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Politics : I Will Continue to Continue, to Pretend.... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (8173)	3/3/2005 10:06:36 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Here is an email Hewitt got about the LA Times NK propaganda piece. Incidentally, the reporter for the rag who wrote it is the SK Bureau chief for the LA Times! "I must say that after reading "N. Korea Without the Rancor", that I find myself overwhelmed. If your correspondent had no idea that she was being used by the North Korean government, she is either horribly naive or worse, an apologist for the most repressive regime on the face of the earth. Clearly that was no businessman, because no one speaks to a reporter in that fashion other than at the direction of Mr. Kim. I am married to a Korean and lived there for 15 years of my life. Her family walked hundreds of miles pulling a cart with 5 children under 8 years of age to escape the onslaught of the North Korean assault in 1950 and almost starved in the countryside. Many of her relatives perished and some still reside in the living hell of North Korea. It was almost humorous to read the "businessman's" description of life in North Korea. The six hours of electricity he talks about is only in Pyongyang and those in Pyongyang are the elite of society. Those not so fortunate receive no electricity and face the prospect of living in a gulag if they complain. Spies are everywhere with relatives reporting on each other, neighbors working for the security apparatus; radios and tv sets with but one station that spouts the evil propaganda of Kim Jong Il; and citizens thrown in jail for something as innocent as throwing a newspaper with the picture of Mr. Kim in the trash. For shame! You have shown a callousness that I find unbelievable. With 100's of thousands in N.Korean gulags and South Koreans living next to a madman with his trigger finger possibly on a nuclear weapon, you choose to put a "human" face on N. Korea. Unbelievable." hughhewitt.com

To: Sully- who wrote (8173)	3/4/2005 12:57:22 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

PRESTOPUNDIT SOME PAPERS published propaganda for Hitler, some for Stalin, some for Castro. The LA Times has always had a sweet spot for the killers in North Korea -- and it turns out they still do. discoverthenetwork.org hughhewitt.com Haven't cancelled your subscription to the Times yet? Let's make it simple. Right now, yes right now, go pick up the phone and dial 1-800-252-9141. That's 1-800-252-9141. Say "I want to cancel my subscription to the LA Times." Answer some questions. That's all there is to it. When you're done you'll feel less dirty than you did just a minute ago -- you will no longer be subsidizing propaganda for the most murderous regime on the planet. Live in Chicago? Consider cancelling your subscription to the Tribune -- which owns the Times -- and switching over to the Sun-Times. You'll get Mark Steyn on Sunday as part of the bargain. Who can argue with that? UPDATE: Powerline has much more on yesterday's propaganda piece in the LA Times. This is a big story folks. Stay tuned. Quotable: <<< Before [LA Times foreign correspondent Barbara] Demick went to Korea, she was stationed in the Middle East. And, amazingly enough, she was anti-Israel .. It all fits, somehow. North Korea, where mass murder is a fact of daily life, is just a normal place; the only problem is American "rancor." And when fourteen year old Israeli girls are murdered by Palestinian terrorists, who is to blame? Why, the Israeli government, of course! These are the perverted attitudes that commend themselves to the management of the Los Angeles Times. >>> UPDATE: "Poor misunderstood North Korea". Posted by Greg Ransom patterico.com hayekcenter.org

To: Sully- who wrote (8173)	3/4/2005 1:54:03 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

The inscrutable Barbara Demick Power Line Reader Jerry Hurtubise has forwarded his correspondence with Los Angeles Times reporter Barbara Demick regarding her Durantyesque article "North Korea, without the rancor," about which Rocket Man wrote last night (click "Nobody's perfect"). Hurtubise wrote: <<< Madam, That is the stupidest thing I have ever read. Are you a moron, or was it satire? Jerry >>> Demick responded: <<< I'm sorry if my story was seen as an endorsement of the North Korean point of view, but believe me, it wasn't. I found it interesting to hear how a North Korean official tried to rationalize his country and thought my readers should hear what I did. Especially on the area of human rights, his remarks were truly repellent and I so I quoted them in full, giving him enough rope to hang himself. If I got an interview with Kim Jong Il, I'd certainly quote him as well, but all I had was this guy. In my long experience as a foreign correspondent, I've found that even the vilest war criminals justify their actions and that we have to understand their twisted logic to fight back. I have probably written more in the last three years about human rights a abuses in North Korea than any other U.S. journalist. I broke one of the first stories on chemical testing on political prisoners, did a lengthy expose last year on how much money Kim Jong Il spends on his food while his country starves and another on trafficking of women. I frequently speak on North Korean human rights. If you're interested in North Korea, I can send you the pieces. Best, Barbara Demick >>> We find Demick's email message hard to square with Demick's article. If this article was supposed to be satire, it was too subtle for us. It's true that Demick never says, after quoting Mr. Anonymous, "and I agree with him." But there is nothing in the tone of the article that we can discern that suggests that his comments should be viewed skeptically. And she does say that Mr. Anonymous spoke "in an effort to clear up misunderstandings," which seems to endorse the view that the common perception of North Korea is a misunderstanding. And how about the headline? "Without the rancor"? Doesn't that mean that criticism of North Korea constitutes "rancor"? If not, we can't figure out what it does mean. And how about the sub-headline: "A businessman speaks his mind about the U.S., the 'nuclear club' and human rights issues." Again, if the Times is distancing itself from this shill in any way, we can't see it. It looks to us like the headline writer read the story the same way Hugh and Rocket Man did. As to the articles on human rights violations, we didn't run across them, but we didn't undertake anything like a comprehensive search or try to read everything. She's written a lot of stuff. That said, it didn't jump out at us from the Google search that she is on some kind of a human rights crusade vis a vis North Korea. The Palestinians, yes; North Korea, not that we noticed. Posted by The Big Trunk powerlineblog.com

To: Sully- who wrote (8173)	3/5/2005 9:57:46 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

From the comments section of the Roger L Simon blog.... Roger: Imagine if the LAT had printed this story in the 70's....... "South Africa Without the Rancor" As I was travelling in Kenya I came across this South African buisnessman. He did not want to give out his name. We talked of the current strain in relations between South Africa and the rest of the world. "The press is always so negative. Every story is bad, bad, bad. Every country has human rights problems, is your country perfect? We are just like everyone else, we marry, we love, we fight, were charitable. You can't impose your western standards on everyone, we are differnt and we should be allowed our own expression of government. We come from a tribal society and we have needed strong leaders and the idea of democracy is foreign to us. Our blacks have their own autonomous states within the South African structure and they really don't want independence or equality. Our blacks thrive under our strong leadership and Botha is really no different then any tribal king. It is the constant agression of the west that is the cause of friction between us" If this crap was printed at the time the LA Times would have been forced to fire it's entire news division. Yet in spirit todays story in the Times about North Korea is no different. You will not see massive protests in the street regarding the slop that was printed today. A lie about a Communist country is just not as bad as a lie about a racist country. rogerlsimon.com