Council on Foreign Relations magazine warns against reporting on ISIS success
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an influential organization which publishes Foreign Affairs “a multiplatform media organization with a print magazine, a website, a mobile site, various apps and social media feeds, an event business, and more” notes Newsbusters before outing a new directive on ISIS reporting – Don’t talk about their successes.
Noting the work of Patrick Poole at PJ Media on the CFR article “How to Interpret the Victory in Ramadi” Don’t Aid ISIS:
… SILENCE THE ALARM
Alarmist analyses of Ramadi aren’t just wrong, they’re dangerous. By inaccurately interpreting the takeover as an indication that ISIS is on the rise, commentators are playing directly into the group’s narrative. ISIS cultivates the perception of momentum and strength to convince foreign fighters and other jihadist organizations to join, whether in Syria and Iraq or in other theaters such as Libya and Yemen, where it hopes to expand its footprint.
The group has presented a victorious message even when it has experienced battlefield losses, particularly through social media. Analysts’ amplification of this message only works to ISIS’ advantage and to the detriment of the coalition fighting it.
In the wake of ISIS overtaking Ramadi:
Despite what it may seem, the Islamic State is not on the rise. http://t.co/xoOb96gSfr pic.twitter.com/j215udOwHM
— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) June 2, 2015
Newsbusters points to the disproportionate coverage and glorification of protests against the Iraq war a decade ago, where the goal was to have the U.S. withdraw and lose, the irony of two writers at a left-leaning publication pleading with politicians, pundits and reporters not to give aid and comfort to the enemy which they (we hope) believe must be defeated is more than a little hard to take.”
This is just typical of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). They are a status quo, inside-the-box, conventional organization that forwards an unimaginative, brute force, and blunt foreign policy agenda. Specifically, their agenda and foreign policy advice is what created ISIS (the deep Sunni/Shiia/Kurd Iraqi government divisions), and previously led to the disastrous preventative invasion of Iraq. It just adds icing to the cake that they now think the problem is honest reporting on their failures, rather than the mismanagement that led to the bad situation we are now in.
I highly recommend that they pull their heads out of their VIP behinds and go to DARPA for solutions, instead of relying upon the same “thinking” that created the problems in the first place.
Great comment, thanks Brad