COLUMNS

G'day from the Sentinel Team

John S. Carroll, Editor of the Los Angeles Times has had a distinguished career in Journalism, spanning 40 years.

In May this year he spoke at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism & Communication on the topic of Ethics saying,

"All across America, there are offices that resemble newsrooms, and in those offices there are people who resemble journalists, but they are not engaged in journalism. It is not journalism because it does not regard the reader – or, in the case of broadcasting, the listener, or the viewer – as a master to be served."

"... The propaganda technique that has invaded journalism is of a particular breed. It springs not from journalistic roots but from modern politics – specifically, that woeful subset known as attack politics.

In attack politics, the idea is to “define” one’s rival in the eyes of the public. This means repeating derogatory information so often that the rival’s reputation is ruined. Sometimes the information is true; sometimes it is misleading; sometimes it is simply false. A citizen who enters politics these days must face the prospect of being “defined” by smear artists equipped with computers, polls and attack ads...."

This lecture was given to Journalists and Mr. Carroll concluded it with the hope that his listeners would "choose the path of real journalism, not pseudo-journalism, and ... forever regard the reader – or the listener, or the viewer – as a worthy sovereign who must always be served in good faith."

This week's Sentinels Prayer Update brings our attention to the way that Media involves itself in today's battles and HOPEFULLY encourages prayer for those that have chosen to work in the difficult world of Journalism or as targets of the Media.

Under His Banner

Bev Holmes-Brown

"In church we always pray for our president, world leaders, and missionaries, but we don’t pray for journalists who wield so much power through their words and images.

Journalists need prayers just as much as our leaders. We encourage you to join us in prayer for journalists around the world." (Source : Gegrapha - the website for Christian Journalists)

“God does nothing but by prayer, and everything with it.” - John Wesley

The Right to be a Christian !

You may have already read Peter Costello's excellent speech on our first National Thanksgiving Day, (May 29). (Link here if you haven't)

I was appalled to find that he had to explain his presence amongst Christians in answer to an article run by The Age ....

"Tolerance does not mean that all views are the same. It does not mean that differing views are equally right. What it means is that where there are differences, no matter how strongly held, different people will respect the right of others to hold them.

I mention this because “The Age” newspaper reported (10 May 2004) that my appearance here tonight has been criticized by the Islamic Council of Victoria. According to the President of that Council by speaking here tonight I could be giving legitimacy to parties that the Islamic Council is suing under Victoria’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 (the Act).

It is not my intention to influence those proceedings. But nor will I be deterred from attending a service of Christian Thanksgiving.

Since the issue has been raised I will state my view. I do not think that we should resolve differences about religious views in our community with lawsuits between the different religions. Nor do I think that the object of religious harmony will be promoted by organizing witnesses to go along to the meetings of other religions to collect evidence for the purpose of later litigation." (Full Speech)

Mr. Costello gave a strong message ... my favourite part being the following solution offered when speaking on the Challenge of Moral Decay :

"I want to suggest that a recovery of faith would go a long way to answering this challenge. A Government should never get into religious endeavors. But if our church leaders could so engage people as to lead them to genuine faith we should be much richer and stronger for it."

Seems very much like political speak for "WE NEED A REVIVAL !"

The Age have another article, written by Amir Butler, (Exec.Dir. Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee), that is surely intended to reverse the impact of the Treasurer's comments on the racial vilification laws... whilst also agreeing that they are bad laws.

"At every major Islamic lecture I have attended since litigation began against Catch the Fire Ministries, there have been small groups of evangelical Christians - armed with notepads and pens - jotting down any comment that might later be used as evidence in the present case or presumably future cases ..... The hope being, I assume, that some elements of the Christian community might exact revenge on the Muslim community by way of their own vexatious legal actions.

"... It is obvious that criticism of one's religion is likely to offend, but just as Muslims should be entitled to aggressively criticise other faiths, likewise those same faiths should be afforded the right to voice their concerns about Islam." (Link to Article)

PLEASE PRAY for Mr. Costello, for his boldness in standing up for the right of Christians and for refusing to stifle his views.

In her bestselling book, The Journal of the Unknown Prophet, Wendy Alec speaks strongly to the media empires :

"For you broadcast lust and you broadcast violence, which in turn fed lust and fed the violent until they no longer could contain themselves within the bounds of human decency and what they knew to be right and proper .... for much, yes so very much was given you and from you, much was required...."

In a recent email Graham Mclennan of the Australian ministry, National Alliance of Christian Leaders said :

YES, WE DESPERATELY NEED A REFORMATION in the media and government. The impact of secular education is now rupturing this great nation. If ever there has been a time to pray for a reformation in these areas, it is surely now.

NOTE : PLEASE ALSO HOLD UP THE ELECTIONS IN PRAYER our leaders are making strong statements against the damaging effects of political correctness and are unashamedly asserting their values... we need to continually pray for them - especially as we head towards an election

Playschool's decision, last week, to educate our children on "normal family life" by airing a story of a girl called Brenna going to a fair with her two mothers, brought a swift response from our leaders .

The ABC claimed that the program tries to reflect the variety of the contemporary world. Thankfully Mr Howard does not accept this, "That doesn't wash with me and I don't think it would wash with most of your viewers," he said. "You're talking about a very, very small number and to intrude that into a children's program is just being politically correct ...."

Communications Minister Daryl Williams has expressed his concerns to the ABC ... Health Minister Tony Abbott expressed shock at the storyline .... Children's Minister Larry Anthony said the ABC was becoming too politically correct.

