Biased Newspapers everywhere and not a page to read....

I had a conversation with my mom while walking on the streets of Brooklyn today about the bias in the news. It was sparked by my mom checking out the headline on the front page of the New York Post. I can't remember what it was, but it was one of those typical trivial domestic stories that people prefer to read instead of what's going on in, say, Iraq.

Naturally I usually feel that the New York Times (my personal favorite) gives no bias. But as some of my republican or libertarian friends point out, it is still biased and I notice myself sometimes that it isn't giving all views on a story. But what gets me about these friends or even just anyone who points that out is that they seem to think that their favorite newspapers are bias-free, which, ofcourse, they are far from.
Take the Post for example. Its most obvious bias is one for trivial domestic stories such as, say, the Michael Jackson trial or the story today (which I now remember) which was about a girl who didn't want to go on a plane, her dad convincing her by going on it with her and the plane ironically crashing. What is worst about this bias is that there are so many other things going on the world that are way much more important than a girl who had a gut instinct about a plane trip. Big deal--over 1630 people have died so far in Iraq now. Who's still keeping track of that besides The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS? Shit is still going on in Iraq and people aren't paying attention, much less trying to find out why it's going on.
Now, back to the Times. Of course it may not show some sides of the story, but what it does do that I like is puts the real important events right on the front page where I can quickly see them. Then, when I have time, I can look inside for other things, like domestic stories or interesting and kinda funny (but trivial) shite.

I just find the whole lack of interest in the world around us in much of the American public disgusting. We've gotten so accustomed to being focused on ourselves that we have forgotten that shit happens elsewhere, too, and we need to be aware of why it happens. For instance, how many people actually know the reason Al Quaeda performed the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center? Or how many people question their own knowledge and demand to know more about it? It so happens that Al Quaeda is not primarily against the U.S. They are against the Saudi Royal Family because they feel the Saudis have strayed from the fundamentalist Islam they promised to live by in the earlier part of the 20th century. The reason they attacked us is because we are supporting the Saudis through buying their oil. They want that we stop supporting them, and the only way we will pay attention is if we are snapped out of our ignorance and bliss with a catastrophe.

As a note to those who read this, you will be thinking now, "Oh my god... he's not sympathizing with the terrorists is he?" Kinda, but I'm not a terrorist myself. I feel that in order to understand why people do things, we can't label them as inhumane--we need to put ourselves in their shoes and really understand what it is they want to accomplish.