Danny Schechter does his best to dissect the mainstream media’s treatment of the approach to war with Iraq in 2003.
By poring over hundreds of broadcasts, it is Schechter’s conclusion that the mainstream media merely regurgitates what the government feeds them.
However, that is not the case worldwide.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/kVrobidTnoo" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]Take the case of al-Jazeera television outlet.
Al-Jazeera, an Arabic language business, is famous for showing the true cost of war – blood, gore, and raw emotion.
Whereas in the west, much of the reporting is sanitized and people are spared the horrific images from being shown in their homes.
But, to discuss the modern media and its relationship to the government, one has to look back a bit.
Right or wrong, the United States media has been blamed for the American defeat in Vietnam because it supposedly steered public opinion against the war. Therefore, the United States military learned ways to control the media.
In the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the military created pools where journalists, far from the front lines, would get their daily fill of whatever was being fed to them.
And, in the present war in Iraq, the U.S. military has allowed journalists to be embedded in groups of soldiers. That has brought about a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, where journalists develop a personal stake in the war’s outcome because they are surrounded by soldiers with whom they identify.
And, as far as the weapons of mass destruction that Iraq allegedly had (they have yet to be found), Schechter concludes they were never there to begin with.
“Weapons of Mass Deception” is available for rent.
Murphy can be reached at: [email protected]
