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You are here: Home / Sky rockets in flight

Sky rockets in flight

by DougJ|  April 7, 20171:03 pm| 53 Comments

This post is in: Assholes, Our Failed Media Experiment

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I’m agnostic about US military action in Syria. But it just blows my mind how uncritically establishment media is praising Trump’s action. It’s not just open wingers like Cupp.

Fareed Zakaria:

.@FareedZakaria on Syria strikes: "I think Donald Trump became President of the United States" last night https://t.co/dLipRu6SZu

— New Day (@NewDay) April 7, 2017

BriWi:

“We see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two U.S. Navy vessels in the eastern Mediterranean,” said Williams “I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen: ‘I am guided by the beauty of our weapons.’”

And there was the usual moral seriousness, heart/God bullshit:

The nonsense continued throughout Thursday night and Friday morning. Matt K. Lewis, the Daily Beast writer and CNN personality, took note of the references to God in Trump’s statement on the airstrikes, and salivated over the president’s moral seriousness. Even worse was Mark Landler’s “news analysis” in the New York Times on why Trump greenlit the attack, given that the president has shown a strong affinity for dictators and little concern for suffering. Failing to mention that Trump was in the process of banning refugees from America, Landler painted a laughable picture of a man consumed with grief because of images of children dying. (“On Syria Attack, Trump’s Heart Came First,” the Times tweeted.) Not only does coverage like this badly distort an important issue like Syria, but it serves as a reminder (as if one were needed) of exactly the boost—not to mention the political capital—Trump would gain in the case of a national emergency or terrorist attack. As if a Trump with normal powers wasn’t horrifying enough.

This isn’t much of a left/right thing, in terms of the punditry. I remember the media getting all excited when Obama had those Somalian pirates killed; not that Obama wasn’t right to it, but it was revolting just how much Joe Klein et al. got off on it.

Atrios reminds us just how prescient Alex Pareene was about this when he was writing about the Navy SEAL operation in Yemen:

Now that Trump has learned that there is a direct relationship between a president’s body count and how “presidential” the mainstream political press considers him to be, the whole world is fucked.

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Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 7, 2017 at 1:06 pm

    I’m agnostic about US military action in Syria.

    Regardless of how you feel about the rightness of taking military action, it’s simply a fact that Trump didn’t even pretend to do it legally.

  2. 2.

    NorthLeft12

    April 7, 2017 at 1:07 pm

    So that’s what it takes to be Presidential……..blow some shit up. Yeah, that sounds about right, doesn’t it?

  3. 3.

    Cacti

    April 7, 2017 at 1:07 pm

    The librul media loves wars.

  4. 4.

    Humboldtblue

    April 7, 2017 at 1:07 pm

    Well, at least we all know we can rest comfortably knowing that Trump has close ties to Putin and can get him on the phone at any time.

  5. 5.

    ?eric

    April 7, 2017 at 1:11 pm

    I am not agnostic…the military “exercise” was pointless. At most, all it “said” to Assad: “use conventional weapons.” Big effing deal.

  6. 6.

    Lizzy L

    April 7, 2017 at 1:12 pm

    Raining cruise missiles down on an airfield in Syria does nothing to change the Syrian political situation. Nothing.

    We are monkeys, with rocks and sticks.

  7. 7.

    Bill Arnold

    April 7, 2017 at 1:13 pm

    It is remarkable how cluelessly cheerleading USAians are about war/military strikes. It makes me embarrassed to be an American, to be blunt. Couldn’t stand watching more than a few minutes of breathless gormless newspeople last night.

    Lizzy L:

    We are monkeys, with rocks and sticks.

    My feelings as well.

  8. 8.

    NorthLeft12

    April 7, 2017 at 1:13 pm

    I sincerely doubt that Leonard Cohen ever meant that lyric to somehow glorify war and destruction…..but then I am a Canadian so what the hell do I know, eh?

    Oh, and Brian Williams is a putrid excuse for a journalist. My apologies to the real journalists out there who are actually a benefit to the human race.

  9. 9.

