Letter From Thailand
Mark Steyn’s Letter of the Week
I have been enjoying your writings for years. I have been living in Thailand for 3 years and Asia for 5 years. As you have recently noted in Thailand over 800 people have been killed this year in the southern provinces next to Malaysia, where Islamic terrorists want to set up an Islamic state under sharia law. The youth who largely commit these murders are trained in ponoh schools where they are taught nothing but Islam. These schools are financed by Saudi Arabia and many of the teachers are from the Middle East. Over 20 teachers have been murdered. Schools have been bombed and torched. Yesterday 7 people were murdered. A few days ago there was a coordinated attack where power lines were blown up, hotels bombed and police stations attacked. There have been 7 recent beheadings including 2 Laotian farm workers who earn a few dollars a day. Everyday there are killings and bombings. Over here there are a few English language radio stations. One broadcasts the BBC news! . I have been listening to the BBC news for a few years now and not a word that I’m aware of has been said about the situation here. Outside of Iraq the fatalities here are probably equal to what is going on in Afghanistan. Yet not a word. But if Israel bombs a suspected arms depot with no fatalities this becomes a featured story. If the item can’t denigrate the U.S. or Israel it isn’t considered news by the BBC. I also find that the majority of the broadcasters and interviewers are women with a snotty attitude who can’t hide their bias. I thought the CBC in Canada was bad but the BBC takes the cake.
That Western media continues to ignore – no, avoid – this situation suggests that they have progressed beyond mere politicization of news and into the realm of moral bankruptcy.
Moral bankruptcy is too kind. I would argue that it’s nothing less than censoring the information in order to manipulate their readers. Oh dear! Did I say that out loud? DAMN right because it fits the facts.
I have seen coverage of the religious violence in Southern Thailand on the BBC news on TV. Has there been any coverage in the American television media?
Or, the media companies believe (correctly) their audiences don’t care.
You sound exactly like Noam Chomsky in his criticism of the corporate media’s avoidance of a similar situation in East Timor.
A search on the BBC News website on the words Thailand muslim violence since 1/1/2005 returns 479 results.Thailand muslim terrorism returns 485 hits.
which hardly seems to constitute ignoring it.
See for instance this story :-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4651711.stm
So is the letter in the article for real? Likely it is, but Steyn didn’t do any research to back up the assertion. Pretty sloppy, but not surprising for an ideological article. Since we have seen the BBC has not ignored the issue, is an apology coming? I’m not holding my breath.
It is very sad but some of the American television media don’t care about other places around the world. No coverage about the situation in Thailand in the American television Media.