A MUST Read For Denialists at CNNMSRNCNBCABCCBS: "Media Coverage of Iraq"

[leftchick]

a little trip on the way back machine to refresh their fuzzy memories on how THEY FUCKING ENABLED THIS CRIMINAL REGIME TO ATTACK AND OCCUPY A SOVEREIGN COUNTRY THAT POSED NO THREAT TO THE USA!!!

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/medindex.htm

Media Coverage of Iraq

This section looks at mass media coverage of the Iraq war and occupation, especially how the big US-based media companies fed the public sensational, pro-war news reports. During the war, most journalists were "embedded" with US military units, giving them a very one-sided picture of the conflict and ruling out even-handed reporting. Other journalists who decided to go "free-lance" came under attack by the US military and two popular Arab television offices were directly bombed by the US air force. Post-war reports on Iraq by the big media companies have continued in an uncritical vein, with positive reports about the occupation and negative coverage of Iraqi opposition.

2008 | 2007 | 2006 | Archived Articles

2008

Study: False Statements Preceded War (January 22, 2008)
According to a study conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism, the Bush administration made more than 900 false statements in the period leading up to the war in Iraq. Over half of the statements explicitly formed links between Iraq, weapons of mass destruction and Al-Qaeda in order to gain support for the war from the US public. (Associated Press)

Surge to Nowhere (January 20, 2008)
Despite numerous efforts by the Bush administration to label the increased troop level a success, this Washington Post article concludes that the situation in Iraq proves worse now than ever before. Conditions in Iraq deteriorate with Iraqi households receiving only 12 hours of electricity a day. Corruption continues to rise as US officials offer bribes to Sunni insurgents, to temporarily reduce levels of violence. The US has succeeded, however, in ensuring that US troops remain in Iraq for the unforeseeable future.

2007

Highly Recommended ArticleReporting From Baghdad (September 6, 2007)
In this Truthdig article, Scott Ritter considers US media compliant with President George Bush’s policy in Iraq. The author asks why there is insufficient public debate on the occupation. The US media fail to ask why Americans keep dying, who is killing them and why. Ritter considers that the media cover the war from “the perspective of an American political dynamic, not Iraqi reality.”

Reporter for Post is Fatally Shot in Baghdad (October 15, 2007)
An Iraqi journalist, Salih Saif Aldin is killed while covering a story in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadiyah. At least 118 journalists have been killed in Iraq since 2003, with 100 of those Iraqis. Witnesses say Saif Aldin was shot at close range while taking photographs of burnt out houses. Since 2003, Saif Aldin had received many death threats, beatings and was detained and interrogated by US troops. His death demonstrates the precarious situation for reporters working in Iraq. (Washington Post)

"Progress" by the Numbers (September 9, 2007)
This TomDispatch article examines the “carefully defined and cherry picked” numbers presented by the US government and General David Petraeus to sell progress in Iraq. The author says marketing tools have been used by the US since before the war. To illustrate the manipulation of numbers, the author presents a comprehensive list of his own alternative numbers - 17 nations withdrawn from the coalition of the willing, US$3 billion cost of the war per week, and 50,000 Iraqis fleeing their homes each month.

The Withdrawal Follies (July 26, 2007)
The Bush administration often boldly predicts that a high level of chaos will “surely” follow even a partial US troop pullout from Iraq. Such predictions ignore the uncertainty of the future, yet several mainstream media outlets have embraced this reasoning against a full-scale withdrawal. This TomDispatch article dismisses this “future bloodbath of the imagination” as part of a propaganda campaign to maintain a long-term US presence in Iraq.

From the Grave, a Senator Exposes Bloody Hands on Capitol Hill (July 19, 2007)
The activist group, Sacramento for Democracy, hosted an event where they screened a 1964 video of former Oregon Senator Wayne Morse. In the video, Morse argues with a CBS journalist and maintains that the government and media, in the midst of the Vietnam War, were not presenting the truth to the public about foreign affairs, allowing the president to pursue his own will instead of the public’s. The event coincided with the ineffective Senate debate on the US occupation of Iraq. This AlterNet article argues that the notion that Congress is putting forward its utmost effort to enforce withdrawal from Iraq is “a big media lie.”

