Stuck On Stupid: The Media Jumps Into The Arafat Poisoning "Story"

Don't get stuck on stupid, reporters. We are moving forward. And don't confuse the people please. You are part of the public message. So help us get the message straight. And if you don't understand, maybe you'll confuse it to the people.
Lieutenant General Honore addressing reporters about New Orleans evac plan for Hurricane Rita

With Al Jazeera reporting on an investigation that Arafat's death may have been due to polonium poisoning, the media has jumped on the bandwagon.


Of course, this is the same Al Jazeera that threw a party for terrorist Samir Kuntar who murdered a 4 year old child:



In any case, Reuters is no more above whitewashing terrorists and murderers than Al Jazeera is.

Reuters offers a whitewash of Arafat's life entitled The legacy of Arafat, beginning with the following picture:

Reuters alerts us immediately to the spin they intend to do here, by using the caption:

An undated picture handed out by the Palestinian Authority shows Palestinian President Yasser Arafat during his stay in Lebanon.

During Arafat's stay in Lebanon?
Was he a welcome guest?

Hardly.

For those who forget, after increasing tension and fighting between Arafat's terrorist PLO and Jordan, King Hussein kicked them out and Arafat and his men ended up in Lebanon--from where Arafat continued his terrorist attacks and brought instability to Lebanon.

Here are some more photos Reuters would have you remember Arafat by.

The ones on the left (Arafat with Mandela, Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II) are from Reuters.
The ones from the right (Arafat with Saddam Hussein, Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin and Ayatollah Khomeini), from Yasser Arafat and his political allies from Tom Gross's Mideast Media Analysis, and somehow did not make it into Reuter's montage in honor of Arafat (hat tip: LBD).




No doubt Reuters, like the rest of the media, also forgot that Arafat was responsible for the murder of US ambassador Cleo Noel, among others in Khartoum in 1973.

So along with Reuters, it is only to be expected that the media will no doubt jump on a story that Arafat was poisoned with Polonium.

The problem is:

• Polonium has a half-life of 138 days. If Arafat had actually been poisoned with so much Polonium that trace amounts show up 8 years later, he would not have been in any shape to make it to France. (hat tip OC)
• Denis Gutierrez, a senior French military doctor, has said that nothing of Arafat's had been sent from the French hospital to the Swiss lab--which raises questions about just how reliable the items tested could be.
• Instead of jumping at an opportunity to pin Arafat's death on Israel, Abbas is stalling on ordering an autopsy on Arafat.
• In 2005, according The New York Times, the French medical report indicated that Arafat died of natural causes.
• Why doesn't the Palestinian Authority just make the doctors report known?
• And why is it that now, 8 years later, that there is talk of investigating how Arafat died?

With all of the contradictions involved, the media does not hesitate to jump in and make a fuss.

These days, the media is not objective.
It is merely objectionable.

Technorati Tag: Arafat and Media Bias.