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Apologize for What?
I came back online from Shabbat to witness a strange and incredibly disturbing phenomenon: the mainstream media at best white-washing the North Korean regime, and at worst, running interference for it. Here are a few highlights:
This media love-fest was the subject of my New York Post column running in Monday’s paper. In it, I explain:
One does not have to be a fan of the Trump administration to realize just how misguided it is to give a brutal dictator and his ruling family attaboys like they’re pussyhat-wearing members of the anti-Trump #resistance. The resistance in North Korea, after all, is treated a bit differently.
Which prompted this tweet:
https://twitter.com/bethanyshondark/status/962814072608690177
And almost proving my point, Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten responded:
It's not the most brutal regime in human history, Bethany. You need to apologize.
— Gene Weingarten (@geneweingarten) February 11, 2018
Hey, if you're genuinely clueless, fine.
— Gene Weingarten (@geneweingarten) February 11, 2018
https://twitter.com/bethanyshondark/status/962816144838135808
What Bethany is saying is at the very least arguable and your hostility and condescension are entirely characteristic of your preening and self-infatuated journalism.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) February 11, 2018
Thank you Gene, for proving my point. And for also inspiring hundreds of dollars of donations for a fundraiser on behalf of North Korean refugees I’ve been running for the last day since I came back online from Shabbat.
@mkhammer's tweet was the initial inspiration to give. @geneweingarten inspired me to give more.
— Bryan S. Myrick (@BryanMyrick) February 11, 2018
While the media have been white-washing the North Korean regime and downplaying its brutality, freedom-lovers have raised enough in the last day for three refugees to find safe haven.
Published in Journalism
I’m not seeing South Koreans crawling under the wire in the thousands to live in the Socialist Workers Paradise. One would think that soaking in the Glorious Hot Tub of the Peoples Revolution would be very attractive to the oppressed people of South Korea.
Is the symbol he is using for himself what I think it is (and I don’t think it is soft-serve chocolate ice cream)? If so, that says everything you need to know about him. He is a big steaming pile which can be ignored so long as you stay upwind and don’t step in it.
There is such easy access to videos and documentaries that show what a moron that guy is.
Why isn’t the press the enemy? Tell me.
Of course Kim Jong Un’s sister looks good: she gets enough to eat.
In North Korea, that makes her the 0.001%.
This is just more Commie-lovin’ by the Left. They adored the Bolsheviks too.
(That’s why it seemed so hilariously funny when they began their “The Russians ate our election!” mantra. Why, if Joe McCarthy were alive the Dems woulda made him DNC chair! )
So this is just them reverting to type. If only Americans had more historical memory, everyone would be according this the derision it so richly deserves.
I am still trying to grok the whole “Trump is a Tyrant (and we hate him)” and “Wow, the NORK synchronized Flag Waving is proof of their awesomeness” coming from the same mouths.
Next we’ll be told that Kim Yo Jong is a “reformer”.
I thank the Great Clarifier, President Trump GBUH, for illuminating the disease in our media.
I wonder what Mona Charon has to say about this?
It is proof that that the media don’t engage in critical thinking. It is all group think. Trump has been hostile towards North Korea, therefore North Korea must defacto be the “good guys”. One of them notices that the sister is kind of pretty. So all the stories have to be “look at the pretty sister of this misunderstood leader”. Since a narrative has been established, all dissent must be mocked.
Bethany,
It’s wishful thinking combined with the most shallow leftwing arrogance that can only bleet out its festering hatred of Trump while a truly brutal & tyrannical regime destroys its victims, its own people. The Obama Administration was the king of wishful thinking with Iran.
Iranian-Canadian Professor’s ‘Suicide’ in Iranian Custody Questioned by Family
No need to apologize. When evil raises its ugly head, call it evil.
Regards,
Jim
Donated to a worthy cause.
You could probably amend to “One of the most brutal regimes in human history”. Sort of like demanding an apology for referring to someone as a mass murderer rather than a serial killer.
In short, you’re an insensitive monster.
This pleases Leni Riefenstahl.
You go, girl!
BTW, we’re all over this topic with NoKo expert Ethan Epstein on the Michael In The Morning podcast today:
http://ricochet.com/podcast/michael-graham-morning/liberal-media-hearts-noko-dictators/
Amazing that the same smug set who will brook no dissent when claiming Serena Williams is the greatest “tennis player period” will spare no mass murder sabermetrics to deny that the North Korean regime is arguably, pound-for-pound, the most brutal regime in history.
