Scott Simon really oozed about Corazon Aquino this morning:
- "Cory Aquino often told interviewers that those years in exile were her happiest. When your husband is thrown into jail for what he believes, in a country ruled by a dictator's words and whims, it is hard to trust that your children can be safe."
- "'I am just one of the thousands and millions of victims of the Marcos dictatorship,' she told crowds."
- "She displeased both leftists who wanted more radical land reform, and rightists who didn't want to talk to leftist radicals."
- "Corazon Aquino didn't have the life she expected—and because of it, gave hopes to others that they could make better lives, too."
Notable is Simon's remark that "she displeased both leftists...and rightists." At NPR that is the mark of excellence in leaders and journalism: not courage, not facts, not truth, not a consistent set of moral or legal standards - but a perverse insistence that criticism from left and right validates any policy or action.
Sadly, Simon's tribute reduces Aquino to a one-dimensional heroic caricature, but her legacy was far more complex. Aquino clearly helped move the Philippines away from dictatorship - but she also tolerated gross human rights abuses and was close to many military leaders who helped overthrow Marcos - but were steeped in traditions of torture and repression.
The most glaring problem with Simon's praise is the complete lack of historical context (a typical feature of NPR reports). Simon fails to mention that the Marcos dictatorship and its "thousands and millions of victims" would not have been possible without staunch US support over many years.
Simon's omissions are quite relevant to current events both in the Philippines and here in the US. In the Philippines a surge in human rights abuses (and US involvement) has occurred since 2001 and continues up to the present under the Arroyo regime (including a US citizen who reported being recently tortured). As the Alfred McCoy link above and his book, A Question of Torture, indicate - there are obvious links between the CIA-assisted Marcos torture regime and the current US torture regime of slappings and beatings, "stress positions," sexual humiliation, waterboarding, sensory deprivation, etc. Perhaps most chilling are McCoy's conclusions that the intoxicating power of the torturers can lead them to attack the very governments they supposedly serve. As McCoy notes, the ability of the torture architects and practitioners to secure amnesty in the Philippines has allowed many of them to stay in power - and for their practices to resurface.
- Mytwords's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Front page
Comments
At NPR that is the mark of
I quoted this, because this is something I notice in most American 'news', these days. It's an almost religious pilgrimage they make to try and find some non-existent moral center where none exists, and they do it under the guise of searching for so-called fairness. The outcome is one of two things: they either find a fair center in a place that's neither fair nor center (usually they find the center deep within the right of the political and ideological spectrum), or, they contrive a center from thin-air (and, still, it's usually found in the right-side talking point). It's been bugging me, forever, but it really reignited my annoyance and disgust when I saw it in the coverage of the Henry Louis Gates arrest.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...
It's Not Limited to News Organizations
although they are obsessed with it. But I think all of Versailles
employs it.
An example of Obama doing it (he's a master), courtesy of Melissa McEwan:
I don't think it's a coincidence either that our elite seem to do this exercise as a way of legitimizing right-wing frames. This never seems to work the other way. It's always done to make the right seem less crazy than they really are.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
And, it's not even just the Village
But, something I see that millions of Americans have been conditioned to believe; it's undue deference that average Americans give mayors, and police, and all types of authority who we've entrusted with a great deal of responsibility. It's almost as if as soon as we elect them or deputize them or elevate them we think that they are no longer obligated to follow societies rules. I'd say that a majority of Americans have this obsessive compulsion with paying undue deference to authority. It's almost become a reflex. I can't tell you how many times in just the last few months on issues of authority abusing its power I've heard person after person say things like "you should do what they tell you to, no matter if they are right or wrong". That kind of thing scares the me, but it angers me even more than that because we all should know better.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...