advocated by Glenn, Austin Bay, and others) that teh media is actively supporting the terrorists' goals, pretty much sums up my view.

it seems Glenn’s real complaint is that the media refuses to be spun by the ‘good guys,’ but is somehow buying the ‘spin’ of the bad guys. I don’t see that. I see them trying to report what they know at the time, and I don’t think what the jihadists and terrorists said was or is ‘spin.’ I think they really do want to do what they are saying, and I don’t have a problem with the media reporting that. That isn’t being spun- that is accurately reporting what they want to do, and I support them reporting it much like I support allowing the KKK to march down the streets of Skokie – I want to see what the crazy bastards are up to rather than having them fester underground.

At any rate, I simply do not buy the argument that the media being cautious when dealing with an administration and military establishment that routinely does lie to them is somehow a problem, and I don’t buy the argument that reporting the desires and statements of jihadists is somehow ‘helping’ them. If anything, it galvanizes support against them.

It seems to me the core of this distaste with the media is the false impression that, for whatever reasons, the media is on the side of the terrorists because they report what they do, yet not on the side of the good guys because they are skeptical after being lied to a number of times. If that is the case, Glenn’s problem isn’t the media coverage, it is that he is not getting to decide what the media is covering.

His co-blogger Tim actually reports with skepticism what many, including Glenn and Bay, have simply accepted at face value - that President Talabani might (shocker!) be engaging in some spinning of his own. And that Talabani's proposal looks rather familiar.