Is Foley That Big A Deal?

(CBS)  CBS News Sunday Morning contributor Ben Stein wishes the media would spend as much attention on genocide in Africa as it has on the Mark Foley page scandal.

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Naturally, like every other American parent, I am troubled indeed by the revelations about Mark Foley sending sexually explicit e-mails to teenage Congressional pages.

But I am stunned about the amount of attention the subject is getting in the national media. It's 24/7 on all the cable news stations, all over major front pages, and leading the network news. I agree it's a big story, but let's put it in perspective:

There's a war on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. Something roughly like of 1,200 civilians each day are being raped and or murdered or dying of disease or hunger in that war. Millions have died, and very rarely does anyone in the media mention it.

In Darfur, Sudan, there is an ongoing genocide, taking thousands of lives every day, while the world does nothing, and I mean nothing.

The security situation in Afghanistan, which we thought we had conquered a few years ago, is collapsing. Half of the country is enemy infested. Our commanders there are begging–yes, begging–for more troops, planes, and helicopters, and their pleas are going unanswered. The Taliban, which sheltered Osama bin Laden, is resurgent all over the nation. If we lose there–and we are losing — Osama bin Laden has beaten us — again.

If Afghanistan falls to the Taliban, Pakistan will likely fall to the Islamic fanatics in that country. This would be a catastrophe indeed, since Pakistan has a large arsenal of nuclear weapons. But nowhere is this gathering disaster mentioned except on egghead shows.

Call me crazy. But while e-mails about gay sex to a minor are important if they come from a Congressman, aren't 1,200 lives a day in Africa important? They're just as important as you and I are. Isn't the likely victory of a terrorist movement in Afghanistan and the possible emergence of a fanatic-led nuclear Pakistan important?

The Foley story is a big story, but in the interest of pursuing a sex scandal we are ignoring matters of life and death for the whole planet. Countries that don't know what is life threatening and what is not do not last. I am sorry to say, that's us.
Commentary By Ben Stein

cuymag and uvolks2 - We all 'feel your pain'. What I want to know is...when are you going to say something?

cuymag...Don't be too hard on the "compassionate conservative". Afer all it was cc's such as Martin Luther King, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony that made major advances in women's rights and the rights of minorities...all registered Republicans in their time.

Take a look at American political history from the Civil war going forward...you may be unpleasantly surprised?

[Cuymag]

uvolks2 nailed it: Ben Stein only pretends interest in the problems of others when it serves his rightist agenda-- in this case, as a distraction from the legal, moral, and ethical bankruptcy of today's Republican Party. Yet another example of why "compassionate conservative" is an oxymoron.

[uvolks2]

It was a big deal to you Republicans when Clinton was accused of it. You are a fool if you think this will be simply swept under the rug.

[mkafer-2009]

I agree that these issues are more important than the Foley story. However, I'd like to make two points:

First, what happened and didn't happen in the Foley matter is important. If leadership was covering for a member rather than protecting children, that's a big deal indeed.

Second, I'd be hard pressed to remember when Ben Stein thought any of these other issues were important enough to be the topic of his commentaries. Seems to me he tends to be more interested in his tax burden than the hardships of life in the Congo.

ainttaken...Now, you're shooting me!

You always have to base your arguments on the message...otherwise there is nothing to intelligently debate.

Is the story accurate or not...if not, then show me (with facts) why not?

The messenger can be from Mars as far as I care.

I think you're 'feelng' this more than getting it...Uh oh, I think I just I just fired a shot across the bow...sorry.

[vipaka]

Sooo--Mark Foley is the hot of this scandal now. Mark Foley is a republican of now. Tom Foley was a democrat of then. I was of a page's age, but not a page, when Tom Foley came into congress in 1965. So I thought to myself hey, how could dg miller 13 could have known that I was of a page's name way back then, so I voiced this back to (CBS on report a comment). What came back to me, not by CBS, but on the same message board was "...call you by your first time." You mean "first name". Nobody could have known this information but the (comment report board). And my son's name is Page.
My son, Page, was of a page's age when Tom Foley was speaker of the house. No one could have known any of this information unless it was an inside job. Look at the numbers used by dgmiller13 and finny06. Read the comments of jason bellini intently, then read what I have just posted.

Harrison3653...the America you want back never existed - there is always a cost to consider where freedom/liberty is involved (usually in human lives).

You may be thinking of Amerika? You know, the one where Marxism thrives and is alive and well...Oops, it's not here either. Your insensitivity to what matters went out with the 90's (thank goodness). Just ask any Bolshevik.

I do intend to vote...thank's for the reminder!

[bragova]

The newspapers and networks know what Americans are interested in--titillating scandal. (Americans are only mildly interested in dying Americans, and they're certainly not interested in dying Africans.)

vipaka...I checked out the article and saw your comments at that site...Soooo....???