Media Spin - What Dubya can learn from Nasrallah

I've been avoiding doing a political blog for a while, but am finally getting fed up with junk news, staged stories and photo-shoots, photo editing, and very biased reporting on the Israeli / Hezbollah war.

• Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Their reported aim is to drive Israel out of the Shaba Farms area of the Golan Heights (they claim it's part of Lebanon, the UN states it's part of Syria). They are terrorists not because they fight the Israeli defense Forces, but because they launch rockets into civilian areas in Israel, not at military targets. See Wikipedia's entry on Hezbollah.
  
• Hezbollah shields itself within civilian areas of Lebanon, including Beirut and Qana, forcing Israeli counter-attacks to hit civilian areas.
  
• Hezbollah controls media access to most of southern Lebanon, as well as most of southern Beirut. They control the image, whether still photos or video. See PowerLine bloc, Little Green Footballs, et al. When the same building gets destroyed 10 days apart, and the same woman looses her house (and very different houses) 2 weeks apart, someone's putting a lot of spin on.
  
• Hezbollah and many of their supporters are barbarians. I know that sounds harsh, but I can't think of a better word. When the IDF bombs killed civilians, did you see Israelis dancing in the street and celebrating? No - you saw a government investigation, and a national discourse on it. When Hezbollah hits Haifa, or Nahariya, or Tiberias, do you see discussions on what happened and how? No, you see dancing in the streets.
  
• Hezbollah is supported, funded and armed by Syria and Iran. While Syria and Iran may not control day-to-day operations of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, their continued support (and money and weapons) shows they certainly approve of it.
  
• Iran and Syria are not peace-loving nations. "Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented," Ahmadinejad said, according to state-run television. (CNN, August 3rd, 2006). While many corrupt states in the Middle-East like to fan the anti-Israel / anti-Semitic flames, Iran and Syria are extreme in their blame for all problems on Israel and Jewish conspiracies.
  
• Remember the Qana attack that killed 54? Ever hear that it was 28 I'm not saying 28 isn't horrible, but responsible / reliable governments tend not to exagerrate. Know those rockets that are hitting Haifa? Know where they're coming from? Qana.
  
• How about the 40 people killed today in Houla? Or was it just one? When the Lebanese PM re-states the number, there's a lot of spin going on. You don't see the Islamic Republic News Agency printing an update though...
  
• Yes, even the US got the initial death count wrong after 9/11, but when the numbers are consistently inflated, someone's spinning every bit of news that goes by.

I'd better stop now.

But, for further reading:

Ben Caspit, on what the Israeli PM should be saying.
The American Thinker