MER - Washington - 19 February, 1998:
The American people are being duped. Whether the subject be raising
money for campaigns, sex in the Oval Office, hush money/jobs to keep silent
those who know too much, or bombing Iraq into submission while arming Israel
to the teeth; big government now operates in tandem with big media, big
corporations, and big think-tanks trying to deceive and bamboozle the American
people.
Much of the uneasiness and disbelieve now so rampant in the land is because
these deceptions, distortions, and outright lies have reached such proportions
that more and more people are not only becoming aware, they are becoming
distressed and embittered.
It's worth saying again. It's not only big government, and the associated
CIA/Military institutions that are playing the American people for fools.
It's also the big corporate conglomerates that are now so intimately intertwined
with government -- especially what is now a huge military/industial/media
complex -- that have become co-conspirators in the entire process of deception
and manipulation.
The truths laid out in the brilliant video documentary made a few years
ago about Noam Chomsky -- MANUFACTURING CONSENT -- are becoming more and
more exposed these days.
In this overall context, this recent column by Norman Solomon makes important
reading. As the Madeleine Albright saturation deception campaign
traverses the country spewing forth one distortion and one misrepresentation
after another, the time to boldly speak up and directly challenge those
like Ms. Albright has never been more urgent.
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To
listen to Mark Bruzonsky discussing Secretary of State Albright
on
national radio last week go to:
http://www.MiddleEast.Org/pacifica.htm
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Seven years ago, the Pentagon imposed strict curbs on media coverage of
the Gulf War. American military activities in the region were mostly off-limits
to journalists. Defense Department censors cleared photos, video footage
and battlefield dispatches. Reporters were only allowed to travel
in "pools" accompanied by U.S. military escorts.
With some grumbling, major news organizations went along with the restrictions
-- and then, two months after the war's end, tried to blame U.S. authorities.
In a May 1991 letter to then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, the Washington
editors of 15 big media outlets faulted the Pentagon for exerting "virtually
total control" over coverage.
But the main problem was self-censorship. And it still is. Many journalists
grow accustomed to parroting Pentagonspeak -- especially after Uncle Sam's
missiles start flying. That's how dead Iraqi civilians become merely "collateral
damage."
Today, as the Pentagon finalizes its rules of media engagement for the
next assault on Iraq, news outlets again seem ready to knuckle under. Tidy
euphemisms for killing have returned. And, as if to stiffen American resolve,
news reports are warning that Saddam Hussein will use civilian casualties
for propaganda purposes.
As a media theme, it's a retread. During the Gulf War, NBC's Tom Brokaw
echoed the White House and the dominant media mantra when he told viewers:
"We must point out again and again that it is Saddam Hussein who put these
innocents in harm's way." So, no matter how many civilians die as a result
of U.S. bombardment, we can always deny responsibility.
This time around, more than ever, America's air power is being touted as
the key to success. Of course, we're assured that the weaponry is new and
improved. "The smart bombs of the Gulf War have gotten smarter, and there
will be more of them," USA Today reports. Under the high-tech circumstances,
Iraqi victims will be blips on screens for American TV viewers and military
personnel alike.
Already, the news is filled with footage and descriptions of cruise missiles,
F-117 Stealth bombers, F-16CJ jets and other ultramodern aircraft. Their
awesome technical prowess will be publicized in detail.
But don't expect much coverage of exactly what happens to people when the
bombs detonate. When explosions demolish vital organs. When shrapnel slices
into human flesh and bones.
Above all, the mass media are prepared to numb us, dispensing anesthesia
along with selected information. But if there were genuine confidence about
the morality of firing missiles on Iraq, then presumably the euphemisms
and media evasions would not be deemed necessary.
Meanwhile, media conflicts of interest are unacknowledged. So, for
example, if Brokaw and his NBC News colleagues marvel at the exploits of
F/A-18 Hornet jets, they don't mention that NBC's parent company -- General
Electric -- produces the engine that goes into each one. Nor are any such
disclaimers heard on CNBC or MSNBC.
When CNN aired an "International Town Meeting" on Wednesday, all three
panelists were top U.S. officials. Only Madeleine Albright, William Cohen
and Samuel Berger were permitted to make lengthy remarks. CNN anchor Bernard
Shaw invited other participants to provide "a question, not a statement."
In effect, CNN worked with the U.S. government to co-produce the program.
Fortunately, grass-roots antiwar fervor gave the staged event a jolt.
Writing in the London-based daily Independent earlier this month, longtime
Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk challenged the notion that there
are no good alternatives to attacking Iraq.
"The world might, after all, demand that all Middle Eastern states apply
all U.N. Security Council resolutions -- which include an Israeli withdrawal
from occupied Arab land as well as the disarming of Saddam Hussein," wrote
Fisk. "It could insist that within five years, all weapons of mass destruction
in the region
-- not just Iraqi weapons but Syrian missiles and Israeli nuclear weapons
and possible Iranian rockets -- be destroyed. It could offer a real
peace in the Middle East, based on human rights, justice and a Palestinian
homeland."
But instead, Fisk noted, "we are beating the old 1991 drums of war, our
claims so preposterous that they bury the real viciousness of the real
Saddam. For war is not primarily about victory or defeat. It is about death.
It represents the total failure of the human spirit."