Edward R. Murrow, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you

The coffin of one of three young Muslims who were shot in Chapel Hill, N.C., this week was carried to a funeral prayer service on Thursday in Raleigh, N.C. Travis Dove for NYT

 

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Newsflash: We have crazy, murderous extremists right here in America.

They torture and murder, oftentimes--to the shock of the rest of the world--spectacularly and en masse; oftentimes claiming they do it in the name of a larger cause: the voice of a deity in the heavens or the head, and even, most recently, a seething anger toward the Constitutionally-protected worshipping of any deity of choice, period.

Terrorists abroad usually have to steal their weapons and equipment, often from the people America had originally supplied them to; sometimes they finance their weapon stash by kidnapping journalists and aid workers and holding them for ransom. Here in the States, though, any crazy, murderous extremist (or group of them) with a few bucks on hand can just go to one of the more than 51,000 gun retailers currently in business. (Yes, America has more gun retailers than grocery stores.)

If these murderous people and organizations in America circulated slick propaganda videos of themselves carrying out their rapes, lynchings, and shootings (and on and on), would we be okay with having other countries start dropping bombs on us?

Because that's exactly what many in American media are calling for right now: Crazy murderous extremists are doing crazy, murderous, extreme things in Iraq and Syria, so let's go to WAR! (Again.)

Charles Krauthammer and Morning Joke are just the most baldfaced and risibly ignorant-sounding of the chattering lot.

What concerns me: the insidious influence of the quiet, "polite", well-remunerated chatterers--the nascent Judy Millers, and the ones who work for networks either owned by defense contractors or heavily advertised-on by same; many of whom, amazingly, moonlight as corporate speech-givers and de facto lobbyists. And have the nerve to call themselves journalists, all the while tut-tutting about the "black eye to our profession" they seem to think has occurred because the odd one among them got caught lying a bit too obviously.