Media Silence about the Carnage in Iraq (July 5, 2007)
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died violently at the hands of coalition forces. Yet mainstream media reports of the daily fighting in Iraq often only include “brief accounts of several different operations, none of them presented as major events.” This CounterPunch article warns that such coverage grossly understates the rate of non-combatant fatalities – a statistic that will likely escalate as the US military presence in Iraq expands.

US Military Blocks Soldiers' Access to Blogs, Popular Social Sites (May 21, 2007)
The US Department of Defense issued regulations that would prohibit access to blogs, YouTube, MySpace and other social networking and information sharing websites. These new rules affect soldiers, contractors and their families. While the Pentagon claims security and bandwidth deficiencies reasons for the ban, the move more plausibly reflects a desire to keep gruesome images and sentiments of dissent coming from soldiers away from the US public. (World Socialist Web Site)

Journalists Face Repression on All Sides (May 21, 2007)
According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the working environment for journalists in Iraq is becoming increasingly dangerous. Since 2003, 204 journalists have been killed in the country, a number that surpasses the media death figure in any other war zone. The secretary general of IFJ stated that “19 of the journalists killed were found to have US bullets in their bodies, but no satisfactory explanation has been offered as to the circumstances in which they were shot.” Further, the organization criticized the lack of laws protecting freedom of press in the country, saying that the restricted legislation used by Saddam was still in place. (Inter Press Service)

Another Casualty: Coverage of the Iraq War (March 23, 2007)
The US claims the occupation of Iraq has brought freedom and democracy to the country. However, several journalists critical of the Iraq War have been killed since 2003 and the Iraqi government directly controls all the information in the country, prohibiting independent media like al-Jaazera to operate. The Bush administration has also been manipulating Iraqi public opinion, paying Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-US articles. Inside the US, the media has been covering the Iraq War in a distorted manner, giving inaccurate news that favors the US government and big corporations’ interests. (Foreign Policy In Focus)

Another US Military Assault on Media (February 23, 2007)
Despite all its rhetoric on civil liberties, the US is restricting freedom of expression in Iraq. US soldiers raided the office of the Iraq Syndicate of Journalists in Baghdad and arrested guards and seized computers in an attempt to silence journalists who have been criticizing the occupation. Further, US forces have continually killed and arrested hundreds of journalists and closed newspapers in the country. According to the General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, Aidan White, “anyone working for media that does not endorse US policy and actions could now be at risk.” (Inter Press Service)

The Najaf Massacre: Annotated (February 7, 2007)
This Foreign Policy In Focus article reports that the US media has been covering the Iraq War in a distorted manner. During the months leading up to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the New York Times inaccurately reported that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction without challenging questionable sources. Now the situation repeats itself in the January 2007 Najaf Battle. Although foreign media including Arab-language outlets said the event was a systematic massacre by US forces of Shia opponents, the US media continue to report it as a “battle” between two local tribes, doing a careless coverage, with unnamed sources and inadequate research.

Media Under Growing Siege (January 10, 2007)
Although the US has continually cited Iraq as an example of democracy in the Middle East, freedom of expression has diminished in the country since the beginning of the US occupation. According to Reporters Without Borders, Iraq fell from 130th in 2002 to 154th in 2006 out of 168 countries in the press freedom index. After journalists began to report abuses against Iraqi civilians and the growing resistance to the occupation, they started to face exile, arrest and ban on reporting. Furthermore, several journalists on duty have been killed by US forces, or have been kidnapped by criminal gangs or death squads. (Inter Press Service)



LOTS More in the archived articles. I think Brian Williams, Gibson, Wolf and Brokaw should be made to eat these fucking words!

:mad:

[calimary]

1. An honor to kick, recommend, and otherwise draw attention to this thread!

EXCELLENT rebuttals to use with ANYONE who thinks the media did a "good" job.

:thumbsup: :applause: :toast:

[leftchick]

4. Thank you calimary

This is like a freaking nightmare listening to these complicit blow hards try to exonerate themselves today. They think we are all stupid like them!

