Without a doubt, media bias leans left

I am responding to Jim Thomas’ letter to the editor.

He claims that there is not a liberal bias in the media. I don’t know if Thomas is living in the same country I am, but where I’m living the news media definitely has a liberal bias.

First of all, the media may have forgotten about Enron, but this is only because it wore the story out completely in its attempts to make the Bush administration look bad in any way it could. Does anyone really think that Enron’s problems began the year that George W. Bush took office? That would be quite a stretch. Enron gave just as much money to the Democratic Party as it did to the Republican Party. Clinton asked Enron to help with his energy plan just as Bush did. Also, one of the top leaders of Enron spent the night in the White House during the Clinton administration. But the liberal media conveniently overlooked those facts.

What about when Tom Brokaw uttered something to the effect of “We’ve won” when they called Florida for Gore in 2000? If the mass media really were neutral, nothing like that would have ever happened. But there’s no such thing as a liberal bias, right?

Thomas’ accusation that Bush’s cousin runs FOX News is not even remotely accurate. His cousin is simply an executive there, hardly running the network as you claim. How about Ted Turner, the biggest media liberal, who started CNN and ran and owned it until recently? CNN is the biggest liberal news network around. It is obvious that Turner influenced CNN with his beliefs much more than a minor executive did or does at FOX.

And about Noelle Bush — the news gave her the same coverage it gives celebrities and other politicians’ relatives who get into trouble with the law. The liberal media barely mentioned how Al Gore’s son was ticketed for a DUI in September, but they were all over the Bush’s daughters who were trying to get alcohol at a bar — a little less dangerous than driving around drunk. And guess what, Gore’s son was not even taken into custody. Sounds like special treatment to me.

When liberals fanatically deny a liberal bias it is only because they know it exists. It is time for the mass media to go back to its very founding principle — that of neutrality.

Mary Yeary is a senior majoring in mass communications

Calling bin Laden evil is the easy way out

Gary Stanley, you’re at it again: breathing your blind-patriotic narrowmindedness down other people’s throats. Sept. 11th should have been a wake up call, but instead many people took it as a call to arms without realizing that their violence would only perpetuate the anger and hostility of others. Mr. Stanley, you are one of those people.

Calling bin Laden “evil” or a “madman” dehumanizes him; it’s a distraction from understanding. Like it or not, bin Laden is human, which means he has thoughts, feelings, and opinions. Using nonhuman terms like these only serves as a simple and wrong explanation and justifies any type of revenge.

Did you not read Monday’s article, Mr. Stanley? It was not a justification for 9/11 or for bin Laden’s motives. It was an explanation (the same explanation people have been giving since the attacks). And it didn’t happen because of our “Western way of life” – it happened because many actions of the West are seen as vicious and exploitative.

Understanding and justification are two separate things. Understanding allows us to see why these events happen and truly prevent them without putting the entire country under scrutiny and lockdown.

I’m sorry that you want to kill first, ask questions later (or not at all). I am also sorry that you feel people expressing views other than your own are out to destroy our country. It amazes me, that in a country such as ours, many people like you turn out blind and ignorant.

Anthony Schmidt is a sophomore majoring in anthropology

Terrorism is wrong in all of its forms

In response to the countless letters asking for Arabs or Muslims to condemn terrorism, as a Muslim, as an Arab and as an American I’m ready to oblige.

As a Muslim, as an Arab and as an American I condemn those who benefited from the attacks on the World Trade centers.

I condemn the Russian government’s daily terror against the Chechens. I condemn the occupation, rape, torture and massacres.

I condemn the daily terror perpetrated against Palestinians. I condemn the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the humiliation, torture and massacres.

I condemn Saddam Hussein and those who brought him to power as he continues to cause suffering among the innocent people of Iraq. I condemn those who would use him as an excuse to attack and kill thousands of innocent people for their own gain.

I condemn the detention and imprisonment of the innocent.

I condemn F-16s and the cowardly terrorists that fly them as they bomb civilian neighborhoods and refugee camps. I condemn Apache helicopters and tanks that, in the hands of evil-doers, unmercifully terrorize the innocent.

As a Muslim, as an Arab and as an American, I condemn the oppressors.

Isam Sweilem is a USF Graduate