Why do these beheading threats always drive away bad W news?

[MikeG]

Doesn't it seem a little suspicious?

[prodigal_green]

1. I was thinking that too

trying not to be too cynical, but an AMERICAN SOLDIER taken hostage just after the release of F9/11? Hmmm, wonder what the water-cooler talk will be tomorrow.

[beyurslf]

16. At my "water-cooler" we talked about what we did this weekend

and movies we saw. F 9-11 came up. I was surprised by a few who said they saw it. We didn't talk long, but no talk of captured servicemen.

[aquart]

2. But there is ALWAYS bad W news. There is never GOOD W news.

Therefore, any beheading news will always drive away bad W news.

Tain't any other kind.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

3. As a newscast said today

... it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Iraq may not have been a terrorist location when this first started... but it is NOW...


Bottom line, if we'd concentracted on Afghanistan and actual al-Queada supporting-governments.....

[smirkymonkey]

4. There is something I don't get...

why do these beheadings seem to capture peoples' attention so powerfully when solidiers and Iraqis are dying horrible deaths every day?? I just can't understand why one is so media worthy and the other barely gets mentioned.

I know this has something to do w/ media propaganda (war dead - bad for bush admin, beheadings - terrorism, bad arabs, good for bush admin), but why do people fall for it?

Disclaimer: All these deaths are tragic, I am just struck at the importance attached to a single beheading over daily senseless violence and loss of life.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. Good point. Funny thing about that. Drudge was saying on his radio

show tonight that the beheadings etc. get shown/played because it's "reality" and that in this day and age, "newsmen" such as himself can't get away with NOT doing it.

These are the hypocrites who would be the first to deny us seeing dead or maimed US soldiers or Iraqi civilians. In a year of intensive media coverage we've hardly seen graphic war images like the ones in F911 except from foreign media via the internet.

[gumby]

11. it's the teevee

have you seen the teevee showing soldier's grotesque deaths or the horrible suffering of the Iraqis?

Have you ever seen the multi-thousands of severly injured soldiers?

Have you seen them being fitted with their new arms and legs or being shown how to read brail or how thier families are going to deal with severly brain damaged children? There are thousand and thousand of these Americans.

It's TeeVee Nation.

[librechik]

6. it's that ol' Skull & Bones magic

shrub has a collection in his rumpus room, and he always needs more.

[metasphere]

7. Are you suggesting

that these kidnappings and subsequent beheadings are devised by the Bush regime, or that the Bush regime is complicit in these crimes?

It is this kind of implausible conspiracy theory that only hurts the cause of those of us whose disagreements with current policy are grounded in things that are right out in the open.

[murielm99]

10. No. It is the way things are being reported, what is

ALLOWED to be reported. They are trying to control as much of the war news as possible.

We get big sensational stories about the kidnappings and beheadings, but no one is allowed to see incoming coffins of dead Americans.

The news people seem to spend very little time visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals, or families of the dead. Bush* does not attend any soldiers' funerals. We do not even hear numbers of wounded

We don't see or hear many reports about Iraqi dead. We don't see many pictures of them, and we don't actually know how many have died.

You know Bushco manipulates the news. Look at what he tried to do to that Irish reporter if you don't believe it. Look at what happens to anyone who criticizes him.

Of course they have to report on the beheadings. And it is easy to sensationalize them. But they have free reign on sensationalizing those stories. It makes them look bad and us look good.

[freeforall]

12. Yes, we are suggesting that. If you haven't yet...

go and see F9/11. I don't think you will find anything implausible about the * government after that.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi metasphere!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[mopaul]

15. YES, that's what we are suggesting metasphere

[mopaul]

19. so meta, do you buy the official bushco story?

and do you support the repression of all ideas other than the official white house story?

the so called al qaeda guys in the beheading videos are all wearing head masks. NO ONE can say for sure who they are. not you, not me, not the white house or it's media.

in my experience, anything coming out of the white house as an official story is an absolute lie.

see how barbarian those dirty brown muslims are? they chop people's heads off! we americans just explode and burn and shoot folks, not chop their heads off and film it.

[metasphere]

21. Do I believe...?

that terrorists have kidnapped people and are threatening to cut their heads off (and have done so in the recent past), and they are doing this out of some barbaric worldview that it is just and consistent with Islamic teaching?

Yes.

The story isnt "coming out of the White House", I see it on BBC, CNN and read about it in the Washington Post. I also saw it on the Al Jazeera website, which I believe is where it was first reported.

Could I be wrong, and could it all be an elaborate fake? Yes, obviously I am not on the scene, have no first hand knowledge. But it just seems so completely implausible on so many levels to think that the whole story is contrived, or that it represents a sinister conspiracy between the US govt and terrorists.

I don't support the repression of any ideas, but I can give my opinion about their merits. If you want to believe in a conspiracy theory about these kidnappings, it is your right. But unless you can present stronger evidence than you have done so far, we can agree to disagree.

[Yupster]

23. Welcome to DU metas, but

you forgot your :tinfoilhat: .

It's pretty much mandatory equipment if you're here for any length of time.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. Improbable? Maybe. Implausible? NO WAY JOSE. (nt)

[Mnemosyne]

8. How convenient! could it be.......Shrub, er, SATAN!

[Jade Fox]

9. I guess no one takes the terror alert colors seriously anymore.....

Its paranoid, but I was thinking that same thing.

[iconoclastic cat]

13. These threats/acts ARE bad W news!

Sorry that I had to yell.

[Jacobin]

18. I agree

The beheadings don't help Smirk except among his rabid base, which is no help at all

[doni_georgia]

17. Heard statement by this soldier's family this morning on NPR

They said they were willing to accept the "will of Allah" no matter what that was. My first thought was, God if this solider is executed, I bet the outrage will not be as great because he is a Muslim.

[GreenPartyVoter]

22. I thought the same thing. More fuss over white contractors

than muslim GIs.