:puke:

[calimary]

11. Hey, leftchick:

I wrote a rant on this - that Huffington Post just picked up!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-lyon/the-i-didnt-do-it-letter_b_103952.html

[leftchick]

13. holey moley!

That is beautiful!


:)


<snip>

Scott McClellan's new confessional that's pointed the finger at Bush administration figures in the Valerie Plame scandal reminds me of something my husband got in the mail, in the autumn of 1983. We called it the "I Didn't Do It" letter.

It arrived unexpectedly one afternoon from the offices of gold trader Alan Saxon, the CEO of Bullion Reserve of North America. The letter notified all interested parties and investors (thank heavens that didn't include us) that the strange smell that was starting to emanate from his company was nothing to worry about. In effect - "everything's mellow. No problems. Nothing to see here. Move along. And whatever it was, rest assured, it wasn't my fault anyway, and I didn't do it." My husband puzzled over the curious letter and then set it aside. At the time, he said - "hmmm... sounds like somebody's writing an 'I didn't do it' letter." Almost immediately afterwards, news broke of Saxon's sudden suicide, amidst a growing scandal surrounding his company. Seems some 30 to 35-thousand customers were about to find out they'd been fleeced, after having invested in approximately 60-million dollars worth of alleged precious metal assets that never existed.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E5DE173BF936A35753C1A965948260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=all

I suspect we're going to see a mountain of "I didn't do it" letters, speeches, interviews, and books from any number of Bush-era refugees, penitents, former apologists, and various other cover-up artists and former cheerleaders, and probably a few Democrats who now feel it's safe to grow a spine - in the months and years ahead.

It's already underway. We've already had a rather incredible one from Iraq War architect Douglas Feith, "War and Decision," in which he points the finger at everybody else around him for botching his fabulous, altruistic, high-minded plans for a new century American empire that delivers democracy at all costs, including at gunpoint if necessary.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/08/AR2008030802724.html
"It wasn't me! I'm not to blame! I didn't do it (well, okay, maybe not that much of it)! Go look at those guys OVER THERE!"

Hilarious indeed, if it weren't so damned infuriating.

But the guy General Tommy Franks condemned as "the f***ing stupidest guy on the face of the earth" is hardly alone.
http://www.slate.com/id/2099277/

The escape artists are already assembling in the wings, awaiting their turns on center stage. They can't distance themselves from George W. Bush and his White House corruption/incompetence/increasingly likely criminality fast enough. Former Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee's "Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President," conservative economist Bruce Bartlett's "Impostor: How George W Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy," and the first public speech-making by now-retired Iraq war General Ricardo Sanchez are just a few.

[islandmkl]

2. k&r

will there never be enough truth to bury these neoconazis? and their enablers....

[gademocrat7]

3. K & R

[oxbow]

5. sometimes I wish their inboxes would be swamped with this stuff

I wish we could shove all this shit in their faces, just like they shoved it in ours in '03.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. good work .....

The white house press corp should issue an apology to the American
public. We have been screaming at them since 2003 on the their culpability and laziness
on the net and blogs.

[blm]

9. Since they pushed Bush's integrity and character over Gore's since 1998. Focking liars.

.

[leftchick]

7. OMG! From 2002 and 2003!

:argh:

2003

No Freedom without Free Press (December 2, 2003)
The US attributes the lack of democracy and “freedom” in the Arabic world to the absence of free media. Still, Washington has used an array of means to prevent the TV-networks Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya from operating. (Toronto Star)

Study Finds Widespread Misperceptions on Iraq Highly Related to Support for War; Misperceptions Vary Widely Depending on News Source (October 2, 2003)
What is the difference between individuals who watch Fox news and those who watch Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)? According to this study, Fox viewers are more apt to believe that Al Qaeda had links to the Hussein regime, despite the lack of evidence to support this claim. (Program on International Policy Attitudes)

US Occupation Forces Attack Iraqi Journalists (August 8, 2003)
US occupation authorities shut down an Iraqi newspaper and detained several journalists for reporting on the ongoing resistance. This article contends that these actions, along with many other repressive measures, indicate the true character of the "democracy" and "freedom" the US occupiers bring to the Iraqi people. (World Socialist Website)