And what if the Norks are merely the most brutal regime in past 40 years?
The press is the enemy of the people. Members of the ‘profession’ should be shunned – at the very least – by all right-thinking people. What is the justification for a conservative or a lover of liberty self-identifying as a journalist in this day and age?
I read a BuzzFeed article earlier today that had to explain, in numbered list form, that people shouldn’t be cheering for Kim Jong Un’s sister because (among other things) she is the propaganda minister for the regime, and her family directly benefits from slavery.
While I’m glad that at least some part of the not-conservative media understands that she is not a person to be admired, I’m extremely disappointed that so many other people seem to not understand this. In particular the idea that Mike Pence, whose worst (according to people who don’t like it) identifiable act appears to have been the passing of a law about gay wedding cakes, is somehow equivalent or worse than a woman who directly profits from slavery.
I think this is only possible due to the immense material wealth enjoyed in America today, coupled with the fact that military service is completely optional. Because nobody in journalism has to directly confront that they or someone they know may have to kill a North Korean, they don’t think clearly about why and under what circumstances it may be justified. Their lives will not change, barring a North Korean nuclear strike on the continental United States, so the problems with that regime are easily ignored, in favor of charming distractions like Twitter that only exist as the result of western decadence, whose purpose is to facilitate narcissism. Hence, Kim Jong Un’s sister easily is the new standard bearer for the domestic left, because she appears opposed to Mike Pence, who “hates gays”, thus liking her means you hate people who “hate gays.” That she murders people is irrelevant, because the only thing that is relevant is what she says about you.
Rush Limbaugh is talking about Bethany right now now. Excellent.
I think you Pol Pot has gotten the Norks beat. Though Northern Orkistan has been around a lot longer.
I’ve noticed too and it’s disgusting. I don’t know if they’re sympathizing with NK because of their natural warm feelings toward commie and tyrant countries or because of their uncontrollable hatred for all things Trump. Probably both.
“Head held high, Kim’s sister returns to North Korea.” — Reuters
“Whose head was it?” — David Burge
Weingarten’s been a supercilious pill for years. I’ve often wondered why he got to keep his Pulitzer for the Joshua Bell anonymous-violinist-in-the-subway stunt that had been staged by another journalist years before.
Gosh, too bad that I’m not watching the Olympics and that I’m not on Twitter! Look at all the juicy stuff I’m missing. I don’t know how you put up with such pathetic comments from people, @bethanymandel. How anyone can defend the North Koreans and the leadership is beyond my understanding. The people have been starving there longer than any of those other regimes people have mentioned. I assume that starving the people qualifies as “brutal.” Sorry-I didn’t mean to be so sarcastic, but these people are beyond belief.
Do you have any idea how I can listen to it?
Pay $7 for one month of his podcast is the easiest way, I think. 10 million people heard it. Very, very cool.
Bethany,
Did you catch this article by Rebecca Mansour at Breitbart?
Mansour: The Olympic Gold Medal for Sucking Up to a Murderous Totalitarian Regime Goes to…
How the MSM deserves every scintilla of sarcasm.
Regards,
Jim
I love our US athletes but I utterly loathe the Olympics. It’s fascist to the core. It’s tailor-made for dictatorships and totalitarian countries. When it’s about the athletes who do what they do for love of country it’s moving—but too often it’s about the big state celebrating itself. And that’s rancid.
A close second on the revolting scale are the soccer games held in gigantic stadiums, where 120,000 nameless, faceless Winston Smiths subsume their individuality and dissolve into a cheering mob.
Like political rallies?
Depends. Political rallies can help uphold republican values of limited government and rule of law. We can’t really do without them. The Olympics, in many parts of the world, is about the State and the State alone.
Why? Because they sing coordinated songs rather than just roar indiscriminately like U.S. football fans? Are you opposed to spectator sports in general, or just knee-jerk anti-soccer because it’s foreign?
US Football is more individualistic than soccer, in my view. The names are on the uniforms, for one thing. NFL stadiums are not as large as FIFA stadiums are. The massive stadiums diminish fans. And the NFL celebrates individuality, generally. There’s a lot of corporate, Fortune 500 influence. But I don’t get the creeps from Proctor and Gamble. Or Tide Pods. Or Ford trucks. It’s not about the State. Very different.
I’d like to know whether anyone believes that athletic competitions such as the Olympics nurture world peace and understanding? It would be nice if they did. I hope they do. But what if they don’t do either of those things? I don’t know.
It would be off topic to get into this further, but you seem to have very little idea what you’re talking about.