    ?eric

    April 7, 2017 at 1:13 pm

    @Lizzy L: that is not fair to monkeys.

  10. 10.

    Cacti

    April 7, 2017 at 1:15 pm

    @eric:

    Thus far, there have been about 93,000 civilian casualties in the Syrian civil war.

    With apologies to Apocalypse Now, acting aghast that 58 of them died in a gas attack feels a bit like handing a speeding ticket to the lead car at the Indy 500.

  11. 11.

    quakerinabasement

    April 7, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    I’m tempted to say that cable news killed journalism, but then I remember how CNN performed back during the first Iraq war. Whatever the cause, it’s been a long way down.

  12. 12.

    ?eric

    April 7, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    @Cacti: aptly put.

  13. 13.

    Brachiator

    April 7, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    Now that Trump has learned that there is a direct relationship between a president’s body count and how “presidential” the mainstream political press considers him to be, the whole world is fucked.

    Yes.

    What annoys me the most about Trump’s actions (and it is part of a long, goddam list) is how totally disconnected it is from any notion of foreign policy or national interest. Even if one wanted to give Trump points for seeing the terrible damage done by the chemicals used and give him points for compassion, the long term effects of his actions could prove to be catastrophic.

    It’s possible that Assad believed that Trump would leave him alone, since Trump and Putin seem to be such buddies, and there is some co-operation in allowing the US to help more in the fight against ISIL. But this also reminds me of the charges that Saddam Hussein thought that the US had given him an OK to roll into Kuwait, and that much of the mess that followed had some links to this initial disastrous misunderstanding.

    A BBC news correspondent noted that there are some American Special Forces troops on the ground in Syria, and that Trump’s actions could put their lives at risk.

    And obviously, we don’t know how Trump’s actions will be taken by the Russians and what may happen next with all of this. There are reports that the Russians are helping the Syrians re-establish the equipment lost to the US attack. This can’t be good.

    Also, I can easily see some Trump supporters cheering loudly for Trump’s quick, intuitive reaction in ordering the air strikes. These people love the idea of the hero who goes with his instincts, and doesn’t bother with rules or analysis.

    Yeah, we’re fucked.

  14. 14.

    amk

    April 7, 2017 at 1:18 pm

    Wonder how long this war porn cheered by fifth columnists will last. Both the rwnj’s and the loony left (looking at you, susan) got their wish.

  15. 15.

    ?eric

    April 7, 2017 at 1:18 pm

    @quakerinabasement: Mammon killed television news, in the form of Ivy MBAs and the like.

  16. 16.

    clay

    April 7, 2017 at 1:20 pm

    @NorthLeft12: I’ve actually found Brian Williams to be decent on his 11th Hour show. He can usually corral an informative conversation out of his guests, and he does a decent job of keeping things to the question at hand, and not allowing for mindless talking points. And he’s certainly not been uncritical of the Trump Administration on this show.

    His waxing poetic about military “hoo-ah” is a fucking embarrassment, though.

  17. 17.

    GregB

    April 7, 2017 at 1:20 pm

    Donald Trump is our collective karma come to end the madness in glorious reality show fashion.

    The Williams quote is nauseating.

  18. 18.

    Cacti

    April 7, 2017 at 1:21 pm

    @Brachiator:

    It’s possible that Assad believed that Trump would leave him alone, since Trump and Putin seem to be such buddies, and there is some co-operation in allowing the US to help more in the fight against ISIL. But this also reminds me of the charges that Saddam Hussein thought that the US had given him an OK to roll into Kuwait, and that much of the mess that followed had some links to this initial disastrous misunderstanding.

    The gas attacks came 3-days after both Tillerson and Haley said that removing Assad from power was not a priority. It’s not a stretch to think he took that as a green light.

  19. 19.

    The Moar You Know

    April 7, 2017 at 1:24 pm

    Get in line, suck his dick, media. Give the attention whore what he wants.

    You’re “agnostic”, Doug? Must be nice.