The Unreported Cost of War (August 4, 2003)
The US media have minimized military casualties in their reports, documenting less than half of the extraordinarily high number of the actual accidents, suicides and other non-combat deaths in the ranks. (Guardian)

US Media Misleading Public on Iraq Casualties (July 23, 2003)
US media outlets spin the information on US casualties in the post-war Iraq era with euphemisms like "hostile fire," "friendly fire,” "combat deaths" and "non-combat deaths" that obfuscate what’s really going on in Iraq. (YellowTimes)

US Curtails Iraq’s Newfound Media Freedoms (June 27, 2003)
The number of newspapers in Iraq exploded from five to 150 after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. However, the US-led administration has begun to curb this enthusiasm by threatening to close down anti-American or pro-Baath publications. (Village Voice)

Poll Shows Errors in Beliefs on Iraq, 9/11 (June 14, 2003)
A poll reports that a third of US citizens believe that Occupying Forces already found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, even though no discoveries were made. In addition, 22% mistakenly assume Iraq used chemical or biological weapons against US forces during the war. (Charlotte NC Observer)

Hawks Turned Media into Parrots (June 12, 2003)
The Bush administration and the Pentagon did an excellent job of using the US media as tool of propaganda for the war against Iraq. A recent study shows that Pentagon and US administration officials along with other proponents of war dominated the US media, marginalizing any dissident voices. (Toronto Star)

All the News That's Fudged to Print (June 6, 2003)
Harper’s magazine publisher John R. MacArthur accuses the New York Times of publishing scare stories on Iraq to promote Washington’s war. He especially condemns writer Judith Miller for her “falsified” stories around the time of the US Congress sessions authorizing the war. (Globe and Mail)

Now Dissent Is 'Immoral' (June 2, 2003)
This article deals with the media’s continual self-censorship over the war on Iraq and after. Dissident voices in the American press do exist, though they are increasingly becoming marginalized and ostracized. (Guardian)

Reality Clouded by Fog of War (June 1, 2003)
The credibility of media reporting during and after the war in Iraq raises serious questions. The dubious reports range from the fabrication of Private Lynch story to the search for weapons of mass destruction, and have so far yielded scant evidence and comical findings such as a cache of vacuum cleaners. (New Zealand Herald)

Body Counts (May 28, 2003)
The few times Western media reported on deaths in Iraq, they focused mainly on civilians. The bias stems from previous conflicts in the Balkans and Africa where civilians were at greater risk. But evidence in Iraq suggests that the military death toll exceeded the civilian. (Guardian)

''The Dead Who Don't Matter'' (May 28, 2003)
This interesting piece critically analyzes the lack of US media coverage given to the loss of Iraqi lives during the war. “To wonder how many dead Iraqi children there are now lying unburied in the desert is to be a ‘bleeding-heart liberal,’ or an ‘enemy sympathizer,’ or, in the words of the hysterical and ignorant, a ‘commie.’"(Yellowtimes)

BBC Defies MoD Over Iraq Documentary (May 28, 2003)
In a controversial documentary on the Iraq War, the BBC is refusing to cut footage of the dead bodies of two British soldiers as requested by the Ministry of Defense and the families of the two men. The BBC will broadcast the show despite an extraordinary intervention from Prime Minister Tony Blair.(Guardian)

Hush, Hush on Coalition Deaths (May 18, 2003)
There have been very few reports by the media on US fatalities in post-war Iraq. Very often the military authorities silence reporters and announce that deaths were either an accident or that an investigation is pending. (Yellow Times)

Saving Private Lynch Story Flawed (May 15, 2003)
According to a BBC documentary the rescue of US POW Jessica Lynch was stage-managed by the US military, including the use of blank rounds to dramatize the event. The rescue received a lot of attention from the US media and Lynch became an instant hero.

