opinion

The distorted media coverage of the Iraq War

For decades Americans were taught that we had a "free press." Now, we learn that when we need unbiased information most, the news media and some journalists have become handmaidens to the government. We are particularly concerned by television news's unwillingness to present to us what is really happening, but even the print media often gives us the messages that the Pentagon wants us to hear.

Every story is presented as though we are all cheerleading for the war and wanting to know how clever "our" military is, how smart its bombs, how well thought out its strategy. This is not news but propaganda.

We are told little about the suffering of the Iraqi people (and even the suffering of American troops is downplayed so as not to hurt our morale). It never occurs to the media that many of their readers have transcended narrow nationalist chauvinism --- so that we care about the suffering of ALL people on this planet, not just of those whom we are officially supposed to care about to prove our patriotism. We are living at a moment when our common humanity is ready to burst forth and affirm the mutual interconnectedness of everyone on this planet --- equally deserving of love and heartfelt concern. Affirming that common humanity also happens to be the best path to achieve safety and security for the United States.

Some of these distortions are the result the self-censorship of the media --- their sense that nothing is "serious" unless it is within the consensus as defined by the powerful. This "Cynical Realism" which is the knee-jerk "common sense" of media people has become even more hurtful in times of war when we care so much about finding a path to peace. Yet we also know that there are many very principled people in the media who privately share these concerns, but have not been able to influence the decision makers (or who get fired when stepping outside the networks' vision of acceptable news). If more of them stand up publicly to raise these issues - -- they will find many citizens ready to stand behind them against those who have turned journalism into cheerleading for the war.

So here is what we need from the media:

* Tell us the names and the life-stories of the people on BOTH SIDES who have been killed.

* Tell us the stories and show us the footage of actual damage to civilians -- - information that is distributed in media all around the world except in the US. Stop listening to directives from the administration about what is "appropriate" for us to know. We, the people, are able to make up our own minds --- but not if you hide from us the terrible human costs of this war.

* Frame your coverage of the war as though you are also speaking to millions of Americans who feel a genuine identification with the needs of others --- and to a deep recognition that our own security and well-being depends on the security and well-being of every other person on the planet. Let these voices be heard! And let them be part of the "we" that you are talking to when you pick commentators and analysts.

* Instead of packing the TV coverage with retired army generals, and the newspapers with the "normal range" of center to right columnists, let's hear some serious discourse from anti-war thinkers, from candidates for the Democratic nomination for president who oppose the war (like Congressman Dennis Kucinich) who have largely been blocked out of popular media coverage, plus some of America's religious leaders and internationally recognized moral leaders.







Also in this section:
US State Department report on human rights in Panama
Frei Betto, Lula's assault on hunger
Girvan, The Greater Caribbean This Week
Jackson, China's news blackout is our health hazard
Tikkun, Give us news, not propaganda
RSF, US attack on the international press
CPJ, US attack on the international press

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