Norman Solomon: How the U.S. Media Loved the War

[babylonsister]

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/070707a.html

How the U.S. Media Loved the War

By Norman Solomon
July 7, 2007

Editor's Note: Anti-war optimists cite the new Iraq War skepticism in today's U.S. news media as a signal that George W. Bush's militarist policies are in trouble. But what does it say about the professionalism of these Big Media "journalists" that they would go with the pro-Bush flow for so long, until the public opinion tide turned?

In this guest essay, media analyst Norman Solomon looks back at how prominent media figures surrendered their journalistic principles when that was the "smart" career move:



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.

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[Cha]

1. Yeah, I stopped watching

corporatewhoremedia on Nov 6, 2002 but I know how they continued thanks to reports on DU.

They'll be whoring to their collective dying breath and it can't be soon enough.

If they're going against the bushitcons War On Iraq then it must effect their bottom line somehow.