The intelligent, free thinking few left in this country have been skeptical of the so called North Korean cyber-terrorism attack from day one. This skepticism has also been shared by countless cyber security experts, computer programers, hackers and even the IT department at Sony itself. And the people who disseminate the news, the journalists, the ones who should be most skeptical and ask the most questions in search of the truth, have been anything but. In fact, what most journalists offered weren’t reasonable questions so as to get to the bottom of things, but instead offered their support for retaliation. Quoted in the Boston Globe, assistant dean of the George Mason University School of Law Richard Kelsey felt sufficiently confident to call the cyber-attack an “act of war… requiring an aggressive response from the United States.” He added: “This is a new battlefield, and the North Koreans have just fired the first flare.” The article’s author, Hiawatha Bray, even responded to the incident with post-9/11-like language, explaining that “hackers allegedly backed by the impoverished, backward nation of North Korea have terrorized one of the world’s richest corporations.” In spite of expert opinion and a lack of actual evidence, journalists spewed the state sponsored rhetoric given to them. When asked about the lack of expert testimony in the media, Glenn Greenwald, one of the few free thinking, truth seeking journalists and authors left in this country, was frustrated but not surprised. “Yet none of this expert skepticism made its way into countless media accounts of the Sony hack. Time and again, many journalists mindlessly regurgitated the U.S. Government’s accusation against North Korea without a shred of doubt, blindly assuming it to be true, and then discussing, often demanding, strong retaliation. Coverage of the episode was largely driven by the long-standing, central tenet of the establishment U.S. media: government assertions are to be treated as Truth.” The bad reporting has had its effect on public opinion, and the consequences are potentially dangerous. Polling data from CNN last week found that “The U.S. public does think that the incidents which led to that decision were acts of terrorism on the part of North Korea and nearly three-quarters of all Americans say that North Korea is a serious threat to the U.S.” So, whether or not you think North Korea or the NSA or whomever was behind this no longer matters. The damage has been done. Public opinion is in favor of the unsubstantiated claim that North Korea was behind this attack which has therefore put them back on our terror list or scapegoats. This of course can lead to future military engagement and further loss of civil liberties as the path has officially been set in motion. As Abraham Lincoln once said, In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 18:11:49 +0000
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