  20. 20.

    clay

    April 7, 2017 at 1:25 pm

    @Cacti:

    The gas attacks came 3-days after both Tillerson and Haley said that removing Assad from power was not a priority. It’s not a stretch to think he took that as a green light

    Also, and this gets overlooked, it happened after Trump warmly welcomed the dictator of Egypt, letting the whole world know that Trump does not give two shits about human rights or advancing the cause of democracy.

  21. 21.

    Bill Arnold

    April 7, 2017 at 1:26 pm

    @quakerinabasement:

    …but then I remember how CNN performed back during the first Iraq war.

    That was my first significant wake-up call re broken media. I knew things were broken in the abstract, but not that viscerally.
    wikipedia:

    For the first time, people all over the world were able to watch live pictures of missiles hitting their targets and fighters taking off from aircraft carriers from the actual perspective of the machinery. The images of precise land bombing and use of night vision equipment gave the reporting a futuristic spin which was said to resemble video game imagery and encourage the “war drama”.

    (Bolded what struck me at the time; night vision video.)

  22. 22.

    Taylor

    April 7, 2017 at 1:27 pm

    As with the election, my disgust and contempt is largely for our putrid media.

    We would never have a dangerous, corrupt, incompetent narcissist for President if our media were not so fucking stupid and arrogant that they thought they could have fun playing Whack-a-Hillary and not have it have consequences.

    Now it’s Little Tommy Friedman “Suck on this” as foreign policy. Plus, we already know what kind of country we are, at this point we’re just arguing with China et al about the price.

    I no longer wonder why Europe decided to blow itself up in 1914. Any American historian who wonders about it should be immediately fired for incompetence.

  23. 23.

    cmorenc

    April 7, 2017 at 1:28 pm

    True, seemingly decisive military action tends to initially get fawning press coverage – which, unless the operation does indeed seemingly result in successful resolution of the situation along desired US objectives (the Grenada & Panama invasions being two – and the Clinton-era intervention in Kosovo perhaps being another) – leads within a few weeks or months to darker, more skeptical, and even scathing coverage once it becomes apparent that the net result of the initial action is a more messy, costly, complicated quagmire than existed before our military intervention.

    One of the unsound implications some of the press coverage is making is that this example of Trump’s quick willingness to take action in Syria will help deter Kim Jun Un’s aggressiveness in North Korea – without taking into account the fact that we have no realistic ability to stop Kim from inflicting catastrophically enormous damage on South Korea, should we try a similar strike against N. Korea, and crazy as he is, Kim well understands that. China has the only effective potential leverage over Kim, short of US willingness to conduct war against N Korea to overthrow the regime. But the latter requires us to accept N Korea’s ability to inflict enormous collateral damage to S. Korea before we could successfully defeat N Korea, and also run the risk of adverse rather than cooperative Chinese intervention in such a conflict.

  24. 24.

    scav

    April 7, 2017 at 1:29 pm

    Wonder how loudly they’ll cheer when their leader, the Trump&tm; is moved by a photo of local children in distress and unleases similar strikes there as warning shots. Wonder if Chicago will be awarded a similar degree of warning.

  25. 25.

    Goku

    April 7, 2017 at 1:30 pm


    It’s the American Conservative, but it’s pretty reasonable. Must be the apocalypse

  26. 26.

    Chris

    April 7, 2017 at 1:32 pm

    The nonsense continued throughout Thursday night and Friday morning. Matt K. Lewis, the Daily Beast writer and CNN personality, took note of the references to God in Trump’s statement on the airstrikes, and salivated over the president’s moral seriousness. Even worse was Mark Landler’s “news analysis” in the New York Times on why Trump greenlit the attack, given that the president has shown a strong affinity for dictators and little concern for suffering. Failing to mention that Trump was in the process of banning refugees from America, Landler painted a laughable picture of a man consumed with grief because of images of children dying. (“On Syria Attack, Trump’s Heart Came First,” the Times tweeted.) Not only does coverage like this badly distort an important issue like Syria, but it serves as a reminder (as if one were needed) of exactly the boost—not to mention the political capital—Trump would gain in the case of a national emergency or terrorist attack. As if a Trump with normal powers wasn’t horrifying enough.

