Diamonds don't cause conflicts in Africa, bands of armed thugs do. But you wouldn't know that if you followed the media's slant on "conflict diamonds," which, much like stories on gun control, often blame the object instead of the evil person misusing it.
My colleague Julia Seymour dealt with the media's portrayal of the pet liberal issue in today's Balance Sheet newsletter:
The diamond has come to symbolize love, but in the wake of the film, the news media have been holding it up as a symbol of corruption and carnage.
“It came from the heart of the earth … A stone so rare men will do anything to possess it. And all who touch it are left with blood on their hands,” the “Blood Diamond” trailer said.
It didn’t take long for media accounts to echo the movie trailer.
“[T]hat gift under the tree this holiday may have blood on it. We'll go to Africa where wars are fought over and funded by conflict diamonds,” said CNN anchor John Roberts during “This Week at War” on Dec. 17, 2006.
“[D]iamonds kept the guns and the blood flowing,” stated ABC reporter David Wright during Dec. 13, 2006 “Nightline”
CBS’s Katie Couric asked “How can the very symbol of happily ever after be painted by so much human suffering?” before quipping, “All that glitters is not good.”
Released on Dec. 8, 2006, “Blood Diamond” stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly. It is set in war-torn Sierra Leone in the 1990s and promotes the idea that diamonds were responsible for the conflict. DiCaprio and Hounsou are both up for Academy Awards for their roles in the film.
From its release, the news media treated the fictional anti-diamond-industry movie as fact, ignoring the agenda set by the film’s director Ed Zwick and regularly consulting activists as experts.
Read more here.
Subscribe to The Balance Sheet, the e-mail newsletter of the MRC's Business & Media Institute, here.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
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Comments Policy
best friends
February 14, 2007 - 14:57 ET by acumen"CBS’s Katie Couric asked “How can the very symbol of happily ever after be painted by so much human suffering?”"
But Katie, I thought diamonds were the "very symbol" of a woman's best friend?
Katie is the perfect example of why dogs are man's best friend.
I can't believe, considerin
February 14, 2007 - 15:04 ET by sarcasmoI can't believe, considering how old this article is, everyone still thinks diamonds are all-that-valuable. Diamonds are (highly-compressed & heated) CARBON, folks!! If you want something rare & real & valuable, to continue with the theme of "blame the object" which Ken started-with, google "barbarous relic" and see what happens.
JMR
Okay, the lefties don't want
February 14, 2007 - 15:13 ET by Dave ROkay, the lefties don't want Europeans buying flowers from Africa because it increases air pollution. Now they don't want us buying diamonds because it causes conflict on that same unfortunate continent. By that logic we should stop purchasing coffee beans from Colombia because Juan Valdez now has arthritis. Good grief!
I would submit that the conflicts, poverty and strife that currently exists on the Dark Continent have far more to do with the inherent corruption of the governments involved than with what we do or do not purchase from there. If diamonds did not even exist on that continent, I believe very little would really change.
I hate newspapermen.....I regard them as spies.....If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast. -Gen. William T. Sherman
Well, hey, let's just do the
February 14, 2007 - 21:40 ET by MikeBWell, hey, let's just do the Libs a big favor, and boycott anything and everything that comes from Africa. That'll save transportation carbon costs and thus reduce global warming (as if humankind has anything to do with that). That'll make the poverty even worse, perhaps resulting in the deaths of 10s of millions of Africans. Is that what they really want?
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
That'll make the poverty ev
February 15, 2007 - 06:46 ET by Dave RThat'll make the poverty even worse, perhaps resulting in the deaths of
10s of millions of Africans. Is that what they really want?
Good question, Mike. Sometimes you have to wonder, given the lefties unwavering suppport for all the tin horn dictators in power there. Africa is a text book example of why many governments are a major contributer to poverty in this world.
I hate newspapermen.....I regard them as spies.....If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast. -Gen. William T. Sherman
Any readers, liberals, etc. out there. On the diamond thingy.
