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Why are the media playing lapdog and not watchdog -- again -- on war in Iraq?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-are-the-media-playing-by-Medea-Benjamin-Isis_Media_Media-Bias_Media-Distortion-141010-303.html
Fear sells, violence sells, war sells. The mainstream press just sold another American war
Why are the media playing lapdog and not watchdog -- again -- on war in Iraq?
By Medea Benjamin
OpEdNews Op Eds 10/10/2014 at 19:54:07
A war-weary American public that a year ago resoundingly rejected US military intervention in Syria to overthrow the Assad regime now is rallying behind the use of force to destroy the so-called Islamic State (Isis). In just three months, from June to September, support for US airstrikes in Iraq soared from 45% percent to 71%, and to 65% for airstrikes in Syria.
How did such an astounding turnabout occur? Certainly it wasn't due to the persuasive powers of President Obama, who seems to have been reluctantly dragged into a conflict that he once acknowledged has no military solution.
The credit for selling Obama's war on Isis must go to the mainstream American media.
~snip~
Sadly, the public is not getting what it deserves: a well-rounded debate about the pros and cons of military action. Why has a decade of support for the Iraqi army and years of covert CIA support for the Syrian opposition been so fruitless? How much might this intervention cost? (So far, the bill has been more than $1bn.) How will Middle East monarchies that funded extremists suddenly become exemplars of democratic values? What is the endgame in Syria? Will Bashar Assad still be in power? What are the unintended consequences of expanding American military action in the Middle East? (The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the US bombings already have attracted 6,000 more recruits to Isis.) And most important of all: what are the alternatives to stop the slaughter of innocent civilians? The voices of people proposing political solutions other than slaughter are the voices the public deserves to hear.