Inconvenient Truths

The media's disingenuous failure to state the obvious

by Christopher Hitchens - December 8th, 2008 - Slate

The obvious is sometimes the most difficult thing to discern, and few things are more amusing than the efforts of our journals of record to keep "open" minds about the self-evident, and thus to create mysteries when the real task of reportage is to dispel them. An all-time achiever in this category is Fernanda Santos of the New York Times, who managed to write from Bombay on Nov. 27 that the Chabad Jewish center in that city was "an unlikely target of the terrorist gunmen who unleashed a series of bloody coordinated attacks at locations in and around Mumbai's commercial center." Continuing to keep her brow heavily furrowed with the wrinkles of doubt and uncertainty, Santos went on to say that "[i]t is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene."

How can these liberals like Fernanda Santos write such bilge? Christopher Hitchens is vastly better at the English language than I, so he can write this humorous article, which makes the point of the stupidity of the some on the left, all the while never lowering himself to STATE that accusation. It is inferred with great linguistic art.

It is one of the reasons that I still like and admire Hitchens even though we rarely agree on most conclusions in politics. At the very least, he is determined that truth and clarity be the starting point for our conclusions. Not too many on the left are still this honest.

I am a little surprised that a left wing site like Slate would allow this much truth. Great article. Classic Hitchens.