On Jul 10, 2:59 am, "Tchiowa"
hotmail.com> wrote:>> On Jul 8, 1:22 am, "The News!"
Crawfordl.net> wrote:>>> A Bloody Media Mirror
>>> by Norman Solomon
>
>>> Many of America's most prominent journalists want us to forget what
>>> they were saying and writing more than four years ago to boost the
>>> invasion
>>> of Iraq. Now, they tiptoe around their own roles in hyping the war and
>>> banishing dissent to the media margins.
>
>>> The media watch group FAIR (where I'm an associate) has performed a
>>> public service in the latest edition of its magazine Extra. The
>>> organization's
>>> activism director, Peter Hart, drew on FAIR's extensive research to
>>> assemble
>>> a sample of notable quotations from media cheerleading for the Iraq
>>> invasion. One of the earliest quotes to merit special attention came from
>>> ace New York Times reporter - and chronic Pentagon promoter - Michael
>>> Gordon. In a CNN appearance on March 25, 2003, just a few days into the
>>> invasion, Gordon gave his easy blessing to the invaders' bombing of Iraqi
>>> TV.
>
>>> Gordon cited "what I've seen of Iraqi television, with Saddam
>>> Hussein
>>> presenting propaganda to his people and showing off the Apache helicopter
>>> and claiming a farmer shot it down and trying to persuade his own public
>>> that he was really in charge, when we're trying to send the exact
>>> opposite
>>> message" - and so, the Times reporter went on, Iraqi TV was "an
>>> appropriate
>>> target."
>
>>> Let's unpack Gordon's rationale for a military attack on Iraqi
>>> broadcasters: They presented propaganda to viewers, aired triumphal
>>> images
>>> and touted the authority of the top man in the government, while an
>>> adversary was "trying to send the exact opposite message." By those
>>> standards, Iraqis would have been justified in targeting any one of the
>>> American cable news networks, most especially Fox News Channel.
>
>>> Hart - who is author of the book "The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning
>>> Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly" - includes some quotes from Fox in his
>>> collection of war-crazed statements from media. For instance, soon after
>>> the
>>> invasion began, Fox News commentator Fred Barnes declared: "The American
>>> public knows how important this war is, and is not as casualty sensitive
>>> as
>>> the weenies in the American press are." (Unsurpassed bravery is a common
>>> denominator of rabid hawks in stateside TV studios.) But many of Hart's
>>> examples are from U.S. media outlets with reputations for judicious
>>> professional journalism.
>
>>> On NBC News, Brian Williams was singing from the choir book
>>> provided
>>> by U.S. officials. "They are calling this the cleanest war in all of
>>> military history," Williams said on April 2, 2003. "They stress they're
>>> fighting a regime and not the people, using smart bombs, not dumb, older
>>> munitions. But there have been and will be accidents. . And there's a new
>>> weapon in this war: Arab media, especially Al Jazeera. It's on all the
>>> time,
>>> and unlike American media, it hardly reflects the Pentagon line. Its
>>> critics
>>> say it accentuates civilian casualties and provokes outrage on the Arab
>>> street."
>
>>> The next day, on the same network, Williams' colleagueKatieCouric
>>> was more succinct in her fawning. Viewers of the "Today" program listened
>>> as
>>> she interviewed a U.S. military official and exclaimed: "Thank you for
>>> coming on the show. And I want to add, I think the Special Forces rock!"
>
>>> A week later, on MSNBC, the hardballer Chris Matthews was swept up
>>> in
>>> beach-ball euphoria as America's armed forces toppled the Saddam regime.
>>> "We're
>>> all neo-cons now," Matthews exulted.
>
>>> At the start of May 2003, when President Bush zoomed onto an
>>> aircraft
>>> carrier and stood near a "Mission Accomplished" banner, Lou Dobbs was
>>> quick
>>> to tell CNN viewers: "He looked like an alternatively commander in chief,
>>> rock star, movie star and one of the guys."
>
>>> On the same day, journalist Matthews assumed the royal "we" - and,
>>> in
>>> the opportunistic process, blew with the prevailing wind. "We're proud of
>>> our president," he said. "Americans love having a guy as president, a guy
>>> who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy
>>> like
>>> Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They
>>> want
>>> a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out.
>>> The
>>> women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's
>>> simple." All too simple.
>
>>> Perhaps no journalist was more shameless in echoing President
>>> Bush's
>>> fatuous claims about the invasion than Christopher Hitchens.
>
>>> "Many Iraqis can hear me tonight in a translated radio broadcast,
>>> and
>>> I have a message for them: If we must begin a military campaign, it will
>>> be
>>> directed against the lawless men who rule your country and not against
>>> you,"
>>> Bush said on March 17, 2003.
>
>>> The next day, Hitchens came out with an essay declaring that "the
>>> Defense Department has evolved highly selective and accurate munitions
>>> that
>>> can sharply reduce the need to take or receive casualties. The
>>> predictions
>>> of widespread mayhem turned out to be false last time - when the weapons
>>> [in
>>> the Gulf War] were nothing like so accurate." And, Hitchens proclaimed,
>>> "it
>>> can now be proposed as a practical matter that one is able to fight
>>> against
>>> a regime and not a people or a nation."
>
>>> More than four years - and at least several hundred thousand Iraqi
>>> civilian deaths - later, the most reliable epidemiology available
>>> confirms
>>> that those claims were more than misleading. They were fundamentally out
>>> of
>>> touch with human reality.
>
>>> If you had engaged in such cheerleading for the launch of the Iraq
>>> war
>>> in early 2003, by now you might also be eager to change the subject and
>>> argue about God.
>
>>> The new documentary film "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits
>>> Keep Spinning Us to Death," based on Norman Solomon's book of the same
>>> title, has just been released on DVD. For information about the
>>> full-length
>>> movie, produced by the Media Education Foundation and narrated by Sean
>>> Penn,
>>> go
to:www.WarMadeEasyTheMovie.org>
>>> Link to "Outfoxed" a movie about the spin doctors at Fox News, aka the
>>> Goebbels Network.
>
>
>>> Good flick. If you ever thougt there is a "Liberal" Media in America,
>>> watch
>>> "OUTFOXED".
>
>> Fox News should not be banned. If you don't like it don't watch it.
>> Watch CNN and MSNBC.
>
> Sounded like you condone the fake stuffs, you might as well allow killing
> and stealing on the streets where you are if you don't agree that News are
> supposed to be true with 95%% accuracy, not 0%% and NOT LESS than 50%%
> accuracy. We're not supposed to lie to gain the support.
It's called Freedom. If you want to talk about making things up lets
talk about what CBS has done or CNN. I can see why Fox News gets good
ratings. People who hate it watch it and talk about it .
