1. Invading a neighboring territory during the Olympics doesn’t mean you’re off the MSM’s radar, but it doesn’t hurt.
Unlike the World Cup and Israel’s invasion of Gaza after Gilad Shalit’s kidnapping, news services are stretched trying to cover Iraq, Iran and the presidential race.
2. According to Russian diplomacy, when Lebanese civilians are killed by the IDF, “the disproportionate use of force by Israel, which causes suffering to the civilian population, can be neither understood nor justified . . . .”
But when Georgian civilians are killed by the Russian army, there’s a different message:
“Our goal was not to harm civilians, and to the best of my knowledge, we only hit military installations. But like they say, war is war – and it could be that civilians were hurt, this also happens in Israel’s military operations in Gaza, for example. Unfortunately, in ethnic conflicts there are no winners, only losers.”
3. Daled Amos raises what he admits is a sketchy concern about photoshopped images coming from Georgia, but his final point is no less important:
But this may be what armed conflicts are coming to: anticipating the bad publicity not only with outright denial–but with a technical defense trying to undercut the media report itself.
Welcome to War 2.0
4. Georgia’s not crawling with journalists like Gaza, Beijing, or Frederick, MD. The Western media was caught flat-footed by the Russian invasion. Is the MSM familiar with the historical forces? Probably not.
Even worse, parachute journalism ain’t what it used to be.
So if you see any insightful reports or commentary on the Georgia conflict, please post links in the comments section.
