News » October 22, 2001
Appall-O-Meter
By Dave Mulcahey
Operation Infinite Spin 5.4
Who knew that the Voice of America was part of some anti-patriotic liberal conspiracy? You might think the worldwide radio service, a holdover from the Cold War, still piped Yankee propaganda to the oppressed in remote parts of the world. Far from it, according to some critics. As the New York Times reports, some political refugees from Afghanistan have started referring to VOA as the Voice of Taliban.
Their beef? The VOA aired an interview with Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban
leader. The deeper problem, though, is that the radio service has tried to move
beyond mere propaganda to provide something like objective, high-quality news
reporting.
In early October, the Bush administration replaced VOA’s director with
a more reliable conservative, but many right-wingers remain doubtful that he
will bring the service on board with Operation Enduring Freedom. Objectivity,
apparently, has no role in the psy-ops we have planned for the Middle East.
The Times quoted Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), chairwoman of the House
Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, thus on VOA programming:
“If we turn this into a PBS documentary—seesawing on every side and
being balanced—that’s not promoting democracy.”
The Frugality of Evil 4.2
For all their well-documented courtesy to landlords, rental clerks and the like,
the suicide hijackers were none too generous with a certain sort of service
personnel. Just one look at Marwan Al-Shehhi was enough to know that he was
cheap, maintains Samantha, a dancer at the Olympic Garden Topless Cabaret in
Las Vegas.
“Some big-man terrorist, huh?” Samantha fumed to a reporter from
the San Francisco Chronicle. “He spent about $20 for a quick dance
and didn’t tip more.”
“I’m glad he’s dead with the rest of them,” she added,
“and I don’t like feeling something like that. But he wasn’t
just a bad tipper—he killed people.”
Towering Banality 2.9
Jihadsters buying lap dances in Vegas. Ironic, sure, but not exactly eccentric behavior, even for religious zealots. I mean, it’s nothing like, say, plunking down $50 to see Puppetry of the Penis, the two-man show currently running at the John Houseman Theater in New York. This spectacle features a couple of Australian gentleman bending and stretching their johnsons into various “installations”—or, as a reviewer for the New York Times put it, “into shapes more often associated with balloon animals.” The show is also playing to packed houses in Canada and Britain.
More information about Dave Mulcahey
-
subscribe to print magazine
-
email this article to a friend
-
Reader Comments
There are no comments on this article yet. Start the discussion below.
-
register a new account »Posting Security
Appeared in the November 12, 2001 Issue
Also featured
TAKING THE BAIT
OF FOOD AND BOMBS
LOYAL OPPOSITION
Full contents
Previous issues
Subscribe and save!
Also by Dave Mulcahey
- Tranche Warfare
Who will be left holding the bag as subprime mortgages go bad? Posted on July 17, 2007 - Hooray for Hookergate!
On April 27, Republicans awoke to a PR disaster. Tucked away on page… morePosted on May 15, 2006 - Passion of the Right
The uses of persecutionPosted on October 5, 2004 - Another World, Possibly
Shortly before he died in 1918, the American critic Randolph Bourne penned an… morePosted on August 17, 2004 - The Wise Many
Connoisseurs of the Strangelovian may recall last summer’s dustup over a plan hatched… morePosted on July 6, 2004
IN THESE TIMES COMMUNITY MEMBERS
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
RSS Feed