Media Context

I can't help but continue to love Scott Adams.

In his latest blog post, Sunday Blogging, he complains that the media fails to give him all the information he needs to make an informed opinion.

For example, Iran has 25,000 Jewish citizens. The media made a big deal – and rightly so – about the president of Iran’s comments about “wiping Israel off the map,” and of his questioning the Holocaust. For context, wouldn’t you like to know how the Jews living in Iran are being treated?

I've never agreed so much. The first time I can remember thinking this was during the media frenzy after 9/11. At the time, I can remember thinking, "Why did Bin Laden attack us?" Yet I can't remember this question ever being answered. Instead, we got simple sound bites like, "The terrorists hate our freedom." I don't for one second believe that. Even Aljazeera fails to elaborate.

President Bush is still misleading you and hiding the real reason from you, which means that the reasons to repeat what happened remain," bin Ladin said.
--Bin Ladin: Reasons to attack remain

So what are the reasons? Wikipedia has some answers:

[t]he ruling to kill the Americans and their allies civilians and military - is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Makka) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah'.
--Responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks

Reading this, though, it's clear that a lot of people believe Bin Laden did it because he is following his violent Muslim beliefs. But even this isn't the whole story - he wouldn't be on the attack if it weren't for our support of Israel and for our military installations in Saudia Arabia.

Now, that's a reason to leave out context. Bringing Israel into the equation, and the ethics of our worldwide military presence, would bring a standstill to the news. Maybe it would be a good idea for CNN to sit down and present a couple of days worth of programming on Israel - but then, maybe it's just easier to let us continue to think we've been attacked because the enemy is a bunch of crazy religious fanatics.