How the Media Trashes War Heroes' Legacy
The hypocrisy of praising fallen service members while helping anti-democratic movements
Every Memorial Day, the media praises the heroism of slain U.S. service members, especially those who served in World War II. But these reports are deeply hypocritical. Legacy media are fueling the kinds anti-democratic movements that U.S. troops fought against. In fact, all year round, big news agencies legitimize a movement with roots in Nazism.
In the new episode of They Stand Corrected, what the media must do to honor fallen service members.
‘The Arsenal of Democracy’
You’ll hear powerful words from FDR (President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) a year before Pearl Harbor, as he explains why the nation must support fellow democracies in their wars for survival. And he calls out infiltrators at home who support enemies of democracy, including those who cloak their agendas under alleged anti-war sentiments.
His words carry chilling resonance today. They speak to why Ukraine and Israel must win their wars decisively, and why anti-democratic radicals on the far right and far left must lose their battles for the soul of America. At one point, FDR discusses those who want the United States to befriend Axis powers.
“Some of them even suggest that we should imitate the methods of the dictatorships. But Americans never can and never will do that.”
Little did he know that 85 years later, we’d be fighting against authoritarian instincts from a president who has talked about his admiration of dictators.
The Media Ignores History
In World War II, tens of millions of civilians were killed. Huge numbers of civilians are virtually always killed in wars. You wouldn’t know that from the media, which only realizes that civilian deaths exist when it’s a chance to blame Israel.
But the hypocrisy runs deeper. The modern Islamist movement — which includes Iran and its proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis — is based on a mixture of centuries of Muslim attacks against Jews and Nazism. U.S. troops fought Islamist groups that were part of the Third Reich.
Has any news agency told you this? Almost surely not, because it conflicts with their narrative that these groups are victims of a big bad democracy. In hiding this reality, the media fuels terrorism — including attacks here at home.
Also in the new episode, another president’s warning about the dangers of the “military-industrial complex” and why a “knowledgeable citizenry” is so important. That’s what the media is supposed to help build.
Plus beautiful Memorial Day music, including a moving performance by one service member standing alone in a huge national cemetery. And I discuss my trip to Nuremberg, including the site of Hitler’s hellish rallies immortalized in propaganda films. (More on that here.)
To all U.S. service members who died during times of war and peace, thank you. I hope the media will take this to heart and start carrying on the legacy of the fight for democracy -- to lead the free world.
JL
P.S. Paid subscribers, here’s part of this episode for you:
Josh: I think all the time about U.S. service members who paved the way for the freedoms we have in the United States. For my freedom to do this, to communicate with you, unafraid that the government will come punish me or that my neighbors will turn me into some Gestapo or KGB or Islamist force and try to kill me for it. This freedom was achieved through war. And these hate mongers downplaying the threats to democracy on the far right and the far left, they are pushing us toward the downfall of this gift that service members gave us…