According to a European Commission survey of 7500 EU residents 59% deemed Israel "a threat to peace in the world.” It reflected that the Dutch were the most skittish, which comes as a surprise to everyone in the know because the Dutch have always been incredibly pro-Israeli. "This is the strangest poll I've ever seen. The Dutch have always been very pro-Israel and so I ask myself how can this possibly be?" said Ben Van Der Velde, European editor for the Rotterdam-based newspaper Handelsblad. This poll proves only one thing, that the American media epidemic of editorializing the news and its manipulation of the facts has reached Europe’s media outlets.

We here in the United States have become almost immune to the daily assault on our integrity by the mainstream media. Many people here have literally shut off the televisions and radios, put down the papers and the magazines, and have searched out places on the Internet that comes straight from the source for their daily diet of what’s happening and information. The reason they have turned away from the talking heads is simple, the talking heads haven’t done their research, are reporting rumor and innuendo, have become whores for the almighty rating and have moved away from legitimate journalism only to offer editorialized, ideological propaganda.

Proof that the outbreak of this twaddle has reached foreign shores is evident in the recent EU poll which states, among other things, that Israel, the country that has found itself under almost constant attack in one form or another from its inception, is the number one threat to peace in the world today. The idea is absolutely ludicrous. To point the finger of blame at Israel when Palestinian squatters with no legitimate claim to land that Israel won in a defensive conflict with Jordan and Egypt strap explosives to their bodies and walk into civilian location to maim and murder is absurd. If striking back at those who try to murder you and take your land is to be the number one threat to peace in the world then Britain was the number one threat to world peace when the Nazis came to call.

Perhaps it is the fault of the Americans. Perhaps if we held our publications and media organizations to a higher standard when it came to reporting the truth such idiotic polls wouldn’t reflect such slanderous claptrap. Perhaps if there were more civic pride in each of us, enough to make us less hungry for the rumor-mill, less hungry for unsubstantiated sensationalism, enough to condemn those who offer less than factual accounts of events that take place throughout the world this infection of manipulated stupidity wouldn’t have reached the shores of Europe.

The challenge should be put to the mainstream media worldwide to try and sell papers, ad time and subscriptions, to pursue ratings, by being the most reliable outlet for the complete story, the most dependable outlet for the truth. I guarantee, if there were a news organization that prided itself on the truth and a thorough researched story without editorializing it the world community would make it the number one news outlet on the planet. For now we are stuck with the putrid propaganda of The New York Times and al Jazeera, the politically motivated tactics of The LA Times and al Arabia, and the rest of the media outlets that care more about selling papers, garnering ratings and editorializing than reporting the truth free from rumor, innuendo and editorialized ego.

Today, the mainstream media all over the world is the number one threat to world peace. I don’t need a poll to prove me right on that one.

Frank Salvato is a political media consultant and the managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He is a contributing writer for The Washington Dispatch, GOPUSA, OpinionEditorials, Men’s News Daily, Canada Free Press & AmericanDaily. His pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and international publications.