Direction of Affects

Christiane Amanpour, who first became a visible on air correspondent with CNN, is the ABC anchor for This Week. She was born to an Iranian airline executive father and British mother. She grew up in Iran under the Shah. After her initial education she was sent to England where she attended a private all girls school. She finished her education at the University of Rhode Island Journalism School where she earned a Bachelors degree.

Christiane has been an outspoken liberal voice for as long as I can recall. Her reports always seem to take on an anti-American tone. When given two contradictory reports, she seemed to always give weight to the one that was least flattering to America. She seemed to be trying to ingratiate herself with those who were against the US. “HonestReporting” and the “Committee for Accurate in Middle East Reporting in America” both have accused her of inaccurate and biased reporting.

I see where today she was chased out of Tahrir Square in Egypt by a crowd shouting that they hate America. The car they retreated to and made their escape in had its doors kicked in and the windshield broken. I feel fairly certain that when she reports on this incident, the tone of her report will be that it is America’s misdeeds coming back on it that caused these folks to attack her.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do not believe that we have been saints in our dealings with Egypt in particular or the Middle East in general, but I would like to raise the concept of “Direction of Effects” here. This is sort of a chicken or egg kind of a concept. And in this instance I ask, was it really anything specific that America had done in Egypt that has raised these folks ire against us, or, is it people like Ms. Amanpour telling folks that America is bad. After hearing how bad America is for years, these folks are ready to channel their anger at us with little to no real evidence. 

Now Ms. Amanpour and her ilk are not the sole purveyors of misinformation and hate against America. Virtually all of the radical Islamic clerics spew unfounded vitriol against us. They do this in the same way the Nazis did it to the Jews and the Gypsies. They were and we are an easy target to vilify. And with an illiterate to poorly educated at best, populace, it is easy to convince them to blame others for their conditions. It is easy to incite the ignorant with lies and innuendos. Particularly when they come from authority figures like TV News personalities and their pseudo religious leaders. They point to us or Israel and say we are the reasons they are having dirt stew for supper. That we have taken everything and left them with nothing, when in fact, those who could have directly helped them have done nothing. Their leaders have intentionally kept them living in squalor by keeping them uneducated and ill informed. Then feeding them whatever crap they need to to keep themselves in power. 

We channel billions of dollars in aid to countries like Egypt and Pakistan, and do they use it for its intended purposes for the benefit of the populace? NO! 70% or better of it gets siphoned off as graft by the very folks who tell the illiterate masses how evil we are. All aided by the likes of Ms. Amanpour.

Well, I say if Ms. Amanpour and her fellow travelers are set upon by violent crowds, to a large degree, they have brought it upon themselves. And I for one will lose no sleep worrying about their safety.