Do you ever read articles from VOX? I do as part of an effort to see how the very liberal media is covering the news. In case you don't know, VOX is a relatively new venture formed to "report the news" with a decidedly progressive slant. Its biggest name is Ezra Klein, who formerly worked at the Washington Post and who left that position when the Post refused to fund a separate media outlet just for his views.
This afternoon, I happened upon a rather typical VOX report. This one came under the following headline: "Why Egypt Just Freed Former Dictator Hosni Mubarak". The first sentence of the article is "All remaining charges against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have been dismissed by the court hearing his case. He is free." The article goes on to explain that the court was basically forced by the current "authoritarian ruler" of Egypt, president Sisi, to free Mubarak.
It is an amazing article in view of the truth. As I write this, Mubarak is NOT free. In fact, he is in the second year of a three year prison term for embezzlement while he was in office. Neither that conviction nor Mubarak's prison term was affected by the recent court decision. Mubarak is in prison and will be there for the remainder of his term. On top of this, Mubarak is a very sick man who is unlikely to survive the next year and a half. Most likely, he will die in prison.
What actually happened is that the Egyptian appellate court threw out the conviction of Mubarak in the trial court on the grounds of legal defects in the trial. I have no way of knowing if the Egyptian judges who overturned the conviction were "pressured" by president Sisi, but, of course, neither does the reporter who wrote about why the judges made their decision. In fact, we know that the Egyptian government says that it is going to appeal this latest court order. It might be a ruse, but it ought to be mentioned in the story at a minimum.
It still amazes me that super liberal news sites like VOX don't even attempt to report the actual facts. They just report their own beliefs and prejudices as if they were facts. Just to be clear, let me report that it is not difficult to learn the truth about Mubarak's continuing imprisonment. It took me about two minutes of searching at the site of Al Ahram, Egypt's largest news outlet, to get a full description of the current status of Mubarak and the fact that he will not be released. I guess if you write for VOX, spending two minutes checking the facts is just too much to do, particularly when you already "know" what must have happened because your ideology calls for it to be true.
This afternoon, I happened upon a rather typical VOX report. This one came under the following headline: "Why Egypt Just Freed Former Dictator Hosni Mubarak". The first sentence of the article is "All remaining charges against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have been dismissed by the court hearing his case. He is free." The article goes on to explain that the court was basically forced by the current "authoritarian ruler" of Egypt, president Sisi, to free Mubarak.
It is an amazing article in view of the truth. As I write this, Mubarak is NOT free. In fact, he is in the second year of a three year prison term for embezzlement while he was in office. Neither that conviction nor Mubarak's prison term was affected by the recent court decision. Mubarak is in prison and will be there for the remainder of his term. On top of this, Mubarak is a very sick man who is unlikely to survive the next year and a half. Most likely, he will die in prison.
What actually happened is that the Egyptian appellate court threw out the conviction of Mubarak in the trial court on the grounds of legal defects in the trial. I have no way of knowing if the Egyptian judges who overturned the conviction were "pressured" by president Sisi, but, of course, neither does the reporter who wrote about why the judges made their decision. In fact, we know that the Egyptian government says that it is going to appeal this latest court order. It might be a ruse, but it ought to be mentioned in the story at a minimum.
It still amazes me that super liberal news sites like VOX don't even attempt to report the actual facts. They just report their own beliefs and prejudices as if they were facts. Just to be clear, let me report that it is not difficult to learn the truth about Mubarak's continuing imprisonment. It took me about two minutes of searching at the site of Al Ahram, Egypt's largest news outlet, to get a full description of the current status of Mubarak and the fact that he will not be released. I guess if you write for VOX, spending two minutes checking the facts is just too much to do, particularly when you already "know" what must have happened because your ideology calls for it to be true.
No comments:
Post a Comment