Disgust with Mainstream Media

SUBHEAD: Most corporate media and DC politicians gush over Trump's new war in Syria.

By Nika Knight on 7 April 2017 for Common Dreams -
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/07/disgust-corporate-media-and-dc-politicians-gush-over-trumps-new-war)


Image above: Still frame from video of CNN announcing "Breaking News" of Tomahawk missiles fired into Syria. From (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtD1Sl3uDA4).

According to DC pundits, Trump was a dangerous maniac...until he started bombing?

Corporate media and D.C. politicians on both sides of the aisle are falling over themselves to shower praise on President Donald Trump for unilaterally bombing a Syrian air base on Thursday, demonstrating that Washington's hunger for war continues no matter who is at the controls.

Some talking heads' praise for the new war effort has been so over-the-top that it alarmed viewers, as when NBC's Brian Williams called the launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles—which state media now reports have killed civilians, including children—"beautiful" no less than three times in 30 seconds. Williams even misguidedly quoted a Leonard Cohen lyric to gush over the strike.

Print journalists jumped at the chance to beat the war drums, too, framing Trump's decision to bomb Syria as an emotional, heartfelt, and moral one.

The Washington Post's David Ignatius claimed that it was evidence that "the moral dimensions of leadership" had penetrated Trump's Oval Office. And in a New York Times op-ed titled "On Syria Attack, Trump's Heart Came First,"

White House correspondent Mark Landler framed the bombing as "an emotional act by a man suddenly aware that the world's problems were now his—and that turning away, to him, was not an option."

Readers swiftly pointed out the hypocrisy of Trump's supposed sympathy for Syrian war victims, whom he barred from entering the U.S. in one of his first acts as president.


Video above: Brian Williams refers to this Pentagon video of missiles going to kill people as "beautiful weapons".From (https://youtu.be/Q4n3SI81m9w).

Many Congressional Democrats joined neoconservatives in offering immediate praise for the bombing. As Kevin Gosztola of ShadowProof observed:
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, proclaimed, "Making sure Assad knows that when he commits such despicable atrocities he will pay a price is the right thing to do." Even Democratic Senator Dick Durbin declared, "My preliminary briefing by the White House indicated that this was a measured response to the Syrian nerve gas atrocity."

Prior to the attack, neoconservative Elliott Abrams, a former official in President George W. Bush's administration, said, "Obama did nothing at all year after year to save the lives of Syrians. Now Trump has to match his rhetoric with something concrete."
Indeed, leftist pundits pointed out that when it comes to war, both sides of the partisan aisle appear ideologically united.
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