Almost too depressed to blog

As you've noticed from my derivative posts this morning, I'm not in deep blog think. Frankly, I'm almost too depressed to blog and I realized, when writing an email to a friend this morning, why that is so. It's this whole cartoon riot thing. I'm not depressed about the riots themselves, nor am I depressed about the false cartoons used to stimulate those riots, nor about the obvious planning that went into the riots. In fact, I thought all of that was excellent, because I think these are just further ways to educate the world about the true face of modern Islamofacism. No, what really depresses me is the abysmal cowardice of the press, especially the American press. Now, I'm willing to bet that about half the people reading the preceding sentence are thinking, "Whoa, Nellie. Who is this women to rant against the cowardice of others, when she won't even reveal herself as a conservative to her neighbors?" You're right -- I'm an abysmal coward, but I've never pretended to be anything else. I'm a small, creeping-up-on-middle-age, bespectacled woman who was raised by two people who, in WWII, saw the worst the world had to offer. My response -- a life of fear. I'm a coward, I'm fearful, I tremble. That's what you get with me. But that's not how the press advertises itself. The Press takes on power. The NY Times prints "All the News That's Fit to Print" (a slogan that, interestingly, I no longer see on the Times home page.) Dan Rather repeatedly boasted frequently about "Speaking truth to power," a phrase that the Left generally likes to throw about when it attacks the administration. Correspondents slobber after the fame that comes with battlefield reporting. I don't mean to denigrate the bravery shown by those who go to the battlefield (especially since some have died, been wounded or kidnapped), I just mention it because it's part of the reporters' projected image of bravery in pursuit of truth. The Washington Post still rides on its reputation of having brought down a Presidency, which is no small thing. The media's public image -- an image it works hard to propagate -- is bravery, bravery and more bravery, in both personal and moral terms. And yet now, faced with an opportunity to speak truth to the power of the Moslem mob, to purvey the full story behind all the news that's fit to print, to prove that much vaunted bravery, the Press offers . . . nothing. Its members mouth platitudes about respect, and about multiculturalism, and about "describing the pictures with words, so who needs the pictures" etc., but what it really boils down to is the fact that they're terrified to take on the Islamofacists. They're frightened of the Arab street, scared of the Imams, afraid to live like Ali Hirsi, or to die like Theo Van Gogh. And it just depresses me deeply that our self-satisfied brave press backs down at the first sign of real trouble. It's so much easier to attack those Christians who fight back through debate; or to challenge a President who is invariably polite; or to heap opproprium on Israel, the only Middle Eastern country that can be relied upon not to firebomb you. So I'm not being hypocritcal here, I think, when I, the coward, deride the cowardice of the American press. I've never pretended to be anything else. Our press, however, has sold the American public a bill of goods, by painting a completely false picture of itself planted front and center as the defender of Western freedom. UPDATE: Charles Krauthammer says it better, and without the cowardice, here. If you have a minute, be sure to read this column. Talking to Technorati: Media, Cartoon riots, Cowardice, Hypocrisy