Stories from ArabNews.com
I noticed today that I had to mute the audio on CNN to avoid getting pissed at Wolf Blitzer’s verbal hard-on in reporting on the outbreak of Shock and Awe. And that made me wonder if CNN’s coverage has become more jingoistic than I remember it being during the first Gulf War, maybe as a result of things like Fox’s competing “news” coverage, or if it’s just me that’s changed. I’m guessing it’s a little of both, but it made me stop and think about the influence that Net-based news sources have on my outlook these days. I can read coverage of the war from as many perspectives as I want, which means I get to gravitate toward those that match my existing opinions, and can be less patient with those that contradict those opinions. Anyway, that’s all meant as preface to the following links from ArabNews.com, the web site for Saudi Arabia’s oldest English-language newspaper, which I’m finding is a pretty good source when I need to counter some of the spin that much of my own country’s media seems willing to pass on more or less verbatim: Hell rains down on Iraqis, The horror of it all as seen from the other side, Baghdad’s night of terror, and My dear Americans.
