President Obama has received support and opposition from all sides - Republicans, Democrats, Americans, and international officials and citizens - since announcing his stance on the United States' potential role in the Syrian conflict. Many question his objective for interference as well as the impact on American lives. The media, particularly Fox News and CNN, permitted representatives to speak either for or against the President's position, as depicted in the videos below.
Fox News
Senator Rand Paul (R), believes that if the U.S. goes into Syria on the side of rebels, we, in fact would be supporting Al-Qaeda. He had even been cited to consider delay voting on the matter by implementing a filibuster.
Senator Paul states that he believe the President has attempted to prove he can go beyond the law and take matters into his own hands, outside the realms of what the Constitution allows. This video depicts the President, his position on U.S. interference in Syria, and international authority as hazardous to Americans.
Chris Wallace of Fox News seems to be in agreement, asking few questions to deter from Senator Paul's summation. They both allude to all rebels being members of Al-Qaeda.
CNN
Secretary of State John Kerry (D) and Former National Security Adviser Stephan Hadley believes that not all rebels are part of Al-Qaeda and supports U.S. involvement in the Syrian conflict on some levels. There are many core groups that are Democrat-linked and the U.S. can and should be working with them during the conflict, according to Hadley.
Again, John Berman of ABC News did not press Hadley on his perspective, similarly to the Fox News interview conducted by Chris Wallace. Berman and Hadley illustrated the President's decision as being a sound one; however, they did possess an underlying tone of not agreeing with sending troops in Syria and U.S. involvement should be more diplomatic.
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The agenda on behalf of Fox News and CNN is to only rely particular information to the public in support of their own initiatives. Fox News portray the President as incompetent overall, as well as his position on the level of U.S. involvement in the Syrian conflict as a push to exhibit powering beyond his intended scope. Yet, CNN backs the President's political measures rather than his methods, per se, and upholds his level of authority. Amid their differences, both reporting mediums agree the fact remains that President Obama and Congress will execute military or diplomatic action. They also concur that some rebel groups are part of Al-Qaeda.
Either way in my opinion, both agendas must be scrutinized by the public. We must conduct a comparative analysis to weed through facts and assumptions to make more informed verdicts on international affairs affecting American politics and our communities.
Please comment on this post and respond to the related poll below (the poll closes 10/27/2013 and will be deleted once votes are tallied).
I have a very tough time with this story. Seeing those images is really difficult and to see them politicized by both sides is upsetting. Each side has their own opinion and because it is such a moral issue I feel as though people are more wiling to disregard ethics and best practices to get their point across.
ReplyDeleteNicely done, Nicole.