US General May Censor Iraqi TV Station's Programs (May 9, 2003)
Censorship of the Iraqi media will remain despite the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. The television channel in Mosul is not going to be allowed to transmit whatever it wants. The US is considering putting an army officer and a translator in the station to monitor what goes on the air. (Washington Post)

TV Not Concerned by Cluster Bombs, DU (May 6, 2003)
The US media have been quick to declare the war against Iraq a success. But they do not provide reports on the consequences of cluster bombs or the dangers of depleted uranium. (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting)

No News Is Good News (May 1, 2003)
The press has been "remarkably tame in going after George W. Bush" since September 11, 2001, and especially since the beginning of the current US war against Iraq, according to Mary Lynn F. Jones of the American Prospect.

Matters of Emphasis (April 29, 2003)
The threat of Saddam Hussein might have been exaggerated by US officials. Saddam Hussein was the perfect means to galvanize support for war. (New York Times)

About Those Iraqi Intelligence Documents: Were They Planted? (April 29, 2003)
Reporters, especially from conservative papers, are invited to walk freely in the rubble of Iraq’s Mukhabarat intelligence building in search for information. At the same time there is tight security by US forces around the Iraqi Oil Ministry that may contain documents showing the links between Saddam Hussein and Vice President Dick Cheney's old firm Halliburton. (Counterpunch)

MSNBC's Banfield Slams War Coverage (April 29, 2003)
This is a transcript of NBC news correspondent Ashleigh Banfield’s speech on the US media’s biased coverage of the war in Iraq. (Alter Net)

Banfield Lashes Out at Own Network (April 28, 2003)
NBC’s news correspondent Ashleigh Banfield lashes out at US television networks for glorifying the war coverage without considering the consequences. “A puff of smoke is not what a mortar looks like when it explodes,” she said. (Reuters)

Media Nix - From Blix To Kucinich To Dixie Chicks (April 24, 2003)
Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and the country band the Dixie Chicks have both come in the line of fire from big media outlets for challenging George W. Bush’s war agenda. (ZNet)

Tank Captain Admits Firing on Media Hotel (April 21, 2003)
A US army captain admitted an Abram tank fired on the Palestine hotel but stated he was unaware that the international press were staying there. (Guardian)

Is US Casualty Reporting Suffering from Double Standards? (April 15, 2003)
Major US media outlets appear more like tools of Washington than an objective source of reports and analysis of the world situation. (Foreign Policy In Focus)

The US Vs. The UK (April 11, 2003)
There is a difference between US and UK media reporting of the war. For example, Fox News presents an exciting story with a narrow focus and the BBC informs the viewer and offers an opportunity to ask tough questions. (Nation)

Foxa Americana (April 9, 2003)
Rogel Alper of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz states that Fox News is playing a direct role in US propaganda efforts and affecting the perceptions of foreign viewers through its worldwide reach. "Its war coverage is as governmental as that of Iraqi TV," Alper argues. "This is American TV."

Does the US Military Want To Kill Journalists (April 8, 2003)
Robert Fisk, reporting for Independent in Baghdad, critics the latest killing of journalists stating there is the feeling the military wants to take out journalists based in Iraq.

War Takes Toll on Journalists (April 8, 2003)
The conflict in Iraq is causing many civilian casualties but also about a dozen journalists have died in accidents including “friendly” fire from US forces. (BBC)

Casualties Could Test Resolve of US Public (April 1, 2003)
How long the war campaign will last and the amount of casualties the US public will accept is difficult to predict. Public opinion is influenced by 24-hour media coverage. (Christian Science Monitor)

Making Up News (March, 2003)
This article in Le Monde Diplomatique provides examples of US media bias in conflicts and how coverage has become one-sided and strongly patriotic in recent years.

