John Pilger: Why are wars not being reported honestly?

[Ghost Dog]

10 December 2010

In the US Army manual on counterinsurgency, the American commander General David Petraeus describes Afghanistan as a "war of perception... conducted continuously using the news media". What really matters is not so much the day-to-day battles against the Taliban as the way the adventure is sold in America where "the media directly influence the attitude of key audiences". Reading this, I was reminded of the Venezuelan general who led a coup against the democratic government in 2002. "We had a secret weapon," he boasted. "We had the media, especially TV. You got to have the media."

/Read on: http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/why-are-wars-not-being-reported-honestly


... Defer (by way of emphasis) to Judi Lynn's thread recently posted here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x575436 (but employing a more 'respectable' link?)

[Angry Dragon]

1. Gotta' have the lies

[elias49]

2. Welcome to Embedded Reality. How depressing. nt

[Judi Lynn]

3. How did we post the same together? Easier said than done!

It might have been tunnelvision, but I didn't see yours.

Why can't we have any US'ian Pilgers, anyway?

[truedelphi]

4. We do have Seymour Hersh, & some of the stuff on Wikileaks will be

Corroborating his articles.

And we do have some good indie reporters, like Greg Palast. But of course they are not picked up by Mainstream Media.

it has taken our CIA forty years to make sure only those willing to toe the line are in the news rooms on radio or TV.

[Judi Lynn]

6. So right.. We get manufactured news stories, and have all these long years.

The Senator Frank Church committee uncovered CIA people throughout our domestic news sources decades ago, and that news was kept completely out of sight, as well.

Glad to be reminded of Seymour Hersh, Greg Palast. Their kind of journalism is very risky, unfortunately. No surprise Palast works from elsewhere.

[JawJaw]

13. Mainstream Media

To be fair, Pilger's new documentary "The War You Don't See" is being broadcast on ITV1 in the UK, which is as mainstream as it's possible to be (albeit at 10:35 on a Tuesday night). http://www.itv.com/presscentre/presspacks/johnpilgerthewaryoudontsee/default.html

I also heard a lively discussion with Pilger on BBC Radio 4, which is considerably more of a minority taste.

The documentary contains interviews with Dan Rather, amongst others, on the role of journalist as stenographer rather than reporter.

I imagine it will be available from the usual internet sources from Dec 15th. In the meantime, his great film of 2003 is available in full on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAb1kCOwJ8&feature=related>Breaking The Silence:Truth and Lies in the War on Terror - another chance to watch the Neocons at the height of their blind arrogance. (John Bolton is hilarious).

[Ghost Dog]

5. You were first, Judi.

I humbly strongly support you.

[Judi Lynn]

7. You were right on target. That site, which I didn't know, is not highly regarded.

Well!


Someone has suggested adding this Guardian link which has a 4 1/2 minute preview of Pilger's next film, The War You Don't See:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/10/war-media-propaganda-iraq-lies

[Ghost Dog]

9. Hmm. Thought so,

Not dungeoned. Disappeared!

:smoke:

[Cobalt-60]

8. to keep them going forever

Endless war is a tool used to convert poor people's blood into rich people's cash.
These pigs will tell any lie to get an open ended counter insurgency going.
Once they get it going:
A stream of atrocities is committed to keep the natives fighting.
And a steady stream of excuses to fight forever is delivered by the corporations paid lackeys.
In the past these lackeys were mainly Republicans.
Today the fascist media also helps to prolong the wars by any means possible.

[KoKo]

10. Because people who "don't matter" to those who send them aren't important

to the preening well-paid American Mainstream Media. That old expression from older wars: "Cannon Fodder" is what they are. Most are young, poor and jobless and those that aren't are looking for military careers all the way up to the Pentagon or perks from the MIC...then there are the Contractors who are well paid, fat and happy.

[Ghost Dog]

11. "fat and happy"

... Sounds like, um, prime, tasty, game.

To, surely, lots of eyes.

[midnight]

12. It is hard to listen to the news after 9-11.