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05/07/2005 Archived Entry: "Weekend reads: A private "welfare state" and a media illusion"

TWO WEEKEND READS.

Gary North on why "welfare" costs (aka health care and pension obligations) are killing General Motors -- and why hardly anybody saw this coming, even though the stage was set 55 years ago.

"Who Shot Mohammed Al-Dura?" Although this Atlantic article is nearly two years old now, it's a stunning cautionary tale for the media age. Mohammed Al-Dura was the 12-year-old Palestinian boy shot to death as he and his father cowered beside a wall. The media told us -- and the entire Arab world believes -- that Israeli soldiers did it. But did they? Or, for that matter, was any little boy ever killed in that place, at that moment, at all?

"Who Shot Mohammed Al-Dura?" also shows the power of myth and spin; billions believe what they want to believe, despite unclear, contradictory evidence. And once the story has life of its own, almost no one on any side wants to challenge it.

Posted by Claire @ 11:24 AM CST
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