| It’s likely that only the most hardcore Vogue readers remember it—and presumably Anna Wintour and company are hoping that even they will one day forget it—but back in 2011, the venerable fashion magazine posted a glowing profile of Asma al-Assad. Yes, that Asma al-Assad: the wife of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who has murdered hundreds of thousands of people—largely civilians, and some by chemical weapons—over the past several years while stamping out a rebellion. Even worse, as leaked emails later showed, Asma herself cheered along the slaughter; she was no mere bystander. Shortly after publication, however, “A Rose in the Desert” disappeared. (It’s available now thanks only to the Wayback Machine.)
It’s possible—likely even—that some American media outlets will soon have to pull a similar trick. For their coverage this weekend of the visit by Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong-un, to the Pyeongchang Olympics is eerily reminiscent of Vogue’s hagiography of the brutal dictator’s wife. Kim Yo-jong is no mere spectator to her brother’s misrule of North Korea. She’s an elite member of his regime, as director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea. There she oversees the propaganda regime that constitutes a key component of the enslavement her country’s people. She’s also a member of the Politburo. But don’t just take it for me—Kim is personally sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for her role in sustaining North Korea’s oppressive regime. You wouldn’t know that from, for example, CNN’s treatment of Kim, however. Instead, the most trusted name in news reported this weekend she is “stealing the show” at the Olympics by virtue of her “smile,” and “warm message.” CNN further said that Kim was earning a “gold medal” for her “diplomatic dance.” Here are a few terms that did not appear in CNN’s article: gulag; human rights; nuclear weapons; missiles. The article literally does not even mention that Kim is sanctioned by the U.S. government. Other U.S. outlets were similarly glib; Business Insider celebrated that Kim “threw a look” at the camera while standing behind Vice President Mike Pence. By the way, it later emerged that a highly paid PR firm had midwifed the Assad Vogue article. What’s CNN’s excuse? While CNN and others have feted Kim’s visit, those with the most at stake—the South Koreans—have been decidedly more clear-eyed about the purpose of her visit. Take this editorial in the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s newspaper of record: “It would of course be wonderful if the Moon Jae-in administration's efforts lead to denuclearization talks, but Kim Jong-un is not sending his people to Pyeongchang to talk about disarmament. He is sending them to weaken sanctions and spread propaganda,” the paper argued. The Joongang Ilbo, another leading daily, made the interesting point that Kim Yo-jong’s visit is a sign of North Korean weakness, not the confidence that others have projected on it: “South Korea is North Korea’s last resort. Pyongyang’s dispatching of Kim Yo-jong testifies to its deepening pains from sanctions,” the paper argued. Whatever the case, one can’t help but be stunned at the blatant amorality of CNN and the likes’ coverage. Kim Yo-jong is thought to be about 30 years old; like her older brother, she appears to have been educated in Switzerland while a mass famine, caused by their father’s callous policies, killed hundreds of thousands (or perhaps even millions—the true extent is still not known) of her countrymen in the 1990s. I know another North Korean, roughly Kim’s age, who now lives in Seoul; he survived the famine but you can see the mark it left upon him: He never fully developed, his frame is tiny, though his hands are those of a bigger man, a man who would have been bigger had he not suffered from malnutrition. Now CNN glamorizes an agent of the regime that did that to him. |
Poster Comment:
U.S. libmedia is so deranged in the Trump Derangement Syndrome that they are proudly playing the same role of whitewashing the bloody Nork regime in the same way that the NYSlimes and Walter Durante and the New Republic (among others) whitewashed the Bolshevik revolution and the regimes of Lenin and Stalin. Even the Slimes eventually had to condemn his reporting as the worst misinfo that had ever appeared in their pages.
I'd say these libmedia hacks are giving Walter Durante a run for his money for the title of the greatest appeasers of a vicious communist totalitarian regime. They also like the Castro regime pretty well.
#1: Pinguinite To: Tooconservative (#0)
Sounds a lot like what the US military did in Iraq stamping out the rebellion there, though granted, they were nice enough not to use chem weapons.
I'd venture the general western take on Assad is extensively demonized for political purposes.
Pinguinite posted on 2018-02-11 12:19:52 Reply Private Reply
#2: Pinguinite To: Tooconservative (#0)
Not that I'm any fan of Kim's regime, but I'd be willing to bet that is not an English translation that honest Koreans would consider accurate.
Just goes to show media bias in the US is not limited to the left. It was interesting to read about the F-16 shoot down in Syria. Fox News reported it in a way that made it almost read like an accident instead of a successful shoot down by the Syrians.
