-Caveat Lector- http://www.aim.org/publications/briefings/2002/08feb2002.html
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Media Ignore Walker Family Trauma By Angela Zemla February 8, 2002 Receive FREE updates by email: Back to Main Page ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- In recent weeks, the media have shown their commitment to political correctness and "sensitivity" to the homosexual image by ignoring a potentially key event in the life of John Walker Lindh. Walker, a 20-year-old American who was captured near Mazar-e Sharif late last year while fighting with the Taliban, has been indicted on numerous terrorism charges and is now awaiting trial here in the United States. In their attempts to explain how a young American could take up arms against his homeland, the media have extensively researched and reported everything about Walker's life that they could discover, with one important exception. Most of the media have consistently failed to reveal reports that when Walker was 16 years old, his father left his family to live with another man. On December 18, San Francisco Examiner columnist P.J. Corkery revealed that when Frank Lindh divorced his wife in 1997, it was to move in with a male companion. "Sources close to the family say the father's turn of life from married man to modern gay man startled and flustered the 16-year-old," Corkery wrote. Frank Lindh has declined to answer reporters' questions about his sexual orientation. The man identified as his companion, Bill Jones, told the Examiner that Lindh had rented an apartment from him and that the two were not domestic partners. Ever since Walker was first captured in Afghanistan, the media have questioned how, as Newsweek put it, "a bright, quiet kid from the heart of hot-tub country… could go from hip-hop to holy war." Reporters have highlighted almost every detail of Walker's life, trying to explain to their readers why he took the particular path in life that he did. Walker was the "Taliban next door," a Time article explains. "[He] was a quiet California kid… who played the flute, had close relationships rather than a big circle of friends, and told people that he wanted to help the poor when he grew up… Apparently it was The Autobiography of Malcolm X that inspired Walker to convert to Islam." "[Was he] just an impressionable young scholar swept up in a movement he did not fully understand?" writers at the Washington Post wondered. "Or was he a teenage rebel with a cause, renouncing the have-it-all, progressive suburban culture from which he came?" Newsweek accused Walker of rebelling against freedom: "He wanted to be told precisely how to dress, to eat, to think, to pray. He wanted a value system of absolutes, and he was willing to go to extreme lengths to find it." In all their various explanations of how Walker ended up fighting for terrorists, however, most in the media have ignored the impact his father's reported change in sexual orientation might have had on the teenager. "If Lindh had left his wife for another woman and his son were traumatized, it would certainly be discussed in the media," columnist Michelangelo Signorile recently wrote. "So if Lindh did leave his wife for a man and it affected Walker, it should similarly be reported on." There are many signs that indicate Walker was deeply affected by the breakup of his family. Not long after his father left, Walker dropped his last name, Lindh, and began using his mother's maiden name. According to The Daily News, Walker made anti-gay comments on the Internet, criticizing Disney World in Florida for holding a "gay day" event and disapproving of an Internet posting that called for the recognition of gay Muslims. Perhaps most telling of all, Walker became deeply involved in a sect of Islam that considers homosexuality and adultery abominable sins punishable by death. Despite the relevance of this information for understanding Walker, only a few non-gay publications, such as the New York Post and the National Enquirer, have reported it. Apparently, many in the media feel that otherwise relevant news must be buried if it brings up homosexuality. This may not be surprising, considering the increase in the number of gay reporters in recent years. Richard Burke, chief political correspondent for the New York Times, disclosed a few years ago, "I remember coming and wondering if there were... any gay reporters there. Now...there are times when you look at the front-page meeting and... literally three-quarters of the people deciding what's on the front page are not-so-closeted homosexuals." By their heightened sensitivity to this perceived victim group, however, the media have given the public an incomplete understanding of Walker's past. The consequences of their omission go beyond the present situation. "Ultimately the result is not just an under-informed public, but ever-shrinking credibility," Harry Stein recently noted in the Weekly Standard. "[It feeds] the perception that the media are more concerned with promoting a politically correct worldview than with truth." Angela Zemla is an intern at Accuracy in Media. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
