A Blurry Line Between Propaganda and News

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/28/2832/

A Blurry Line Between Propaganda and News
by Khody Akhavi

WASHINGTON — A shocking thing happens midway through Norman Solomon’s documentary film “War Made Easy“.

While analyzing the George W. Bush administration’s lead-up to the Iraq invasion, Solomon plays a news clip of Eason Jordan, a CNN News chief executive who, in an interview with CNN, boasts of the network’s cadre of professional “military experts”. In fact, CNN’s retired military generals turned war analysts were so good, Eason said, that they had all been vetted and approved by the U.S. government.

“I went to the Pentagon myself several times before the war started and met with important people,” he said. “We got a big thumbs up on all of .”

In a country revered for its freedom of speech and unfettered press, Eason’s comments would infuriate any veteran reporter who upholds the most basic and important tenet of the journalistic profession: independence.

But the relationship between the press and government in the U.S. during times of war is changing. In Solomon’s film, it is just one example of the collusion between the government and the mainstream news media.

“War Made Easy“, which is narrated by Hollywood actor and peace activist Sean Penn, begins as an anti-war film that decries the Bush administration’s interventionist rationale and misinformation campaigns during the post-9/11 era. Through a montage of video clips from cable news networks, presidential statements, and historical footage from previous U.S. military interventions, it compares the propaganda techniques of the past with the present, and draws striking parallels.

snip//

None of these revelations are exactly new, but the historical parallels between Vietnam and the Iraq war are becoming increasingly clear as the U.S. remains for a fifth year in Iraq. “War Made Easy” offers a timely criticism of the media, and portends an ominous future for the U.S. news viewing public should they sit back and accept without question the pronouncements of political leaders and evening news anchors.

[fed-up]

1. “I went to the Pentagon myself several times before the war started and met with important people”nt

[Tom Joad]

2. anyone near oakland on August 9th can see the movie, and talk with Norman,

at the beautiful Grandlake theatre.
http://radioproject.org/events/index.html