By Frank Moher
In my post of a few days ago, I asked some questions of CBC and Maclean’s pundit Andrew Coyne, about his answers to a 9/11 Truther after a television taping. I said I’d e-mail him a link to the article (did) and advertise it on a few sites, including his own (did). I think I’ll stop waiting for him to reply. He’s still welcome to, of course; the Comment link is below.
Again, let’s give Coyne credit for sticking around to engage his interlocutor, rather than making like Elvis and leaving the building, as Gregg and Hébert did. Still, his responses were vapid, and characteristic of what’s wrong with the mainstream journalistic approach to 9/11.
It’s easy enough to dismiss his first argument: that the chances that “all of the people who’d have to be involved” in a conspiracy could be kept quiet and on side are inconsiderable. If any or all elements of 9/11 were a CIA or Mossad or Pakistani ISI operation, rogue or otherwise (and there are reasons to suspect all three), thinking you’re doing the right thing and/or fear of being killed would be quite enough to keep you quiet. And we’re not talking thousands, or even hundreds of people here, not even to bring down the buildings, which could have been prepped by a handful of people over a course of months or even years.
I remain agnostic about what brought those buildings down, but there are plenty of reasons to keep wondering, and to want a new, proper investigation. Mr. Coyne, however, is done wondering (if he ever started). And why? Because “people whose judgment I trust have looked at this in some detail and don’t find it credible.”
This is journalistic thin gruel indeed. He doesn’t say he’s looked into it himself and decided it’s goofy. No, he says he’s let others form his opinion for him. One wonders: when Coyne wants to express a view on, say, Conservative tax policy, does he phone up a few people and ask them to tell him what he thinks? No? Then why is this his approach to the most formative event of this young century?
Or is he simply not the inquiring type? This is possible. As I mentioned previously, I occupied an office across from Andrew Coyne for a few months, while working as an editor at the late Saturday Night magazine. I hadn’t been in Toronto for a few years, and was genuinely shocked at the numbers of homeless on the streets. One day I asked Coyne why he thought this had happened. I thought perhaps he’d allow that the conservative fiscal policies for which he and others had been plumping for years, successfully, might have contributed to the problem. Or maybe he’d offer some insight that hadn’t occurred to me.
But he didn’t know. He just didn’t know why people were sleeping in doorways all over his city. Just had no idea.
Well. Either way — whether Coyne lets others make up his mind for him or just isn’t the sort to ask pertinent questions in the first place — it leaves him in an untenable position. When he writes, as he did last year in the National Post, that if Canada pulls out of Afghanistan “the reality is that . . . the gap will have to be filled by the countries that are doing it now,” he skips blithely over the fact that perhaps nobody should be fighting there at all, the whole mission being premised on false information. Yes, the Taliban are nasty, etc., but we are not there because the Taliban are nasty; we’re there because they supposedly sheltered Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attack that he supposedly was behind.
Only, the Taliban offered to cooperate in the prosecution of bin Laden if given some evidence that he was involved in the attacks, which bin Laden disowned. Only, Mr. Coyne may not know these things because “people” have told him otherwise, or believe them because “people” have told him not to. Instead, as the woman in the video that started all this points out, he and his colleagues “adhere to the official narrative” whenever they write about Afghanistan. It is not, as Mme. Hébert would have it, that they “do not have enough experts” to tell them what happened. Rather, they chose a long time ago to believe the government’s “experts,” and leave it at that.
If journalists like these had been working the Watergate beat, Richard Nixon would have served out his time in office, because they’d have accepted his assurances that he wasn’t a crook. Andrew Coyne is still welcome to tell us who advised him that alternative theories regarding 9/11 aren’t credible, but it really doesn’t matter what he says: the problem is that he’s outsourced his ability to think for himself in the first place. If it were just a matter of the latest government scandal, it might not matter. Given that it’s a matter that has killed over a million people and reshaped our world, it does.
