LA TIMES: Promoting Democracy--What a Stupid Idea!

Two minds with but a single purpose: to show what a complete waste it has become to read the Los Angeles Times. The first is an angry Jason von Steenwyk:

The Los Angeles Times' shows its true colors (again) with this piece of editorial tripe masquerading as a front page news story:

President Bush's ambitious vision of global democratic reform has begun to dominate the administration's foreign affairs agenda, in some cases pushing aside urgent international issues.

Since when is global democratic reform not "an urgent international issue?"

What you're seeing here is George Bush totally outclassing a nitwit reporter. George Bush, unlike the reporter, actually has a strategic vision, and is concentrating on making progress toward that goal. He's not Bill Clinton: He's not going to allow himself to get distracted at every turn, losing his strategic vision and letting himself get drawn into being reactive instead of proactive. Bush wants to drive events in the middle east--not allow events in the middle east to drive him.

And the second is Patterico:

The lead news article in this morning’s L.A. Times is an undisguised criticism of President Bush’s policy of promoting democracy. If anyone is interested in learning why so many people revile this newspaper, just read this article. It is full of The Times’s masterful techniques of slandering the conservative position through clever wording and the burying of important facts.

The article is titled Bush’s Foreign Policy Shifting. The sub-head reads: “Spreading democracy has become his top priority, at times trumping urgent issues. Some specialists dismiss his vision as unrealistic.” If that sub-head doesn’t make it clear enough, the first sentence of the article reinforces the point:

President Bush’s ambitious vision of global democratic reform has begun to dominate the administration’s foreign affairs agenda, in some cases pushing aside urgent international issues.

In other words, promoting democracy is not an urgent international issue. Gotcha.

Read on for two thorough fiskings of this ridiculous opinion piece, disguised as news which the Times saw fit to put on the FRONT PAGE of the paper. This is exactly the reason that so many people are getting fed up with "news" coverage by the mainstream media. First, because their priorities absolutely suck (I believe that is the appropriate psychiatric term to use in this case); and second, because their editorial page positions seem to have sucked all the "news" out of the rest of the paper.

The Los Angelest Times: What A Stupid Idea.