In recent years, I have become increasingly disillusioned with the "Main Stream Media" (or MSM, as right-wingers are prone to calling it); I have lost faith in the ability of most of the major news outlets to objectively report the facts, to provide the proper context for current events, and to serve as a watchdog and challenge those in power.
At the same time, I have increasing respect for the New Yorker, which has proved to be the definitive outlet for investigative journalism these days. The New Yorker not only provides an in-depth context for many of the important issues of the day, but it also has lead the way in exposing what happens when an administration, arrogant with power, is left unchecked.
There is Seymour Hersh, who first told the world about Abu Ghraib and has recently warned us about Bush's secret plans to turn Iran into a "Mess-O-Persia," (as Jon Stewart puts it). Then there's David Remnick, who's article recounting his recent trip to the Middle East in which he interviewed nearly all of the major players in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict provides more context than reading 1000 headlines about suicide bombings and military operations.
Now we have Jane Mayer, who has exposed the Government's practice of "outsourcing torture," where we send terrorist suspects, without any hint of due process under our legal system, to other countries to have those dubious governments torture the suspects for us. Commenting on her article, Bob Herbert put it well in the New York Times when he wrote:
"Any government that commits, condones, promotes or fosters torture is a malignant force in the world. And those who refuse to raise their voices against something as clearly evil as torture are enablers, if not collaborators....Jettisoning the rule of law to permit such acts of evil as kidnapping and torture is not a defensible policy for a civilized nation. It's wrong. And nothing good can come from it."
So why don't we have more aggressive journalism, like the New Yorker, to expose these wrongs and to inform us of them?
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