The epic stupidity of Euna Lee and Laura Ling
Here in America, citizens and journalists truly take their freedom for granted. We have so much freedom that we have shows like Law and Order that shine a light on the ways that criminals in this country exploit it to get away with crimes.
In a breath-taking display of America-centric ignorance, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters at Al Gore’s Current TV, decided they would go to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which is a complicated propagandistic way of saying dictatorship, to apparently investigate humanitarian crimes in North Korea. After being convicted and sentenced to over 10 years of hard labor, Bill Clinton went to North Korea and negotiated their release. It has been popular in the news to celebrate the return of these two reporters. I will not join the blind hype.
Noble my ass
These two idealists thought it was noble of them to sneak into a authoritarian nation and try to exercise their press freedoms in a country that does not recognize such freedoms. They could have gotten themselves killed, and certainly didn’t help the relations between North Korea and the U.S. If any executives at Current TV knew of this trip, they should be fired immediately.
The second part of this story that should make everyone angry is the former President Bill Clinton using valuable political capital to persuade Kim Jong Il to release these journalists. If you think there’s a chance in hell that Bill Clinton would have made this trip for Fox News journalists, you might need someone to handle your affairs for the rest of your life. He went there solely because of liberal media pressure, pressure from his former V.P Al Gore, and any friends and peers of these two idiots.
I hope that at the very least, their short-lived sentences are enough of a deterrent to other idealist journalists who think it is noble to pull nonsense like this. I doubt these two morons will use the opportunity to warn others, but I look forward to praising them if they do.
Let this be a lesson to all of you who think America is a criminal in the eyes of the world or according to some vague impression of humanitarianism. You don’t have a clue how great you have it here. The notion of a prisoner having more power than the guards is almost entirely unique to America.
These two were lucky they were employed by Al Gore. Otherwise, they’d be pounding rocks in North Korean shithole for the next decade. DON’T go to countries like North Korea and Iran because you think its the right thing to do. You may never come back.