False Claims Litter Iraq Conflict (March 31, 2003)
Scrambling for positive news to justify the war, the US and UK had to take back false claims, ranging from the Iraqi uprising to the premature fall of Basra. (Reuters)

NBC Fires Arnett After Iraq TV Interview (March 31, 2003)
The celebrated journalist Peter Arnett was fired from NBC because he gave an interview on Iraqi television stating that the American-led coalition's first war plan had failed because of Iraq's resistance. (Associated Press)

Why al-Jazeera Was Right to Show Those Terrible Pictures (March 29, 2003)
John Peacock states that both sides of the war use disinformation to justify their cause to the public. Therefore reports must be critically analyzed and war footage is important because it shows realities of war. (Independent)

Arab World Is Seeing War Far Differently (March 28, 2003)
This article suggests there is a biased view among both sides regarding the war, and each reports from their perspective. As a result, people in the west and in the Arab world interpret what they see on television in a vastly different way. (Washington Post)

US Press Criticizes US Strategy in Iraqi War (March 28, 2003)
Several media outlets in the US write that miscalculations of war strategy and the failure to gather overwhelming force has put the coalition into trouble. (Middle East Online)

Hackers Attack Al-Jazeera Website (March 28, 2003)
The website of the satellite TV network al-Jazeera, based in Qatar, was attacked by computer hackers shortly after it launched an English-language news site. Both the Arabic and English sites were affected, as the hackers replaced the website with a logo containing the US flag. (Reuters)

Fog of Coverage Paved the Way for War (March 27, 2003)
Even some members of the mainstream US media are beginning to suggest that they were used by the Pentagon in the lead-up to a war against Iraq to promote the argument that the war would be, in the words of one US official, "a cakewalk." (Toronto Star)

US News Networks, Are They Biased? (March 27, 2003)
According to analysts, the US television networks are supposed to stick to journalistic principles of fair and balanced reporting, but these objectives seem to have been lost in favor of US patriotism. (Middle East Online)

NGO to Monitor Media Treatment in US Military Unit in Iraq (March 26, 2003)
Journalists from Reporters Without Borders will accompany two US battalions operating in Iraq. Their intention is to find out if journalists can actually do their work and how reporters who are not from coalition countries are treated. (Japan Today)

Mood Changes as America Finds War Is Not a Video Game (March 25, 2003)
The conflict in Iraq is not exactly going as planned. The question remains how much the public can tolerate reports of casualties and guerilla style ambushes. (Independent)

Casualties of War (March 25, 2003)
The mass media are going along with Washington's demands by not challenging US military actions in Iraq. (Working for Change)

"It's More Than Exciting, Christiane" (March 24, 2003)
Most TV correspondents reporting from Iraq are attached to combat units and adopt the military viewpoint. Orna Coussin of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz asks whether there are any journalists capable of giving us the other side of the war.

Propaganda One of the Biggest Weapons For Both Sides in Iraq War (March 24, 2003)
The war on Iraq is also a propaganda battle between the US-British coalition and Baghdad. Officials on both sides seek to exploit the situation and turn it to their advantage. (Agence France Presse)

Free Press and the Face of War (March 24, 2003)
The true face of war was shown when Al-Jazeera transmitted images of civilians struck by Tomahawk cruise missile and pictures of US POW’s in Iraq. (Asia Times)

Pentagon Press Briefing: Farce, Charade and Deception (March 21, 2003)
The press briefings from the White House and the Pentagon are frequently brief and lack any useful or new information on the situation in Iraq. (Yellow Times)

The War of Misinformation Has Begun (March 16, 2003)
According to Robert Fisk of Independent, when the war starts the western media in Iraq will not report the reality and they will use words such as “allegedly” for carnage caused by US forces.

Do Media Know That War Kills? (March 14, 2003)
The mainstream media in the US avoids reporting that people are killed in a war and the civilian infrastructure will be destroyed along with consequences for public health for a long time after the war is over. (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting)

The Impact of Bush Linking 9/11 and Iraq (March 14, 2003)
There is no evidence that Saddam Hussein played a role in the September 11 attacks. In an effort to maintain American support for a possible war against Iraq, US officials have given the public the impression that Iraq played a direct role in the attacks. (Christian Science Monitor)

American Media Dodging UN Surveillance Story (March 7, 2003)
While the revelation of US plans for an aggressive surveillance operation against members of the UN Security Council delegations has been a major news story throughout the world, it has been almost totally ignored by newspapers in the US. (ZNet)

How the News Will Be Censored in This War (February 25, 2003)
CNN has developed a system of approval that requires all reports to be submitted to anonymous officials in Atlanta to ensure the script is “suitably sanitized.” (Independent)

