a1101: Reporting on Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

The familiar pack is in full cry again after journalists and their "lies"
about Haiti.  It really is a whole pathology.  If things are going wrong,
blame the reporting of it and that way you can hope to hide some of the
uncomfortable facts being reported.  If things go _really_ wrong, hey! you
can even bump off one or two of them (Jean Dominique, Brignol Lindor) and
hear the muffled cheers go up from some Corbetteers...

We have people here being "absolutely sure" of this and that, who then are
silent when simple factual inaccuracies are pointed out to them.
Or others who query reports who are then still defended after it has been
shown that the queries were based on sloppy misreading of the  originals.

Or still others who quote god-like academics and conspiracy therorists
(using all the intimidatory authority symbols they so deplore elsewhere),
as if such people have much interest other than manhandling "facts" to fit
their own pre-baked theories (I am not referring to Trouillot here).  The
rush is from one god, from one Great Authority to the next.  That's just
religion -- blind belief -- which, since this group isn't a religious forum
and we are all supposed to be using our reason, has little place in the
mechanics of argument here, I would've thought.  Surely we are not here to
reverentially quote Great Authorities?

As I've said here before, there's plenty of criticism to be made of the
media anywhere, including Haiti, but if critics want to be taken seriously,
they just have to get the criticism right and stop passing the buck by, for
example, quoting bullsh*t artists as a means to prove points.

I would not like to see some people here in charge of ensuring the
maintenance of civil liberties in Haiti.  It is quite clear from what they
say that everyone would pretty quickly end up in jail on the flimsiest of
pretexts, the merest traces of rumours.  No dissent.  No criticism. No
tolerance.  Only Believe.  And make sure every dissenting opinion is dubbed
"subversion" or "treason."  This is the fearsome world of René Civil, Paul
Raymond, Dany Toussaint and their thugs.  The mindset of the Duvaliers of
course...

Is this coupe tet, brule cay mentality really what is required on this
list, despite the enormous personal satisfaction it obviously gives to its
proponents?

But wait !  These armchair extremists aren't even Haitians.  Irony of
ironies, they're (nearly all) white American foreigners !


        Greg Chamberlain