February 14, 2007 - 15:25 ET by acaiguanaAny readers, liberals, etc. out there. On the diamond thingy.
Send me a pm and I'll give you an address to which you may mail all of your diamonds, large and small.
I'll spank them and lock them up. That'll teach those pesky diamonds.
I'm just the kind of guy who can do it too.
ACA
...
Hillary Clinton says: "I want to take those profits."
I told myself I was going to
February 14, 2007 - 15:54 ET by bigtimerI told myself I was going to try and get all my work done before sitting down and getting hooked on NB's for goodness knows how long today!
ACA....
You have me laughing so hard at the moment words escape me!
I have no diamonds to send, but I hope some lefties take you seriously...which by the way, I know you are....
Deadly....serious!
diamonds
February 14, 2007 - 17:31 ET by m1xramForget the blood aspect, if that's possible, and the villages of people without hands. Ask yourself why buy non-rare rocks for top dollars? There are rare stones you can purchase without paying the Debeers monopoly. If it wasn't for their ad campaign in the 30s and 40s and their lock on the market, diamonds would be cheap common stones.
Buy rubies.
Or, you could go to Crater of
February 14, 2007 - 21:42 ET by MikeBOr, you could go to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and dig your own. They found a 2 carat diamond there last week.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
I just read this right after
February 14, 2007 - 17:33 ET by msh1973I just read this right after I heard on Sean Hannity that Howard Stern was engaged, he gave his betrothed a 5.5 carat diamond. Somebody better tell the future Mrs. Stern she might be responsible for death and destruction. Too funny! Oh, BTW, on Monday night's episode of CSI Miami they did an episode about this very topic. It turned out that the raw diamonds had been stolen and they were being cut in Miami by young children. Can you believe it? I may not watch that show again. I hate it when my favorite shows pull crap like that.
Lame CSI
February 14, 2007 - 17:57 ET by m1xramThat was a rather lame CSI episode.
A lot of the small stones (1/64 carat) are cut over in Africa by children. They can do 28 faucets in about a minute. You pay $60.
Check out Robert Young Pelton's: The World's Most Dangerous Places. You'll get a kick out of how Jesse Jackson stirs up things in Sierra Leone. I think even Clinton was embarrassed, if that's possible.
"I just read this right
February 14, 2007 - 20:16 ET by Galvanic"I just read this right after I heard on Sean Hannity that Howard Stern was engaged, he gave his betrothed a 5.5 carat diamond. Somebody better tell the future Mrs. Stern she might be responsible for death and destruction."
She's already got enough to worry about marrying Stern. ;-)
Howard said he asked the cu
February 15, 2007 - 02:02 ET by sarcasmoHoward said he asked the custom jeweller about it, who quipped that all his wedding rings involve "conflict diamonds," by definition.
JMR
Galvanic,You are so correct
February 15, 2007 - 08:21 ET by msh1973Galvanic,
You are so correct with that point.
And maybe it is because I jus
February 14, 2007 - 21:42 ET by ucAnd maybe it is because I just upon her death realized her birth last name is the same as mine just many jurisdictions apart? Was Anna Nicole ever in the same room or building as William Jefferson Clinton? It is seeming to much to compute near a week later that giving Clintons grief about a pink Air Force One and possible ties to 9/11 and such suicidal types and their hiding in Hollywood, Florida leaves a pink bombshell of a girl born as a Hogan now past away.
He/she that doesn't learn from Clinton history may be doomed to repeat it even if they thought state laws protected their own marriage vows.
Nancy Pelosi, before you go t
February 14, 2007 - 21:48 ET by ucNancy Pelosi, before you go the way of Hillary, it may be best not to believe the Democrats own hype on how they got in office. Lehrer News Hour tonight can't last in archives as good for your future street rep.. Bush got beat not because of his policies but because you all ran a campaign (ignorantly so) that would have cost him success in greater rights for more oppressed than taking your bait would have gained any of us. Why should people with long history of success in international markets and unified thinking not see people around the world as equally deserving of their taxable income and not just some few of such still living within borders of United States?