CBS "Staged" Events

[Curiosity]

http://www.strategypage.com/onpoint/articles/200692014016.asp

Who's side is CBS on anyway?

The CBS Ambush
by Austin Bay
September 20, 2006

Remember the "Arab street," that riot-in-the-road featuring flammable Israeli flags, Saddam Hussein posters, clenched fists and chants threatening "Death to America"? The street may have lacked pavement and a fire hydrant, but it had beaucoup television cameras.

Flames, clenched fists and death threats -- a heart-pounding collage of sensational imagery and rhetoric. What more could a TV exec need to attract audience eyeballs?

Recall the talking heads who told us in 1990, after Saddam invaded Kuwait, that "the Arab street" was going to rise en masse, as an ur-proletariat, which would support Saddam against the West. If you need documentation, check out a few old PBS "NewsHour" transcripts.

But the mass rising didn't happen. Why? Because the Arab street was, to a great extent, the creation of television cameras. Political operatives -- no doubt many on Saddam's payroll -- knew they could attract the sensation-hungry camera crews and use the media to project the operatives' preferred "image of anger."

Twenty-first century Islamo-fascist terrorists, however, have refined the model and moved beyond an image of anger to a new form of prepared global ambush that integrates murder, terror and instant media.

The ambush technique coordinates blood-spilling violence with sensational imagery and rhetoric using a dispersed network of media operatives, guerrillas and terrorists. Networked, Coordinated Blood-spilling plus Sensationalism -- hence the technique's acronym: the CBS ambush.

Since May 2005, we've seen the CBS ambush employed effectively on three notable occasions, the latest being Pope Benedict's remarks at Regensburg University.

In May 2005, Newsweek ran its phony Guantanamo Bay prison "Koran flushing" story. Violent riots broke out in several predominantly Muslim countries. The riots in Afghanistan attracted particular attention. Indian military analyst Bahukutumbi Raman wrote that those riots were incited by "well-organized agents of the Hizb ut-Tahrir terror gang."

The Newsweek story gave the terrorists an emotion-laden "grievance trigger." The ambush consisted of violent riots and a prepared deluge of anti-American propaganda. The vicious riots not only attracted further global media coverage, but also intimidated Muslims who oppose terrorist organizations and their violent interpretation of Islam.

In September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a series of editorial cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons attracted political protests and several violent threats, but the cartoons were no international cause celebre. In fact, an Egyptian newspaper published several of the cartoons in an article condemning the Jyllands-Posten.

But in January 2006, waves of orchestrated, coordinated violence broke out in predominantly Muslim nations and in Muslim neighborhoods. The terrorists and political operatives promoted a "clash of civilizations" propaganda line, with the cartoons as the "grievance trigger."

Pope Benedict's Regensburg ruminations provided another CBS ambush trigger.

Benedict -- in a speech that examined historical relations between Muslims and Christians -- quoted the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus, a ruler whose empire consisted of little more than the city of Constantinople. Muslim Turks had all but dismembered his realm. Manuel II, engaged in a dialog with a Muslim Persian scholar, challenged the Persian to show him "just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

An imprudent quote by a man on a global podium? Yes -- particularly since popes blessed several sword-bearing Crusades. It is, however, a defensible quotation in the context of an academic lecture. The pope pointed out the dialog between Manuel II and the Persian examined "the truth of both (religions)." But context doesn't matter when triggering a CBS ambush, only the superficial trace of historical grievance and the energy of emotional slight. The "distributed" violence following the media magnification of the pope's remarks included firebombing Christian churches (in several Muslim countries) and the execution-style slaying of a Catholic nun who worked in a hospital in Somalia. A hospital administrator said her murder was "not a random act."

Executing a CBS ambush requires the implicit cooperation of sensationalist media -- media that delight in emotional slights and rarely probe beyond the superficial. Until that implicit cooperation ends, the Islamo-fascists will continue to exploit this productive stratagem, achieving propaganda victories designed to ignite a "clash of civilizations" and brutally intimidate their Muslim and non-Muslim opposition.

To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

 

[Sassylassie]

Nice find WC, the MSM is becoming nothing more then Entertainment Tonight, all flash and very little truth. Enough with the fiction, report the facts and just the facts. I really don't care what a reporter thinks. Write the damn story with facts.

 

[mabudon]

funny how this article is decrying sensationalism yet uses the absolutely ridiculous, emotionally charged (and also totally incorrect) term "Islamo-Fascist" twice- pot meet kettle, this article is the exact same junk it is adressing, and that's a fact

 

[gopher]

Interesting how no mention is made of staged news such as the phony street "celebrations" in Palestine after the 9/11 attack (it was actually a tape of a holiday taken 2 or 3 years before), the phony reports of WMD findings that never took place, and the staged celebration of the removal of the Saddam statue.

 

[CDNBear]

Why are gopher and mabudon, swinging at this piece of well written journalism?

It's open and truthful. Journalistic integredy and objectivity in western civilization is on the endangered species list. So lets jump all over an article that calls a spade, a spade.

It's a plain fact, that western media just loves sound bites and vid clips that make the average armchair critics sphinkter pucker and we all know it. I have yet to hear whining and bashing, lets hear something constructive. If you fail to agree, counter it with evidence, not the typical minutia.

 

[Kreskin]

When I think of staged events the first group of choreographers that come to mind are those working on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The script for Iraq was written well before 9-11, carefully crafted with propoganda and assorted disinformation. Unfortunately the screenplay was not a hit and the critics have declared it a complete political dud.

The "Purple Finger" campaign was an inventive act. A good idea and worth the try but certainly not by accident. It doesn't take much imagination to envision the screenwriters going over the anticipated chain events from Iraqis holding out freedom fingers for the media.

Perhaps the greatest staged event of all was the Colin Powell presentation at the UN. Nothing short of Academy Award material with Saddam played by Hannibal Lecter and special effects to make the likes of Steven Speilberg envious.

Karl Rove's Street Magic show has given George W Bush levitational capabilities in the eyes of terror-fearing Americans. The thriller called the "Terror Alert System" brought smoke and mirrors to a new level, improved by the slight of hand provided by a Gay Marriage ammendment that toured southern box offices.

Keep your eyes out for a new run of staged tricks and assorted shenanigans as we head into the final scene of November 06 Elections. It will keep you at the edge of your seats.

 

[Curiosity]

We all grew up watching the "moooovies"....so why should we think real life should not be protrayed
by a few "directors" behind the camera.

I had no idea how influenced we are in our world by the celluloid fantasy, and now the electronic instant
fad....and of course the written word.....sigh.....

I'm not complaining, but to keep the reality checks going (and the balances too).... seems kinda hard.

As for CBS - I wonder how Katie Colonic is gonna do the pre-election nooz....a la Rather or a la Truth.

 

[Johnny Utah]

http://www.strategypage.com/onpoint/articles/200692014016.asp

Who's side is CBS on anyway?

CBS is on the MSM's side and we know where they stand..