Hamas Ho-Hum, part 2

Just a quick thought. Why do news reports continue to refer to the Hamas election victory as 'surprising' and 'a complete surprise' and 'landslide' ?

First of all, it wasn't a landslide. A landslide is winning 525 US Electoral votes to 13. Ronald Reagan had a landslide in 1984. Hamas winning 56% of parliament is not a landslide. It is a majority, true. But if winning a majority constitutes a landslide, then George W Bush won a landslide victory in 2004.

Secondly, anyone who had even a passing knowledge of Palestinian politics over the past few years knows that Hamas was far more popular than Fatah. In part because they bothered to listen to the people and attempted to address their concerns for social services in the form of health clinics, day cares and poor houses while the government lined its pockets with the foreign aid that was meant for the people. Not at all surprising. Not nearly a shock. Any sober assessment of the situation pre-election would have recognized the reality on the ground. The fact that the media is shocked and surprised comes as no surprise at all since it has been evident to me for quite awhile that the media lives in its own self-created reality. A reality, I might add, that is bizarrely disconnected from the world I live in.

Technorati: media, hamas, palestine, Middle East, Israel, Terrorism.

As told by Christo on January 28, 2006 @ 22:05

 FILED UNDER: Media-istas , Politico , Shaking Head in Disbelief , Stupid People
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