A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Christopher Hitchens targets the journalists who strain and strain yet cannot see the obvious.  His lead:

The obvious is sometimes the most difficult thing to discern, and few things are more amusing than the efforts of our journals of record to keep "open" minds about the self-evident, and thus to create mysteries when the real task of reportage is to dispel them. An all-time achiever in this category is Fernanda Santos of the New York Times, who managed to write from Bombay on Nov. 27 that the Chabad Jewish center in that city was "an unlikely target of the terrorist gunmen who unleashed a series of bloody coordinated attacks at locations in and around Mumbai's commercial center." Continuing to keep her brow heavily furrowed with the wrinkles of doubt and uncertainty, Santos went on to say that "[i]t is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene."

This same puzzled expression is currently being widely worn on the faces of all those who wonder if Pakistan is implicated in the "bloody coordinated" assault on the heart of Bombay. To get an additional if oblique perspective on this riddle that is an enigma wrapped inside a mystery, take a look at Joshua Hammer's excellent essay in the current Atlantic. The question in its title—"[Is Syria] Getting Away With Murder?"—is at least asked only at the beginning of the article and not at the end of it.

His Big Finish:

The Syrian and Pakistani situations are a great deal more similar than most people have any interest in pointing out. In both cases, there is a state within the state that exerts the real parallel power and possesses the reserve strength. In both cases, official "secularism" is a mask (as it also was with the Iraqi Baathists) for the state sponsorship of theocratic and cross-border gangster groups like Lashkar and Hezbollah. In both cases, an unknown quantity of nuclear assets are at the disposal of the official and banana republic state and also very probably of elements within the unofficial and criminal and terrorist one. (It is of huge and unremarked significance that Syria did not take the recent Israeli bombing of its hidden reactor to the United Nations or make any other public complaint.) Given these grim and worsening states of affairs, perhaps it is only small wonder that we take consolation in our illusions and in comforting doubts—such as the childlike wonder about whether Jews are deliberately targeted or just unlucky with time and place. This would all be vaguely funny if it wasn't headed straight toward our own streets.

Christmas is the season for believing, but honestly...

Comments

[kim]

Pam Geller went ballistic over 'accidental hostage scene', too. Crazeee!
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[kim]

Oh, well, the Old Grey Lady is supporting herself on high interest equity loans, anyway. Someone bright said that the Tribune Company owns some high value parking lots in LA; too bad there is a newpaper attached.
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[centralcal]

Speaking of Unfortunate Events . . . Rod Blagojavich arrested this morning for trying to sell Senate seat.

Oh Happy Day!

[clarice]

Sanots probably met the NYT' test for overseas correspondent:badly flunking an IQ test.

[clarice]

**Santos**

[Extraneus]

Would it be wrong of me to hope that some of Blagojevich's stink will rub off on Obama?

[kim]

The Chicago Way. Is that a street or a business?

Little doubt that Obama is covered with Blag Rot. The question is will Fitzgerald pursue it. This timing is curious, though the mention of 'ongoing crimes' might have forced his hand. Blag may have helped force the Tribune into bankruptcy with the Wrigley Field mess.
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[kim]

How long do suppose John Wyma will stay alive?
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[JM Hanes]

Nobody seemed to have any trouble saying they targetted the Taj Mahal. So you've got a hotel with 100's of people over here, and another hotel filled with people over there -- and the only known Jews in Mumbai. They launch 10 guys in a rubber raft from a mystery ship out at sea, with timetables, intel and supply drops. Your mission, should you choose to accept is to shoot up a couple of random places... Jeez.

It must be pretty frustrating for the guys back in Pakistan when the press refuses to get the message they're sending.

[clarice]

Maybe Santos' plan is to drive them insane by refusing to print the story properly and pretending they're just a bunch of random yeggs on a spree,

[kim]

That's funny, JMH.
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[JM Hanes]

Make that your suicidal mission. They probably drew straws for who got to do the honors and get to heaven fastest.

The fact that Santos' twisted selective blindness is, in fact, considered the politically correct approach may be the scariest thing of all.

[clarice]

If SNL were worth its pay, this would be a skit on Sat night--a group of jihadis going nuts,,chanting "Death to the West, death to the Jews," while some gormless NYT correspondent reports that we have no idea why certain sites and people were targetted.

Alas..

[Appalled]

Suggestion -- the Blogo indictment is up on Marc Armbinder's site. Much of it deals with efforts to "sell" Obama's Senate seat. I think TM will have a ball with this one...There are no direct connections with Obama, but there is a distinct impression on Blogo's part that Obama would be willing to get his wife on a corporate board somewhere, or would be willing to work a deal with the SEIU to get Blogo in a 501(c)(4) in a poisition to make lots of money. (Much of the rest of the indictment is an illustration of the deal with the devil inherent in sports stadium deals...)

If Blogo is in a position to dish dirt on Obama, it will get dished. I hope the arms length approach Obama was taking in the conversation described in the affadavit in the indictment was the reality of Obama's relationship with Blogo.

(Also, I hope part of the prison check-in is washing Blogo's mouth out with soap. Oh for the days of "Expletive Deleted".)

[kim]

Appalling, on all sorts of levels. Will the press take a little of the shine of Obama, or is he teflon in this? Good question.
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[JM Hanes]

Sorry to be commenting in bits and pieces, but it seems like when I hit post, yet another outrageous aspect of the coverage raises its ugly head. Are we to believe that Santos, or anybody else, doesn't actually "get it"? So we've got reporters who think they're supposed to pretend they don't, because the public is the dangerous beast here which must not be inflamed. And we've got El Baradei who thinks his primary, self-important, mandate is to tie the reckless hands of the U.S. govenrnment.

If Obama's ascension to the Presidency can make these people feel like they can start telling the whole truth, that might be a bona fide silver lining. The disease has progressed so far, though, that the cure, alas, looks like its going to be very painful.

[kim]

The corruption is, in fact, insanity. The cure? Maybe hard times. And cold ones. And much social dislocation.
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[kim]

It's gotten precious.
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[Appalled]

kim:

It's a really good question, as the news coverage has to reflect the it was Obama's senate seat that was up for auction.

I want to know more about the SEIU official who was apparently an "envoy from Obama".

[clarice]

JMH, Maybe it'll take a wave of jihadis killing themselves out of sheer frustration before there's a turnaround.
(Kidding, but as usual your point is absolutely to the point.)

[Appalled]

kim:

If small-government conservatism is to come back, it will be through graphic demonstration of the corruption that is endemic in big government.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

The complaint is available as a PDF now.

[Captain Hate]

Santos was just doing his master's bidding since the Carpberger family was ahead of the curve when it came to Holocaust denial.

[Crunchy Frog]

From the indictment we know that Senate Candidate 1 was/is female, and associated with SEIU.

Cynthia McKinney, anyone?

/shudder

[clarice]

No--Jarrett.

[MayBee]

It must be pretty frustrating for the guys back in Pakistan when the press refuses to get the message they're sending.

ha ha ha ha ha!
I love that!

[MayBee]

Appalled- what do you think of the SEIU official acting as emissary being Andy Stern?

[PD]

Isn't Jarrett the one who, shortly after the election, was describing how Obama would "rule"? (as opposed to, oh, I don't know, "govern")