Acting Prime Minister John Anderson described it as an indulgence, saying, "the ABC needed to consider whether its segment was in the best interests of children. "I think this a very serious example of putting the indulgences and the particular wheelbarrows of adults before children..."

Incidentally, John Anderson is the only politician I have found whose website openly states that, "He is a practicing Christian who is very conscious of the need for politicians to keep faith with the community." (Link)

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times about the homosexual marriage debate said, “The right can’t win this one.” Ted Baehr, founder of the Christian Film & Television Commission Ministry says, "Not so, the truth is that we can win it, because the wrong would destroy the future of our children and grandchildren."

Actress Susan Sarandon has said, "the media elite are the keepers of our dreams, and they’ve been injecting nightmares into our culture, demonic visions promoting lust, porno violence, and perversion."

Mr. Baehr adds to this thought saying, "The keepers of our dreams in Hollywood understand, as did their forefathers such as Dr. Joseph Goebbels, that "the play is the thing that captures the attention of the king."

Goebbels tried documentaries and propaganda campaigns to destroy the morality of the German people and failed. Then, he started making dramatic movies like I ACCUSE, and he perverted the German people from being 90% against “mercy killing” of unwanted people to 60% in favor of it.

His successors of perversion have implanted porno-erotic nightmares into our minds. They understand the power of the story. They have few resources, but they use them well.

.... The message is that if we want to win the battle for the future of our families, for our children and grandchildren, we need to create the stories that will give people a vision of truth, love, and hope, and help them understand that the way of perversion is death. (Gatekeepers of our Dreams Article at Assist News)

Andrew Bolt of the Herald Sun wrote in May of shameful Media tactics,

"TOO FEW journalists realise it's not our leaders who are lying about Iraq, but the media"

[The UK's] Daily Mirror story of a British soldier urinating on an Iraqi's head was a fake.

The Boston Globe ran on its front page, fake pictures of American soldiers raping Iraqi women.

Media here, meanwhile, falsely claimed that pictures from the Abu Ghraib jail also showed soldiers raping Iraqi women.

And, of course, the BBC lied when it claimed the British Government "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq's weapons.

In each case, not coincidentally, these lies were run by media outlets most hostile to the war and to the Coalition's leaders.(Link to Article)

For Further Reading ... You Can Link to The Sentinel Prayer Update of May 18 to read the GOOD NEWS in Iraq that has not appeared in our papers.

Andrew Bolt also writes of disturbing media perspectives in an article called "Evil off the Hook" :

"It was probably about the very time this video of Berg's murder [decapitation] was being sent to the al-Qaida site that I found myself in a heated argument on ABC TV's Insiders program.

I'd dared to say that much of the coverage of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib jail was an irresponsible attempt by anti-war commentators to use the, yes, disgusting behaviour of a few out-of-control American soldiers to vilify not just the US army, but America itself, and to discredit the liberation of Iraq. ......"

"It's time more in the media realised just who our greatest enemy really is – and trust me, it isn't America or a handful of its prison guard bullies.

If the media must publish pictures from this war on terror, let them include plenty of our real enemy and its satanic deeds. Then the abuse at Abu Ghraib will be put in the focus that's been all too deliberately blurred. (Full Article)

A number of Watch Dog organisations have been started in response to media outlets violating principles of media objectivity. HonestReporting.Com is one of these ... The following stories come from their website :

Some of you may remember seeing this photo in September 30, 2000. "The New York Times, Associated Press and other major media outlets published a photo of a young man -- bloodied and battered -- crouching beneath a club-wielding Israeli policeman. The caption identified him as a Palestinian victim of the recent riots -- with the clear implication that the Israeli soldier is the one who beat him"

The victim's true identity was revealed when Dr. Aaron Grossman of Chicago sent the following letter to the Times:

Regarding your picture on page A5 of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian on the Temple Mount -- that Palestinian is actually my son, Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago.

He, and two of his friends, were pulled from their taxicab while traveling in Jerusalem, by a mob of Palestinian Arabs, and were severely beaten and stabbed. That picture could not have been taken on the Temple Mount because there are no gas stations on the Temple Mount and certainly none with Hebrew lettering, like the one clearly seen behind

Link to the full story and how this famous picture has been used since here

More recently we read of the Sheikh Yassin's assassination by Israel. The " BBC profiled Yassin as "a frail man who could barely see. His voice was thin and quavering."

The Evening Standard prominenently quoted the UK Foreign Secretary, who said "he did not believe that Israel would benefit from the killing of an old man in a wheelchair."

Honest Reporting tell us, "Actually, Yassin was in a wheelchair since age 12, when a sporting accident left him paralyzed. It's self-evident, therefore, that being wheelchair-bound never hampered Yassin's ability to orchestrate unprecedented terror..."

In February 2003, Yassin called on Iraqis to prepare for martyrdom for the sake of Allah as well as for long-term popular resistance, because "even if the enemies of Allah are capable of invading Iraq, popular resistance can exhaust the enemy and force it to retreat." Yassin stressed that "if Iraq is conquered, Jihad will be the personal obligation of every Muslim man and woman, and there will be no alternative to Muslims threatening the interests of the hostile Americans and Westerners and striking at them everywhere." (Middle East Media Research Institute - MEMRI)

Read also the Islamic Council's response to Peter Costello's comments.

Historical : Nazi Propaganda by Joseph Goebbels