News Media Harden Anti-US Stance (February 19, 2003)
According to research by Medien Tenor, a German agency monitoring media coverage, since the beginning of this year media in the UK and Germany has increasingly turned against the US administration. (Guardian)

Behind the Great Divide (February 18, 2003)
There was a great difference in television coverage of the anti war protests on February 15. US cable news media seemed to be “reporting about a different planet than the one covered by foreign media.” The US media are acting as if the US government has already decided to invade Iraq. ( New York Times)

Reporting the Gulf War (February 14, 2003)
Patrick J. Sloyan, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the aftermath of the first Gulf War, discusses what reporters were not allowed to print during that war and the development of plans for muzzling the press in the coming months. (Guardian)

Playing the "Terrorism" Card (February 13, 2003)
The White House continues their propaganda game by utilizing the terrorism scare as a way to “frighten the public and keep competing politicians at bay.” (ZNet)

Misleading the Public (February 12, 2003)
In another attempt to persuade the public of a terrorist link, the Bush administration claims that the recent Bin Laden tape is “evidence” of a partnership between al Qaida and Iraq. (Yellow Times)

Stifling the Voice of Reason (February 10, 2003)
The campaign to suppress media questioning of US policies on Iraq has reached new levels. Some websites hosting alternative views contradicting Washington’s foreign policy have come “under hacker attack and political pressures to ‘relocate’." (Scoop)

A Failure of Skepticism in Powell Coverage (February 10, 2003)
According to Norman Solomon, major news agencies and television anchors immediately believed Secretary of State Colin Powell’s “evidence” on Iraq’s threat without bothering to question the information. (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting)

Powell Without Picasso (February 5, 2003)
At the entrance of the UN Security Council, Picasso’s antiwar masterpiece "Guernica" was recently covered with a blue blanket. The “Guernica” depicts mutilated humans and would be “inappropriate” when Secretary of State Colin Powell makes his case for a war with Iraq. (New York Times)

Iraq's Hidden Weapons: From Allegation to Fact (February 4, 2003)
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting questions US media coverage of the UN inspections, especially the way journalists no longer present allegations as such, but as a statement of fact. Is it due to “an excess zeal or simple carelessness,” wonders the newspaper?

Ordinary Americans Think Bin Laden and Saddam Are the Same Man (February 2, 2003)
Since 9/11 Washington has tried to prove that a link exists between Iraq and Al Qeada. The rest of the world is unconvinced, although the US government has been rather successful in convincing the domestic population. (Independent)

American Television Channels on a War Footing (January 31, 2003)
The US military are not the only ones preparing for a war. Major US television networks ranging from Fox to CNN are devoting great amounts of resources in an attempt to establish themselves as the main source of information during a war with Iraq. (Le Monde)

Europe and America Must Stand United (January 30, 2003)
In an attempt to rally support for a possible war, eight European leaders have signed a letter affirming their solidarity with the United States Iraq policy. The letter was published in Times and Wall Street Journal, Europe. (Times, London)

Counterspin: Pro-War Mythology (January 28, 2003)
Scott Burchill refutes the claims media reports ranging from the threat of Saddam Hussein to weapons of mass destruction and Iraq’s link with terrorism. The government utilizes “spin doctors and PR consultant firms” to convince the public that a war on Iraq is necessary. Burchill also answers questions regarding oil and the legal aspects of a pre-emptive strike. ( Sydney Morning Herald)

Few Nations Marching to Bush's War Drums (January 27, 2003)
The level of opposition to a war against Iraq is greater in Europe than in the US because “links between the oil and weapons industries and key members of the Bush administration are widely covered in European media.” To fill this gap, the Chicago Tribune uncovers the links between the Bush administration and various oil companies in Iraq.

