Hugh Hewitt spent three hours of his radio show yesterday encouraging LA Times readers to call the paper, give them a piece of their minds, and cancel their subscription, in a group reaction to the pathetic, pro-No. Korea puff-piece that appeared on page 1 below-the-fold in yesterday’s edition. This AM Hugh notes in Day 2 of Faithful Reporting of the “North Korean Point of View.”, that the paper ran another article by the same Times staff writer, Barbara Demick, N. Korea Lists Conditions for Negotiations, which once again presents the views from this dictatorial regime as if No. Korea had the moral authority to make demands upon the world to accede to its wishes.

Reading the article you are left with the Times writer’s position that No. Korea is acting “responsibly” and “reasonably” in light of the “hostile rhetoric” that has come out of, and still does, the Bush White House. She quotes a “Berkeley think tank” representative, hardly a representative of general American thought, saying that No. Korea would like for this administration to sign a wimpy agreement to agree without hostility like the one signed by the Clinton administration in the Fall of 2000. I’ll bet they would!

In the article Ms. Demick states the following:

Kim was said to be particularly miffed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s recent characterization of North Korea as an “outpost of tyranny” and was demanding an explanation and apology.

Good luck getting Condi to kowtow and grovel before the likes of Kim Jong Il. Guess they didn’t see her in full Matrix regalia the other day. That is not someone to mess with, and she backs it up with her presence and intellect!

All this begs a few questions, not the least of which is, “Why is the LA Times fawning over No. Korea?”

My take is that they are so bamboozled over the 2004 election and the subsequent world happenings, that they are grasping at any straw they can find to try and discredit the Bush administration.

The LA Times fought hard against Bush & Co. all last year, and had to eat a very large serving of crow when Bush won in Nov. Trying to regroup, they campaigned against the possibility of the Jan. elections in Iraq, and blew that one too. They tried to downplay and humiliate the administration for their initial measured response to the tsunami disaster, but were shown to be petty and just-plain-wrong in the following weeks as we sent two battle groups into the area for cleanup and relief, along with our increasing pledge of funds that supplemented all the individual donations directly from private citizens.

The Times has had to face the fall of the Lebanese government with the strong possibility of Syria finally leaving and Lebanon having free and open elections, remarks by Hosni Mubarak that he will change Egypt’s Constitution to permit ”direct, secret balloting” for president, elections in Saudi Arabia, the successful elections in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, plus the U.A.E. considering some sort of democratic activity for their citizens, and I just think all this Bush administration success has finally gotten to them. Like a punch drunk fighter clinging to the ropes, their only hope is to stagger back into the ring, clutch the opposition as long as possible, regain some strength and hope to throw a lucky knock-out punch. Good luck, guys, ’cause it ain’t gonna happen!

Powerline has a couple of posts on this, the latest is an email exchange between one of their readers and Barbara Demick over the intent of her article of yesterday. Hindrockets take on the original article is here.

Laer over at Cheat Seeking Missles also gets his two-cents worth in on this:

N. Korea Story: LATimes Suicide Wish?
Ensconced in their ivory tower, John Carroll and the crew at One Times Square might have forgotten that their newspaper is based in Los Angeles, the region with the largest Korean population in America: 209,734 Koreans call the LA basin home. And with North Korea: Without the Rancor played on page one Thursday morning, I bet there are 209,734 very pi**ed off Koreans who are about to let John Carroll know how they feel.

That’s more than one angry Korean for every five LAT subscribers, now that LAT’s circulation has slipped below a million. Carroll and his Alice in Wonderland crew might have thought about that before glossing over the murder, absolute lack of freedom, slave labor, grinding famine, and thorough lack of morality that is North Korea today. … “

It is amazing to me that people of reasonable intelligence still underestimate George W. Bush. Their hatred of him overwhelms their ability to reason. The LA Times management and editorial desk obviously are among this group and we can expect no less than a constant stream of anti-Bush, anti-American B.S. on their “news’ as well as their “opinion” pages.

I’d cancel my subscription, but it’s not mine, it’s hers. We are going to check out a few of the other area papers, the Daily News & Orange County Register, and as soon as I find one that my wife likes, we are so out-of-there. When you realize that the only thing that you are looking forward to reading each AM is the page-2 sportswriter Simer’s column, you know it is really time to go! (db)

This entry was posted on Friday, March 4th, 2005 at 10:50 am and is filed under Focus On Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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