    Of course, none of this will stop half the country and all Newscorp-controlled outlets from wailing loudly about how the biased liberal media just won’t cut Trump a break.

  27. 27.

    ?eric

    April 7, 2017 at 1:32 pm

    @cmorenc: idiots. the only thing we “stopped” was the killing of babies with sarin gas. torture, police killings, and conventional bombings may continue apace. To steal from Dame Murdoch, they are all moral monstrosities.

  28. 28.

    hovercraft

    April 7, 2017 at 1:37 pm

    @Brachiator:

    And obviously, we don’t know how Trump’s actions will be taken by the Russians and what may happen next with all of this. There are reports that the Russians are helping the Syrians re-establish the equipment lost to the US attack. This can’t be good.

    I’m taking all this with a grain of salt, as it gives both Twitler and Putin the chance to show everyone how tough they are and that Twitler is not Putin’s bitch. The fact that Putin was told this was coming and they made sure not to damage the runways so that the Russians can still use them is not suspicious at all.

    US tries to restore military back channel with Russia after Syria strikes

    Vladimir Putin pulls out of ‘deconfliction channel’ after US airstrikes on Assad regime targets, daring Trump to choose between attacking Assad and Isis

    The Pentagon is attempting to revive a critical military communications hotline between the US and Russia that has become the first geopolitical casualty of Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to attack Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

    By shutting down the so-called deconfliction channel after the missile strike on Russia’s Syrian proxy, Vladimir Putin has dared Trump to choose between attacking Assad and attacking Islamic State, Trump’s priority.

    Trump’s missile barrage, reversing his previous indifference to continued Assad rule, now faces conflicting demands from Congress to escalate militarily and from Russia to back down.

    The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is scheduled to travel to Moscow next week in an attempt to impose an elusive peace on Syria, though its terms have for years been thwarted by Putin’s insistence that Assad remain in power.

    Live Syria bombing: Russia PM calls Trump’s airstrike ‘good news for terrorists’ – live
    American military strike hits airbase in Syria in retaliation for what US president called ‘horrible chemical weapons attack’ in Idlib
    Read more

  29. 29.

    Jeffro

    April 7, 2017 at 1:39 pm

    @NorthLeft12: We’ve been doing this crap for so long, that most Americans (and all of the media) just see it as part of the President’s job. If it’s Thursday night, it’s time to drop some bombs in the Middle East, right?

    It’s just 10x worse because with Trumpov the Clown, this is their opportunity to drag out their favorite P-words like ‘presidential’ and ‘pivot’ and ‘powerful’ and ‘phnot-a-phcomplete-phuck-up’. Something new to report on – well in their view, anyway – instead of another dispatch from Failandia

  30. 30.

    Cacti

    April 7, 2017 at 1:40 pm

    @cmorenc:

    One of the unsound implications some of the press coverage is making is that this example of Trump’s quick willingness to take action in Syria will help deter Kim Jun Un’s aggressiveness in North Korea – without taking into account the fact that we have no realistic ability to stop Kim from inflicting catastrophically enormous damage on South Korea, should we try a similar strike against N. Korea, and crazy as he is, Kim well understands that. China has the only effective potential leverage over Kim, short of US willingness to conduct war against N Korea to overthrow the regime. But the latter requires us to accept N Korea’s ability to inflict enormous collateral damage to S. Korea before we could successfully defeat N Korea, and also run the risk of adverse rather than cooperative Chinese intervention in such a conflict.

    I’d say the missile strike on Syria vs. absolutely nothing done with North Korea reaffirms what was already known. Nukes = United States talks tough but otherwise leaves you alone if you’re a rogue state.

    A war against a nuclear armed North Korea would be catastrophic. Nuclear strikes on the DMZ or Okinawa would kill all or most of 75,000 US military personnel. Strikes on Seoul or Tokyo and we’re talking civilian casualty counts in the millions.

  31. 31.

