Wednesday, March 23, 2005

The L.A. Times Almost Gets It

C'mon guys...you're so close. (Yes, the stories you're hearing about are real.) They know something's up, they just don't know what it is yet.

"The blogosphere is a giant mass of confusion when it comes to Terri Schiavo," wrote St. Petersburg, Fla., appellate attorney Matt Conigliaro in an e-mail. Conigliaro's legal blog, AbstractAppeal.com, dissects the Schiavo case from a purportedly objective viewpoint.

"ProLifeBlogs.com created a site that steers people to more than 300 blogs that supported its stance in favor of reinserting Schiavo's feeding tube. Hundreds of bloggers backing that position have linked to BlogsforTerri.com, a site with news updates on the case and reader commentary."


"Pro Life" is a tinged hint to the reader to steer clear, especially of a place that has the power to "steer" lackeys toward all the wrong places. The people there would "obviously" lie through their teeth in order to help someone on a "right-to-die" case. (Of course by now we know that's the wrong meme and a bum rap to boot, if for no other reason than there's no need to lie in the case of Terri Schiavo.)

The charge of "steering" people toward a "stance" is presumptuous to say the least; progressive secularists are mature enough to skip over the stuff that looks overtly religious and focus solely on the facts of the case and whether they are credibly supported. Well at least they mentioned BlogsforTerri.com without screwing it up. That's a start. No mention of the mountain of evidence indicating willful cruelty by the spouse and medical, legal & judicial fraud however.

"Some Schiavo activists are even chronicling hunger strikes launched to parallel Schiavo's experience."

Bear with me for just a second. From that I read the following:

Inference #1: Hunger strikers are activists (cause- or ideology-driven, not sympathy-driven). The only position dignified by "sympathy" is to "let" her die. Inference #2: Since these people are activists, there's nothing but ideology at stake. Inference #3: Since people who are willing to die of hunger for an ideology must be nuts, these people must be nuts. Inference #4: Since these people are nuts, we can dismiss the reports of Nobel Prize nominees and the videos of Terri communicating out of hand. "Yep, that girl's got PVS. See, it says so right here."

[Gratuitous] Inference #5: Inversion of the set relationship. Instead of saying that some Schiavo hunger strikers are activists, they say "some activists are hunger strikers." It's almost fair storytelling but they've mischaracterized what's going on - they're implying that all Schiavo hunger strikers are pro-life activists by definition (which just ain't true), and they're also tying hunger strikers explicitly to the right-to-life cause in particular and ideological causes in general (which just isn't right). It's gratuitous. It's totally unnecessary. And it's wrong.

Next time, replace the word "activists" with "supporters" and I'll have more respect for your journalistic ethics.

I like this next one:  :-D

"On the other side, liberal bloggers laid into Republican lawmakers for inserting themselves into the case."

Not all liberal bloggers. Go fly a kite. You'll do more good there.

"Usually we have clear battle lines," said Markos Moulitsas, of the left-leaning blog DailyKos.com. "On this issue we're not seeing that happening."

Oh yeah? That's better. C'mon Kos, take a stand. Look at the evidence. There's [barely any] time left.

Yet Dutch Martin, a State Department foreign service officer and columnist for TheRightReport.com, voiced his view that the case was a matter for Michael Schiavo to decide — not her parents, Florida courts or local and federal politicians.

"'Despite the hopes of her family and well-wishers, her condition is not going to improve," he wrote. "Lord knows I would not want to be kept alive artificially if something like that (God forbid!) ever happened to me, and I've told my wife this more than once.'"

Thank you Captain Obvious. Yes, her situation won't improve - Your Will be done. Congratulations. And yes the Lord knows all. And I bet your wife has heard it all before just like we have. On a serious note: Are we going to take a stand before feeding someone is redefined as keeping someone alive "artificially"? (Or does this guy really think she is and/or needs to be on life support?)

Good to see the LA Times is using all the "right" quotes. Is this all they have left in the well? It seems to me that if there were more really supporting this, they could do better.

"The issue also drove Republican blogger John Cole to split from party politics on his blog, balloon-juice.com. He blasted the GOP's "lunatic fringe" as being "divorced from reality" for turning the Schiavo case into a pro-life cause.

Of course - the useful idiot, the useful exception that "proves" the rule for the LA Times. Thanks Mr. Cole. You've just made your career as the Krampus. You seem to almost get it - yes, this isn't a "pro-life lunatic fringe" cause, as even those who support euthanasia don't want Terri imprisoned in a nightmare that would stump even Franz Kafka - but you draw the wrong conclusion.

This isn't about ideology, pal. Or "false hope". Or a little problem that will vanish with a patronizing swish like Mr. Martin's. It's about springing an imprisoned woman from a death sentence made up by the perpetrators, justified by bogus medical testimony, imposed by judicial fiat by an elected "judge" and carried out by a death troika.

Mr. Cole doesn't get it. The L.A. Times could get it if it wished. The scoop ;) of the decade beckons. So near, yet so far...

[P.S. I'll give Mr. Cole the benefit of the doubt. We've all been lied to on this topic. So maybe the news just hasn't caught up with him yet. But he'd better figure it out quick.]

3 Comments:

Blogger Maggie said...

This opinion from a bunch of liberals is the best opinion that I have seen to date. You have your heads screwed on the right way.

Sure, I am a Catholic, but I do have a fairly good grasp of all of the issues involved in this case, especially the corruption.

I believe that Theresa Schindler is being abused by her husband. I have been investigating to the best of my ability all of the reports on this case. Even where there is some doubt about some of the agendas, such as "Liberty to the Captives", I am the first to admit that after digesting what was on their site I finally realized that what we have today is a gross miscarriage of justice.

The law according to Greer is Greer's law and it is not the law of the land. either in Florida or in the Federal United States of the USA.

This is the opinion of an interested conservative Aussie observer, and I still think you guys are pretty cool with your opinions.

11:31 PM  
Blogger Concerned Citizen said...

It's a shame that the state of Florida and the Federal courts are going to be an accessory to a murder that was started years ago by a man that clearly hates this woman.
Terri's not going to win this case mainly because her parents were from the old school that makes the mistake of believing people are noble. Unfortunately, they're thinking is rooted in the past, when most people were. Sadly, today they are not.
Had Terri's parents not accepted Michael's version of events to begin with and demanded a full police investigation, we probably wouldn't be talking about this case now and Michael Shiavo would be behind bars. Because they waited too long the statute of limitations on attempted murder (4 years) ran out. Fortunately, there is no statue of limitations for murder. As there is a possiblity that his actions might have caused her to be in her present state and ultimately her death, the state of Florida will have legal grounds to investigate and prosecute.
I just hope, after this woman has gone to meet her maker, that the state of Florida comes down hard on Michael Schiavo - both criminally and finacially!

11:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a great site »

9:02 AM  

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