Insight Into A Liberal's Take on Genocide

Even at the Huffington Post, for sure an attempt to create a liberal voice in the media, Arianna and others criticize mainstream American media for its obsession with celebrity content over substance. However, I do not see a lot of productive interest in this genocide among the editors and readers of the Huffington Post.

It was amusing to wake up to the grimacing and foolish Preisdent Bush trying to open a locked door in China this morning, and know that 402 readers thought it worthy of comment. I did enjoy and appreciate John Cusack’s post last week. I was interested in Arianna and Cusack’s dinner with Chalabi and amused by the photos of Arianna’s celebrity-packed Yahoo event. But if the Huffington Post cannot make genocide center-stage, and its readers can rarely be bothered to comment on this complicated and appalling tragedy, I would suggest that it is not only 2-year-old Zahra who will be forgotten, but much of humanity.

I am no Kristof, but we must start to do something about this and other genocides if the world is to ever become a better, fairer, safer and more humane place. The Huffington Post and its readers should start to pay more attention and care. It may seem remote and “over there” to a lot of people, but if the Katrina tragedy showed nothing else it was that the comforts and liberties we take for granted in America are built on a house of cards.

Welcome to the party pal. The reason that the HuffPo can't make genocide center stage is the same reason that the NYT can't put it on the front page.

The editors in charge simply don't think that it is newsworthy and that it won't sell papers.

Why is that?

President Clinton and the world failed to act in 1994 to stop the Rwandan genocide. 800,000 people died while the world twiddled their collective thumb. Lots of handwringing ensued and Clinton eventually gave an apology for the inaction of the world, and the US.

President Bush and the world has failed to act since 2003 to stop the genocide in Dafur, Sudan. Hundreds of thousands of people have been slaughtered and nearly 2 million more have been displaced. The US has assisted the African Union with logistical support to provide peacekeepers to the region, but the numbers are woefully inadequate.

Kristof is a lone voice at the New York Times who thinks that coverage of the genocide is a worthy subject at the "paper of record." Nowhere else in the paper will you see pictures of the dead or dying in Sudan or the horror stories from the survivors.

That is a sad state of affairs. And it is a telling insight into what the editorial staff at the Times considers newsworthy for the paper.

Considering that many other newspapers and media outlet take their cues from the Times, this spillover effect results in a collective indifference about the plight in Dafur. That Ms. Wells thinks that this is an important issue for future coverage is a significant step, but what is needed is greater awareness by the media.

Or avoid the media altogether. I've been blogging the Dafur situation since last year, and have posted numerous articles both here and at my former publishing site Suite101.com. Many others are blogging the situation as well - including Dafur Genocide and Save Dafur.

Heck, I'd settle for everyone blaming Bush for failing to step in and stopping the genocide, if only to get people to understand that we're witnessing yet another genocide that the world community was supposed to never let happen again. Oh, and to get the Administration to take more aggressive action to stop the genocide.

"Never again"? Hah! It's happening all too frequently.

And what's left in the rubble is another failed state that can and will become home to terrorist activities in the future. Stopping genocide isn't just a moral and just thing to do, but it also affects US national security.