Media Wars

We here in the United States and probably elsewhere, were very happy when Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig were released by their captors two days ago. Then when they had their first newsconference after their release, many of us were amazed and dismayed at the comments they both made about the “…very beautiful, kind-hearted and caring people that the world need[s] to know more about.” Referring, of course, to the Palestinian people. But Caroline Glick, a columnist for the Jerusalem Post points out a very important fact about that news conference. It is the fact that Steve and Olaf are surrounded by Palestinians. She points out that they were not really free when they made those statements.

…Sunday afternoon released hostages and Fox News journalists Steven Centanni and Olaf Wiig spoke before the cameras. The fact of their release and their statements were reported by more than 1,000 news organizations throughout the world.

At the press conference, Centanni and Wiig, who were forced by their Palestinian captors to convert to Islam, praised the Palestinians. Centanni said, “I just hope this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover this story because the Palestinian people are a very beautiful, kind-hearted and caring people that the world need[s] to know more about.” Wiig similarly praised the Palestinians.

While their remarks were covered extensively, no one seemed to think that the fact that their first post-release statements were made at a Palestinian Authority sponsored media extravaganza in Gaza was significant. No one noted that the men were flanked by Palestinian “security forces,” and stood next to Hamas terrorist leader and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

No mention was made of the fact that the two were initially kidnapped by just such PA “security officials,” or that Haniyeh is one of the leaders of one of the most fanatical jihadist organizations in the world, an organization that the majority of the “beautiful, kind-hearted and caring” Palestinians voted into office last January.

That is, no mention was made of the fact that until the two men left Gaza, they remained unfree. No one asked whether they had been given the option of not giving a press conference in Gaza. And now that they have spoken, there can be little doubt that a second press conference by the two men, in Israel or the US where no one will force them to convert to Judaism or Christianity or threaten to kill them, will draw far less media interest. After their press conference, the two men became yesterday’s news.

I know from reading various blogs and hearing people talk about that newsconference on various news channels, that some people found Steve and Olaf’s comments to be surprising. How could these men say those wonderful things about the people who had kidnapped them? Then later, there was more information which came out through a phone call that Steve Centanni made to Fox News. He told of them being tied in painful positions and of having to lie face-down in what he thought to be a garage, for hours at a time. These statements were not made in front of the cameras, but in a phone call. Yes, Steve also made comments about Islam and his respect for it, but at the time, he was still in Gaza, in a Palestinian hotel.

Steve Centanni is now back in New York City and will be appearing on Greta Van Sustern’s show, On the Record, tonight at 10pm Eastern. I am very curious to find out what he has to say now that he is in the United States and is not being flanked by Palestinians. Will he still praise the Palestinian people and Islam? We shall see.

Caroline Glick’s article also goes into the manipulation of the media by the terrorist groups and even by those who are supposed to be unbiased such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International and various U.S. mainstream media outlets. And as we know, our mainstream media is more then ready to believe the worst about our troops and the Israelis and will accept doctored photos and outright lies as fact to “prove” how awful we are.

Caroline also goes on to praise bloggers such as Little Green Footballs, Michelle Malkin, Powerline, Zombietime and EU Referendum for exposing the lies that the mainstream media is putting out there for mass consumption. She states emphatically that, “Their work has exposed the dirty secret of the Middle East that the media has hidden for so many years: The global media and the international NGO community, which profess to be neutral observers, are in fact colluding with terrorist organizations.”

She ends her column with these words:

As each day passes, the governments, formal and informal legal apparatuses, and media of free societies show themselves to be less and less capable of contending with the information operations conducted against their societies by subversive forces seeking their destruction.

As each day passes it becomes clear that the responsibility of protecting our nations and societies from internal disintegration has passed to the hands of individuals, often working alone, who refuse to accept the degradation of their societies and so fight with the innovative tools of liberty to protect our way of life. The vigilance of just a handful of bloggers brought us the knowledge of the corruption of our media and the network of global NGOs that we have come to rely on to tell us the “objective” truth.

It is up to all citizens of the free world, who value our freedom to recognize this corruption, applaud the bloggers and join them in refusing to allow these corrupt institutions to cloud our commitment to freedom.

Don’t believe everything you read and don’t believe everything you see. Verify, verify, verify!

For an American viewpoint on the terrorists’ outright lies as well as their use of our own media against us, read Donald Rumsfeld’s comments over the past two days at Fox News.