In the Presence of Vultures

Yesterday at about 9:00 am, marked a day that journalists the world over will never forget. An estimated 34 journalists died in the first incident of election related violence in Maguindanao in the Southern island of the Philippines. Allegedly perpetrated by the ruling clan, a convoy of journalists and family members of a rival clan were stopped on their way to file the certificate of candidacy by a force of paramilitary. They were brought to a hill and were summarily executed.

The ruling clan, the Ampatuan is closely connected to Pres. Gloria Arroyo. The Ampatuan clan was responsible for delivering votes for Arroyo in the presidential elections of 2004 and for the senatorial bets of her party in 2007. The Philippines ranks 2nd to Iraq as the most dangerous place for journalist considering the rising list of media practioners killed in the line of duty. The savagery of what happened yesterday was never seen in any part of the world.

Journalists live a life with one foot in the grave. The difference we have with Iraq is that the Philippines is not at war. The victims were not in a war zone, they were to report on a election related event. What infuriates me is how the government is addressing this. Instead of using the full force of the law, they treat the perpetrators as if they were heads of state. Law should be appleid equally regardless of political affiliation.

Clearly the journalists will once again be deprived of justice. You see, in the Philippines, journalists are considered pests as they expose the crimes of our officials. From harassment to outright assassination, every trick has been used to silence these people. I suppose these are the dangers the media has to face in a country like the Philippines. Fortunately, despite all the hazards of the trade, people still enter the field to keep us all informed.

I hope that justice will be served not only for the journalists in my country but to journalists all over the world.

As I scanned the channels this morning, I chanced upo Bill O’Reilly  debating about the morality and immorality of torture and collateral damage. He seems to have been cornered by his adversary that he turned to absurdity in defending his views. What a pinhead this O’Reilly is! You don’t torture to extract information regardless of how guilty or innocent a prisoner is. This kind of mentaluty is what alienates the US from the rest of the world. You cannot condemn other countries of injustice and human rights violations when your own country does it as a matter of policy.

The issue stemmed from Pres. Obama’s directive to ban torture on prisoners of war(?). He went on to point out that bombing villages in Pakistan is immoral. War is hell and collateral damage is expected. I don’t remember him fuming over Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza? The bigotry in his demeanor speaks volumes of how convoluted this bozo’s mind is. Moral or not, Obama is the CiC of the US armed forces. He will decide on how best to annihilate Al Quaeda. History will judge him for his actions and I am sure Obama knows this.

The problem with people like O’Reilly is that they are never satisfied. They are the termites of society. Nothing is good in their eyes except those that would improve their ratings. These are the kinds of media practitioners that talk with their asses. They are on the way out and the only way for them to survive is to drum up the base and appear moral in their fans’ view. They speak of ethics when they themselves are unethical. They badger their guests to make it appear that they have the moral high ground.

If there is such a thing as a media dinosaur, Bill and his kind are it. So who is the pinhead this time, no it’s not Paris Hilton but a guy named Bill O’Reilly. A pinhead to me is someone who contradicts himself and blurts out inconsistent absurdities. Oh Mr. O’Reilly, your Dad helped save the world in World War II, do you mean he’s immoral because of the huge collateral damage the war caused? What a way to insult the heroes who defended the free world. War is impersonal Bill, torture is.

Democrat John Edwards who ran for his party’s presidential nominee has been in the limelight lately. It seems that his womanizing has caught up with him. Fox News has been reporting about his adulterous affair with Sean Hannity as one of his biggest critics. But karma has its way of making people eat their words. It’s Sean Hannity’s turn to bite the bullet as he is being accused by a minor in London for rape.

If this report is true as there seems to have a news blackout about the matter, Fox News should take Hannity off the air until he clears his name. That depends of course if Fox management has some sense of decency and professionalism in running their network.

Want to find out more details about the alleged rape, please visit Blance DeBree’s Blog.