The world's wicked war of words- Anti-Arab brainwashing by the US media

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Paul J. Balles shows how the US media’s application of Joseph Goebbels’s dictum – that a lie, if audacious enough and repeated enough times, will be believed by the masses – has produced a plethora of anti-Arab bigots, from the likes of Steve Emerson, Alan Dershowitz, Caroline Glick and Ruth Conniff to the racist ranting of brainless lumpen on the internet.

The world's wicked war of words- Anti-Arab brainwashing by the US media

By Paul J. Balles
9 August 2009



More insidious than the wars with tanks and guns, aircraft and bombs, missiles and guidance systems, shock and awe campaigns. The wickedest wars are the wars for people's minds – the propaganda campaigns that exercise thought control.

“Get control over radio, press, cinema and theatre,” said Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister. He perfected an understanding of the "Big Lie" technique of propaganda based on the principle that a lie, if audacious enough and repeated enough times, will be believed by the masses.

Western brainwashing comes from the media. Readers, listeners and viewers need to be aware of these propaganda sources. About the media in general, Steven Salaita correctly observed:

The flippancy with which US media apply the word "terrorism" to Arab populations reinforces the notion that violence in the Arab world is ahistorical and therefore senseless. Arabs in turn become a people without narratives who belong to a culture incapable of rationality.

...

http://www.redress.cc/americas/pjballes20090809

[robdogbucky]

1. Guilty

That's the title of a book by Sheehan that is on this topic. A really good read that I stumbled across at my local library:

http://www.interlinkbooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=1734

Guilty
Hollywood's Verdict on Arabs After 9/11
Jack G. Shaheen

WINNER FOREWORD MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2008

"...superbly readable...this book's scope and its impassioned delivery make for an insightful and rewarding read...In this meticulously researched book, Shaheen (Reel Bad Arabs) spotlights anti-Muslim and Arab stereotypes and probes the intersections of popular culture and foreign policy. The author investigates the close ties between Hollywood studios and Washington and recounts how, historically, the strategic stereotyping of populations has been used to garner popular support for governmental policies, citing the career of Leni Riefenstahl and speeches by Lenin and Goebbels to illustrate film's long history as a propaganda vehicle. In an index of more than 100 post-9/11 films, the book depicts and debunks the most prevalent stereotypes of 'reel Arabs'-'exotic camel-riding nomad,' oppressed maiden, corrupt sheikh, terrorist. Dehumanizing portrayals of Arabs have real consequences, according to Shaheen; he draws correlations between the media's depiction of Arabs and the massive support for the invasion of Iraq, the 'wanton' killing of Iraqi civilians and the escalating number of hate crimes against Arabs (or people who look like Arabs) in the United States."
-- Publishers Weekly


"Nothing will be the same again." Americans scarred by the experience of 9/11 often express this sentiment. But what remains the same, argues Jack G. Shaheen, is Hollywood's stereotyping of Arabs. Before 9/11, Shaheen dissected Hollywood's equation of Islam and Arabs with violence in Reel Bad Arabs, his comprehensive study of over a thousand movies. Arabs and Muslims, he showed, were used as shorthand for the "Enemy" and the "Other." In his new book about films made after 9/11, Shaheen finds the same malevolent stereotypes at play. Nearly all of Hollywood's post-9/11 films legitimize a view of Arabs as stereotyped villains-sheikhs, Palestinians, or terrorists. And this happens in every type of film imaginable: one out of four of the movies profiled here have absolutely nothing to do with the Middle East, yet producers toss in weird, shady, unscrupulous Arabs.

Along with an examination of a hundred recent movies, Shaheen addresses the cultural issues at play since 9/11: the government's public relations campaigns to win "hearts and minds" and the impact of 9/11 on citizens and on the imagination. He suggests that winning the "war on terror" would take shattering the century-old stereotypes of Arabs. He calls for speaking out, for more Arab Americans in the film industry, for fresh films, and for a serious effort on the part of our government to tackle this problem.

Jack G. Shaheen is author of the bestselling encyclopedia of Arabs in


robdogbucky says check it out.

[1handclapn]

2. i just got through reading .. Understanding Muhammad:a psychobiography and others, it is a little

more complicated than most westerners think.. we tend to use logic and projection because of our misconceptions of religion and cults..

there certainly are Bigots preaching hate, but it is a gross mistake to think there isn't a genuine discussion about Islam that isn't happening. i would hate to think the bigots are being used as a smoke screen to cover up real concerns...

[timeforpeace]

4. Not really. We're just dealing with the killers ie terrorists on a case by case basis, except for

Obama's war against Afghanistan civilians. And his war against Pakistan ciivilians. OK, I guess he is going after Muslims. You're right.

[1handclapn]

5. not at all what i said.. leave me out of your agenda. i do not support anything you mentioned, Obama

is stupid to continue any ReThuglican war he inherited. they will interperate it as a war on islam. note that i did not say Arabs

i was simply saying that much of the anti-Islamic talking points are just hate mongering or Islamiphobia, a phobia is an unreasonable fear.. i do believe if one actually investigates Islam, there are reasonable fears to therein .. i was a research biologist, i know what objectivity is.. i know how to investigate a subject. i also have lived in an Islamic Republic.

Westerners are approaching Islam as tho reason is a factor.. there is no "Reason/logic" involved in Islam. there are only 2 lists. 1/ of Taboo's and 2/a list of approved behaviors/beliefs, then there are the books, the Koran, the voice of Allah. and there is the Hadith, the recorded minute details of Muhammad's life. then there is the Sunnah.. what Muhammad actually 'did/said', this trumps even what Allah taught. and that isn't what Muslims want us to know. it's the handbook for emulating Muhammad, "the most perfect person ever created".. so perfect that Allah created the very universe and everything in it, specifically for Muhammad. even the "World of Peace and the World of War".

one has to consider what is real and propaganda, not only ours... but their's. that takes a little effort.

[Overseas]

3. K&R. Excellent article.

Really shows how pernicious the propaganda can be, and makes you wonder how it may be influencing you yourself as a purportedly more open-minded person.