These people have all been completely discredited on everything they’ve said since Bush II took the office.
Remember when they said Paul Martin was a political Juggernaut who would rule for 1000 years ?
It’s their job to be wrong, and they’re well paid for it.
Pigs are chickens and snakes are ducks, anyone who says otherwise is a conspiracy theorist.
Thanks Frank,
Perhaps you could forward an invite to them to an event I’m hosting this w/e in Walkerton.
Rethinking 9/11- Open Social Justice Forum:
JUNE 29 & 30, 2008 at Victoria Jubilee Hall, Walkerton ON
The events of September 11, 2001 have changed the course of history, launching and sustaining the Global War on Terror.
Iraq and Afghanistan wars of aggression have caused the deaths of over one million civilians and thousands of soldiers, caused millions to flee their homes and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
These events have from the beginning been shrouded in controversy and a growing movement of people around the world have been bravely calling for a serious and thorough investigation.
WERE WE DECEIVED? COMPLACENT? APATHETIC? . . .COMPLICIT?
Please join us at Walkerton’s Victoria Jubilee Hall on June 29th & 30th as peace-loving and truth-seeking academics critically examine the events of 9/11 in this public forum. There is no admission cost.
JUNE 29TH – 1pm – 6pm : Screening of documentaries
Speakers – SCIENTIFIC ANOMALIES
7pm – 9:45pm: Graeme MacQueen and Tony Szamboti
World Trade Center Towers and WTC 7
9:45pm – 10:30pm: Q & A
JUNE 30TH – 4pm – 6pm : Screening of documentary
Speakers – BARRIERS TO TRUTH
6:30pm – 9:45: Michael Truscello
The 9/11 Commission Report and the Spiral of Silence
Michael Keefer
The Barriers to Serious Thought about 9/11
Barrie Zwicker
The barriers upheld and enforced by Government and Corporate Media
9:45pm – 10:30pm: Q & A
Barrie Zwicker -Canadian journalist who has worked among others, for the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and Vision TV. The first journalist in the world to deeply question the official story of 9/11 on national TV. In March 2002 he produced the video The Great Deception, in 2004 directed the six day International Citizens’ Inquiry Into 9/11 at The University of Toronto and produced the DVD The Great Conspiracy: The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw and is author of Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-Up of 9/11. He’s an environmentalist and long distance cyclist. He and his wife Jean, born in Owen Sound, gave up car ownership in 1966
Graeme MacQueen – received his Ph.D. in Asian religion and literature from Harvard University. Now retired, he taught at McMaster University in Canada for almost thirty years. He was founding Director of McMaster’s Centre for Peace Studies and directed peace-building projects in several war zones, including Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. He is a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice
Tony Szamboti – received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University. Prior to that he worked as a machinist and manufacturing engineer in industry, and as an aircraft mechanic in the U.S. Navy. Since 1990 he has worked as a design engineer in industry, performing structural and thermal design, analysis, and testing to ensure survivability of antennas and equipment for use on ships, aircraft, spacecraft, and communication towers. He is a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice and Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth
Michael Keefer – professor of English at the University of Guelph and former president of the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English. Published widely on early modern literature and philosophy, and has spoken on issues of 9/11 evidence at conferences in Mexico, Germany, Finland and Sweden, as well as in Canada.
Michael Truscello – has a Ph.D. in English, teaches media studies, and has a research interest in 9/11
John Gorman – Patriotic Canadian lawyer who will share some insights into the North American Union and the Security and Prosperity Partnership as well as inform us about Canada week events in Owen Sound hosted by the Owen Sound Free Press and the Grey-Bruce Chapter of the Council of Canadians
For more information, feel free to contact:
Dr. Paul McArthur at: 519-881-4827/spmcarthur@gmail.com or
Josh Benninger, White Rose CoffeeHouse at: 519-889-0181/josh_benninger@hotmail.com
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