Most of us in the blogosphere, regardless of our political persuasions, still regard the role of the media is to provide the reader with honest, hard hitting, unbiased accounting of the actual facts as they are understood at the time of the reporting. Anyone that is a daily reader of the news (local/national/international) understands just how often journalism’s’ high and lofty ideals are flaunted.
Then there is the phenomenon of the news actually becoming a participant in the news story that they are reporting on. This is not a new phenomenon, and has become mainstream within the news media for decades, especially when the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is in question.
But here is an interesting observation a friend pointed out to me concerning a story I blogged on a few days ago, about a Somali refugee in Finland being interviewed on Finnish state TV.
The YLE journalist, Ahti Kaario, is seen and heard complaining about Ethiopian forces being in Somalia, all the while 2000 “foreign” Islamist forces from Eritrea have been in the country for over a half a year, propping up the illegal Islamist Islamic Courts Union, and their hold over the southern portion of Somalia. The there is the 6000 strong foreign fighters that pledge allegiance to Al-Qaida, no mention of them either.
Never mind the fact that the Islamists deposed and warred against the (UN recognized) legitimate government of Somalia. Alas, the TFG is muslim but evidently not radical enough for the YLE “news journalist”. Kaario’s rationale, is that they (the Islamists) brought order to the areas under their control. Real order indeed! Overthrowing the legitimate government of Somalia and leading to an influx of 8,000 foreign fighters, and a civil war.
As a matter of fact, Finnish state news has been noticeably on the side of the Islamists from the moment it started reporting on the fighting. In a live studio interview, an A-studio journalist Ari Lahdenmäki carries on with the YLE policy of siding with the Islamists, ending his interview with the following nonsense:
Q: You were able to see how things were while Mogadishu was still under the control of the Islamists
AL: Yes, the experiences were rather perplexing. There were a lot of people to be seen from Europe and elsewhere after hearing that things there had settled down and was peaceful. Schools were open, so were stores and coffee shops, people were able to move in areas that were before impossible, even football was being played on the beaches. There was a “real feeling of peace”. But now it’s gone…..
Finnish state sponsored news journalism……. *L* KGS