How the Press Downplayed the Protests (January 24, 2003)
Wayne Madsen discusses the media’s deliberate failure to accurately report the number of participants during the anti-war protests in Washington DC on January 18. The voices of the people opposing war were not heard because the Bush administration (and others) have attempted to “marginalize the protestors.” (Counter Punch)

Apparatus of Lies
In an attempt to build a case against Iraq, the White House is posting a document regarding Baghdad's "brutal record of deceit” in an attempt to justify a US intervention. Not surprisingly the document does not consider US propaganda or disinformation, an aspect that the White House could take into account for future postings.

War Journalists Should Not Be Cosying Up to the Military (January 21, 2003)
In an upcoming war against Iraq, Robert Fisk of the Independent warns of possible biased reporting by journalists, especially reporters with close ties to the US military. Fisk also provides a list of factors for viewers to be aware of, such as using “collateral damage” to mean “dead civilians.”

Muzzling the Media in Wartime (January 17, 2003)
A recent poll suggests that many Americans believe that news organizations are more obliged to support the government in wartime than to provide coverage that could question the military's handling of the war. In the case of a US war against Iraq, this could lead to serious threats to the First Amendment rights of the press. (Washington Post)

Bushwhacked (January 13, 2003)
Matthew Engel of the Guardian issues a stinging indictment of the US media, with clear implications for mainstream coverage of the Iraq crisis. The Bush administration doles out tidbits of favorably-spun information and rewards the takers, Engel argues, controlling major newspapers’ agenda more than any previous administration.

Ex-Bush Speechwriter: I Was to Provide a Justification for War (January 8, 2003)
In his new book, former speechwriter and right-wing columnist David Blum boasts how he assumed the task of devising a convincing justification for a war on Iraq: the so-called Axis of Evil. Blum’s book reveals how the Bush administration acted swiftly to use the 9/11 attacks to its political advantage. (What’s Left)

Just the Facts (January 6, 2003)
Claiming that “regime change” in Iraq would be a quick, painless process ignores the tens of thousands of Iraqis who perished in the Gulf War, as well as the large percentage of veterans who came home suffering from debilitating diseases. This truthout article argues that the Bush administration employs many such lies to justify its violent quest for oil in Iraq.

The Lies We Are Told About Iraq (January 5, 2003)
When the first Bush administration waged war against Iraq, many US citizens believed reports that Saddam Hussein had Hitler-like ambitions and an enormous army, and that "smart" bombs caused minimal collateral damage. These claims have since been proven false, and "to date, nothing suggests that a second Gulf War would prove any less costly to truth or humans." (Los Angeles Times)

2002

Pentagon Debates Propaganda Push in Allied Nations (December 16, 2002)
The US Defense Department plans a military mission to influence public opinion and policy makers in allied or neutral countries, which has led to conflicts within the Pentagon. Officials debate what some call "information operations against adversaries," which could involve paying journalists or hiring outside contractors to rally support for US policies. (New York Times)

The Papers that Cried Wolf (December 16, 2002)
Brian Whitaker looks at how articles in the US media are giving currency to false or questionable claims made by US intelligence officials and others. He argues that this is part of an effort to “soften up public attitudes to war with Iraq.” (Guardian)

Common Myths in Iraq Coverage (November 27, 2002)
Several factual errors circulate with alarming frequency in the mainstream media’s coverage of the Iraq crisis. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) presents the most common myths and sets the record straight.

A Reckless Rush to War (October 21, 2002)
The American Prospect argues that the Bush Administration turns to Iraq to divert attention away from a sharp decline in its domestic political prospects, corporate scandals, and the fall of the stock market.

Who's to Blame If There's War In Iraq? (October 7, 2002)
This satirical article blames the media for seeking better ratings in sensational war topics and keeping US collective minds off their real country's domestic problems such as unemployment. (YellowTimes.org)

Human Rights in the Balance (September 25, 2002)
Amnesty International accuses western governments of manipulating information on human rights abuses in Iraq to build its case for war and criticizes the lack of interest in reported human rights violations in Iraq before the Gulf war.

[katty]

8. K&R!! Presstitutes finally busted!

[Mnemosyne]

10. Accessories to treason, imho. n/t

[earth mom]

12. K & R!

:kick:

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

14. kicked and recccccccccccccccccc'd

[leftchick]

15. it sure would be nice

if KO addressed this tonight because no one else will.