YouTube underfire, called "the Internet’s Tokyo Rose"
Jules Crittenden of the Boston Herald writes "YouTube: the Internet’s Tokyo Rose":
Internet video is the new rage. Everyone’s gotta have it. In a world where everyone gets to be a star, everyone’s the media, everyone’s an artist and everyone’s a comedian, YouTube rules. Now it turns out, YouTube is the place where everyone gets to be a traitor.
Guess what’s hot on YouTube.
G.I. snuff films. Insurgent footage of Americans being killed in Iraq. Sometimes listed under "entertainment" and "comedy," with gleeful commentary, some of it apparently added by Americans. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has the details, including a deafening silence from San Mateo-based YouTube on the subject. Dan at http://www.riehlworldview.com/ has a roundup.
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The Internet is notoriously responsibility free. It’s a brave new world of expression, and almost entirely lawless. But not quite.
YouTube disclaims any responsibility for its content, but that’s too precious a dodge.What YouTube, an American-based medium, has chosen to do is allow itself to be used to amplify and facilitate enemy propaganda. Not in the context of reporting on that propaganda, not to foster a serious discussion of that propaganda. But for entertainment. For comedy. For money.
That is aiding and abetting the enemy, and that, in wartime, is a hanging offense.
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I certainly defend Crittenden's right to free speech; he is free to say what he wants no matter how much I disagree. But I think Jules is missing the larger point here. There's not just propaganda films being loaded onto YouTube by insurgent groups and terrorists. There are also films being loaded up by US Soldiers and private military contractors killing Iraqis and insurgents. It's deffinately a two-way street.
There are also videos of improvised explosive devices vaporizing vehicles. The term improvished explosive device in itself is propaganda. These IED's are deadly. Many are Russian made anti-tank mines. After you see one detonate you will understand how violent they are. However the term improvised explosive device conjures up images of Iraqis emptying the gun powder out of rifel shells into a secondary container and wrapping it with a ton of duct tape. Nothing could be further from the truth but you won't see this type of video on your nightly news cast.
But IED is antiseptic; so is collateral damage.
And Jules fails to mention that while there may not be discussion and debate on YouTube, many of the video clips make their way on to blogs where serious discussion does take place.
Jules doesn't come out and say YouTube should be shut down but he does hint that YouTube should be hung for treason. Jules only sees one side apparently. He only sees the propaganda coming out of the insurgent groups in Iraq and Afghanistan. He doesn't see the propaganda on YouTube by the U.S. Military, private military contractors, conservatives, liberals, and politicians.
YouTube is just a medium like any other medium. It can be used for good, for evil, for comedy, for drama, and for plain old crap. The viewer can choose what they wish to watch. It appears Jules would rather live in an world that has been sterilized for his protection; where only one side of an argument is presented.
On a side note it really bothers me that Jules compares YouTube to Tokyo Rose for many, many reasons. For one, the propaganda broadcasts out of Japan never as far as I know allowed the other side of the debate (really the war) a forum in which to speak.
Number two, while Tokyo Rose in one sense is a generic term referring to any female propaganda broadcaster out of Japa, it is most often associated with Iva Toguri D'Aquino. To this day, most people do not realize that:
Iva Toguri D'Aquino (born Ikuko Toguri, July 4, 1916, Los Angeles, California), a United States citizen visiting relatives in Japan at the start of the war. In 1949, perjured testimony led to D'Aquino being convicted of treason by the United States government. She was released after six years, and on January 19, 1977, pardoned by U.S. President Gerald Ford, who also restored her citizenship.
Unable to leave Japan after the start of hostilities, she took work at the Japanese radio show The Zero Hour, using some of her earnings to feed P.O.W.s. She married Felipe D'Aquino, a Portuguese citizen of Japanese-Portuguese descent, in 1945. Later that year, Following Japan's surrender, two reporters offered $250 for the identity of Tokyo Rose. A monetarily tainted identification led to her arrest.
Though she was released when the FBI and the U.S. Army's Counterintelligence Corps found no evidence against her, influential gossip columnist Walter Winchell lobbied against her. Forcibly separated from her husband, she was brought to the U.S., and charged and convicted of treason. Released after six years, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Chicago Tribune reporter Ron Yates found her accusers, who admitted they had lied under oath, claiming pressure from prosecutors. A subsequent Morley Safer report on the television news program 60 Minutes prompted her exoneration by Ford.
