Salon published a piece on Monday that quotes the uber-liberal Noam Chomsky and his thoughts on the film “American Sniper.”
And although Chomsky admits he hasn’t seen the film, it’s crystal clear from Salon’s own reporting that the larger points he’s trying to make while discussing the film are of America’s attitude toward war and what he calls “Obama’s assassination program” (emphasis ours):
Chomsky admits he has not seen the movie, but read many reviews — including laudatory reviews in the New Yorker and New York Times, along with a scathing review of the memoir in BookForum by Newsweek’s Jeff Stein.*
“Getting back to Chris Kyle, he regarded his first kill as a terrorist — this woman who walked in the street,” Chomsky stated after discussing Stein’s review. “But we can’t really attribute that to the mentality of a psychopathic killer, because we’re all tarred by the same brush, insofar as we tolerate or keep silent about official policy.”
“Now, that mentality helps explain why it’s so easy to ignore what is most clearly the most extreme terrorist campaign of modern history — if not ever. Obama’s global assassination campaign, the drone campaign, which officially is aimed at murdering people who are suspected of maybe someday planning to harm us.”
“I’d advise you to read some of the transcripts with drone operators,” Chomsky continued. “They’re harrowing — the guys who are sitting in front of computers in Las Vegas.”
Got that? Chomsky accuses President Obama of running “the most extreme terrorist campaign of modern history,” but that’s not how Salon spins their headline in their tweets promoting the article. You see, in Salon’s opinion, Chomsky “rips” Chris Kyle, not the president. And they really, really want you to know it:
Noam Chomsky rips Chris Kyle and the country's fascination with "American Sniper" http://t.co/XF4w8QUeDd
— Salon (@Salon) January 29, 2015
Noam Chomsky rips Chris Kyle and the country's fascination with "American Sniper" http://t.co/fdRpllIlEq
— Salon (@Salon) January 29, 2015
Noam Chomsky rips Chris Kyle and the country's fascination with "American Sniper" http://t.co/CymA8eu02j
— Salon (@Salon) January 28, 2015
Noam Chomsky rips Chris Kyle and the country's fascination with "American Sniper" http://t.co/6VJ2ZqAZ31
— Salon (@Salon) January 28, 2015
Noam Chomsky rips Chris Kyle and the country's fascination with "American Sniper" http://t.co/6VJ2ZqAZ31
— Salon (@Salon) January 28, 2015
Noam Chomsky rips Chris Kyle and the country's fascination with "American Sniper" http://t.co/Fzmbe0MjGV
— Salon (@Salon) January 28, 2015
Noam Chomsky rips Chris Kyle and the country's fascination with "American Sniper" http://t.co/4RZFmo0whE
— Salon (@Salon) January 28, 2015
Noam Chomsky rips Chris Kyle and the country's fascination with "American Sniper" http://t.co/RDhpizapOA pic.twitter.com/v41qUyYPsx
— Salon (@Salon) January 27, 2015
But would Salon get as many clicks form an article they’ve re-tweeted now 8 times if it had an honest headline, something like, “Noam Chomsky rips Obama as the leader of the most extreme terror campaign of modern history”?
Probably not.
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