On Jul 10, 11:25 pm, Dave
hotmail.com> wrote:> On Jul 10, 2:59 am, "Tchiowa"
hotmail.com> wrote:
>
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>>> "Dave"
hotmail.com> wrote in message>
>
>>> 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 .
First, I agree.
Second, take care for the time being. The troll you responded to is
faking my ID. I'm posting from Thailand as always. That's the easiest
way to spot the fake.
The Left is campaigning hard to try to stop Fox News from putting out
a point of view different from what they promote. Stunts like the
Rather Memo against Bush on CBS, the Sexed Up Dossier on BBC, the
refusal to print the investigation of the connections between Kerry
and
MoveOn.org by the NYT, etc. have all proven the point. So since
they know the evidence proves them wrong, the Left's only remaining
tactic is to try to block other opinions from getting out.
That's the way it's always been with the Left. They claim to be
proponents of Free Speech. But they only believe in allowing Free
Speech if they agree with the content.