Pinguinite posted on 2018-02-11 12:33:13 Reply Private Reply
#3: Tooconservative To: Pinguinite (#1)
A fairly abrupt change. You may recall that John Kerry and his ugly bitch wife had dinner with the Assads some years back. And Pelosi flew over to Syria with a few hundred Dems and a few weak GOPes to pander to Assad. He spent 3 days trying to avoid her, even though she was wearing the hijab and humiliating herself constantly. The neocons tried talking up refusing to allow the Pelosi plane to come back to the States and the usual prattle about whether they should be charged with violating the Logan Act (an 18th century law that has never had a single prosecution).
The Dems and U.S. media loved Assad. There was no mistaking it.
Now they're in love with the sister and accomplice of the modern world's most genocidal dictator who likes to brag about pointing hydrogen bombs at Guam, Hawaii, and the States.
They're completely deranged over Trump who isn't that much better or worse on any given day than any other modern prez.
Tooconservative posted on 2018-02-11 12:38:02 Reply Private Reply
#4: Tooconservative To: Pinguinite (#2)
I wouldn't.
South Korea does have its foolish college activists who like to demonstrate now and then. But overall, South Korea is pretty aggressive toward the Norks. They hold few illusions about them. They have tried many times to improve relations. The Norks screw them every time, continuing to spit threats to destroy them all.
Some people say that our troops are at the DMZ border to keep the South from invading the Norks and possibly triggering another Chinese invasion.
Tooconservative posted on 2018-02-11 12:44:41 Reply Private Reply
#5: sneakypete To: Tooconservative (#0)
If there is any one thing the left dealy LOVES,it is a strong dictator to tell them what to see,do,and think. The result is they have no personal responsibility for anything that goes wrong in their lives,and they never have to make any decisions on their own.
At heart,they are sheep.
sneakypete posted on 2018-02-11 16:17:43 Reply Private Reply
#6: Tooconservative To: sneakypete (#5)
They crave totalitarian power, just as the commies always did.
They want to murder their opponents, just like the Bolsheviks.
Tooconservative posted on 2018-02-11 16:24:53 Reply Private Reply
#7: sneakypete To: Tooconservative (#6)
Yup. Same old song,only the title has been changed.
sneakypete posted on 2018-02-11 18:18:45 Reply Private Reply
#8: redleghunter To: Tooconservative, Liberator, A K A Stone (#0)
They rail daily Trump is a dictator yet have this slobbering love affair with the NORKS. I guess any enemy of Trump is their friend
redleghunter posted on 2018-02-14 01:02:34 Reply Private Reply
#9: GrandIsland To: redleghunter (#8)
Bingo... Ol' Red's a millionaire
GrandIsland posted on 2018-02-14 07:36:21 Reply Private Reply
#10: Tooconservative To: redleghunter (#8)
It has a truly creepy parallel to the admiration shown by American libmedia at the 1936 Olympics toward Hitler and his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. And Rocketman's baby sister is the Goebbels of the Nork regime, at least until some palace intrigue makes her suspect and he executes her with VX poison gas or shoots her with an AA gun.
But in 1936, real Americans were cheering Jesse Owens as he won one gold medal after the next, defeating the so-called Aryan supermen of the Nazi regime in their hometown, Berlin. I always liked thinking of how angry Owens' wins must have made Hitler and his cronies.
Tooconservative posted on 2018-02-14 12:26:07 Reply Private Reply
#11: redleghunter To: Tooconservative (#10)
redleghunter posted on 2018-02-14 20:17:05 Reply Private Reply
#12: Liberator To: redleghunter (#8)
Yes, and this love-fest of a ruthless murderous thug just proves who and what the unwatchable, all-politics-ALL-the-time MSM are: Evil (no hyperbole here). Liars. Haters. Propagandists. 24/7. The Trump-Hate and lies are dialed up to "11".
I've tuned them out completely as they've destroyed just about every shred of cred they once/barely had.
Yup. The MSM: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." EVEN MASS MURDERERS like Kim. You watch their Kim-Sister slobber-thon that was turned into a Mike Pence hate-fest? It is beyond sick.
Their "Enemy" is not only Trump but all conservatives, as well as anyone who demands and shines the light of truth on any given matter.
Liberator posted on 2018-02-15 10:26:04 Reply Private Reply
#13: Liberator To: sneakypete (#5)
Target: ANNIHILATED.
Psychologically, they are weak, so they envy and hate the mentally strong and independent. Ergo once the fascist Left or any Totalitarian Cult (like Islam) takes power, the first thing they do is try to eliminate the strongest, most intelligent, and most independent. They HATE those attributes. (We're still witnessing this technique by the 0bama-Hitlery-MSM axis of Leftist-Cultist goons.)
Independent thinkers, doers, and those who are compelled to take personal responsibility for independent life-decisions are obviously also on their "at-war" List.
Liberator posted on 2018-02-15 10:39:15 Reply Private Reply