    Bill Arnold

    April 7, 2017 at 1:41 pm

    BTW, free conspiracy theory (haven’t looked in the usual places yet, so it’s raw), offered without a shred of evidence. I expect something like this will be making the rounds.
    1) Putin saw Trump’s support dropping.
    2) Putin knows that Americans (USAians) are suckers for “Presidential” military symbolic actions.
    3) Putin orchestrated or even had his military perform the gas attack
    4) Trump’s team puts together a plan which reportedly gave the Russians 60-90 minutes of warning.
    5) Russia complains loudly.
    Trump becomes “Presidential” per plan step 2.

  32. 32.

    Brachiator

    April 7, 2017 at 1:44 pm

    @clay:

    Also, and this gets overlooked, it happened after Trump warmly welcomed the dictator of Egypt, letting the whole world know that Trump does not give two shits about human rights or advancing the cause of democracy.

    There was an idiotic consensus among some conservative pundits that Obama had been an unrealistic dreamer in supporting democracy in the Middle East and that the US and the West gained more in supporting right wing authoritarians in the region, even if this resulted in the brutal oppression of local populations. It was better that a few dictators love us even if it meant that hatred of the West simmered among the stifled masses.

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    April 7, 2017 at 1:46 pm

    I’m one of those dreaded “liberal interventionists” and I think this was a TERRIBLE idea. A stupid fucking overgrown toddler lashed out to try and cover up how over his head he is.

  34. 34.

    David Evans

    April 7, 2017 at 1:46 pm

    Leonard Cohen had other words that may be more relevant:
    Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
    Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
    Everybody knows the war is over
    Everybody knows the good guys lost
    Everybody knows the fight was fixed
    The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
    That’s how it goes
    Everybody knows

  35. 35.

    Bill Arnold

    April 7, 2017 at 1:48 pm

    Perhaps it’s been linked in other threads, but interesting talk:
    Exclusive: Trump eyes new chief of staff; House Leader on short list
    (Including a possible Bannon exit.)

  36. 36.

    Cacti

    April 7, 2017 at 1:49 pm

    @Brachiator:

    There was an idiotic consensus among some conservative pundits that Obama had been an unrealistic dreamer in supporting democracy in the Middle East and that the US and the West gained more in supporting right wing authoritarians in the region, even if this resulted in the brutal oppression of local populations. It was better that a few dictators love us even if it meant that hatred of the West simmered among the stifled masses.

    What’s the worst that could happen from supporting various dictators and absolute monarchs in the region?

    Oh, right, 9/11.

  37. 37.

    Chris

    April 7, 2017 at 1:50 pm

    @Brachiator:

    There was an idiotic consensus among some conservative pundits that Obama had been an unrealistic dreamer in supporting democracy in the Middle East and that the US and the West gained more in supporting right wing authoritarians in the region, even if this resulted in the brutal oppression of local populations. It was better that a few dictators love us even if it meant that hatred of the West simmered among the stifled masses.

    The funny thing is that when the Arab Spring was actually getting off the ground, I was actually still following the right wing Interwebs fairly closely… and they so clearly had no freaking idea what was going on. They were waiting to see how it shook out so that they’d know whether to credit Bush or blame Obama.

  38. 38.

    SenyorDave

    April 7, 2017 at 1:50 pm

    “We see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two U.S. Navy vessels in the eastern Mediterranean,” said Williams “I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen: ‘I am guided by the beauty of our weapons.’”

    As somebody pointed out elsewhere, Williams doesn’t understand the quote at all. He takes it literally, as if Cohen finds missiles, bombs, etc. as being “beautiful”, and goes with that as the context. Truly pathetic. He probably thinks Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” was about how much Janis Joplin wanted to have a Mercedes.

  39. 39.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 7, 2017 at 1:55 pm

    @SenyorDave: Well, he has good company, since Trump apparently thinks Cohen’s “The Future” is an instruction manual.

    Give me absolute control
    over every living soul
    And lie beside me, baby,
    that’s an order!
    Give me crack and anal sex
    Take the only tree that’s left
    and stuff it up the hole
    in your culture
    Give me back the Berlin wall
    give me Stalin and St Paul
    I’ve seen the future, brother:
    it is murder.

    Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
    Won’t be nothing
    Nothing you can measure anymore
    The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
    has crossed the threshold
    and it has overturned
    the order of the soul
    When they said REPENT REPENT
    I wonder what they meant

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    April 7, 2017 at 1:55 pm

    @Goku:

    FWIW, the American Conservative has always been isolationist. They hated Bush’s Iraq war, too.

  41. 41.

    waspuppet

    April 7, 2017 at 1:59 pm

    @Bill Arnold: A lot of them are capable of dealing with the reality that Trump doesn’t know anything about anything and just sort of careens around. But somehow when it comes to war they assume he’s actually thought about any of this.

    Even the ones who know what a moron Trump is are so in love with the idea that the presidency will ennoble the officeholder that they can’t let it go.

  42. 42.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 7, 2017 at 2:00 pm

    @Mnemosyne: In the comments the author (Larison I think) clarifies that since the UN charter has the force of a treaty, it should be followed under any interpretation of the constitution, which is just a sensible opinion to hold.

  43. 43.

    NorthLeft12

    April 7, 2017 at 2:04 pm

    @Bill Arnold: I kinda don’t have a problem with the US giving the Russians a warning that they were going to blow that airfield up. Dead Russians in Syria by a US surprise attack would not go over too well with anyone, except the batshit crazy right wing.

    I hope Deadbeat Donald is not being criticized for that, as it would show that the lack of dead bodies [Syrian or Russian] at the airfield was a disappointment to the people doing the criticizing.

  44. 44.

    amk

    April 7, 2017 at 2:04 pm

    @Cacti: Yup. More & more enemies.

  45. 45.

    NorthLeft12

    April 7, 2017 at 2:07 pm

    @SenyorDave: Well, Republicans think that “Born in the USA” is a patriotic anthem, right?

  46. 46.

    NorthLeft12

    April 7, 2017 at 2:14 pm

    @Cacti: That just goes along with the right wingers worship of the powerful, and their contempt for those without.
    The problem is though, that those shut out of power/society eventually strike back against their “oppressors” in some way. Sometimes in a violent and destructive way. That describes 9/11 and virtually every mass killing in the west.

  47. 47.

    El Caganer

    April 7, 2017 at 2:24 pm

    @?eric: No, ’twas Pootie killed the beast….

  48. 48.

    El Caganer

    April 7, 2017 at 2:27 pm

    @?eric: Are you referring to the United States or Syria or both? I was living in Philadelphia when they dropped the bomb on MOVE and torched West Philly.

  49. 49.

    Bill Arnold

    April 7, 2017 at 2:38 pm

    @NorthLeft12:

    I kinda don’t have a problem with the US giving the Russians a warning that they were going to blow that airfield up. Dead Russians in Syria by a US surprise attack would not go over too well with anyone, except the batshit crazy right wing.

    Guess I was being obtuse; in the conspiracy theory, this would have been part of the plan, with the Russians making sure through their agents that this was so.

  50. 50.

    Brachiator

    April 7, 2017 at 2:48 pm

    @El Caganer:

    No, ’twas Pootie killed the beast….

    You win the InterTubes for the day.

  51. 51.

    Hungry Joe

    April 7, 2017 at 3:06 pm

    Here’s some more to-the-point Leonard Cohen for you, Brian Williams, you blaspheming (Leonard Cohen!) twit:

    Now if you can manage to get
    your trembling fingers to behave,
    why don’t you try unwrapping
    a stainless steel razor blade?
    That’s right, it’s come to this,
    yes it’s come to this,
    and wasn’t it a long way down,
    wasn’t it a strange way down?

  52. 52.

    eemom

    April 7, 2017 at 3:33 pm

    Srsly. I didn’t think it was possible to get more disgusted with the emmessemm than I already am, but that NYT piece was a veritable symphony of sickening.

    /Afternoon Puke.

  53. 53.

    BruceJ

    April 7, 2017 at 4:15 pm

    You could hear the pants popping from the goddamn war boners all over the teevee. The national news just played the same three 10-beat (seriously, we counted!) cruise-missile launch stock footage over and over and over. And Brian Williams should be fucking strung up by his balls for that sociopathic misreading of Cohen’s lyric.

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