Media reporting of the Iraq war 3-19-2005

19, March 2005                           Media reporting of the Iraq war

Wanted 'Courageous reporter willing to travel to war zones to gather raw, unvarnished news to the American public. Urgently need material to serve as a counter-spin to imbedded reporting and VNR's. High risk, low pay!'

How many brave hearts would respond to such a tantalizing offer?   Sadly, It seems like an iron curtain has descended on independent media reporting. This trend threatens the very democracy that we all claim to cherish and for which wars were fought and tyrannical rulers overthrown. The anonymity of reporters' sources is also under grave threat. Consider the case of New York Times a Pulitzer prize reporter, Judith Miller, who is facing a jail term for refusing to reveal her news source in the Valerie Plame expose' as a CIA undercover operative. Ironically the real villains in this sad episode were reporter, Robert Novak who blew Ms. Plame's cover and an unnamed source (guess who?) from the White House. Many reporters are now loathe to criticize the US Administration lest they meet the same fate as Dan Rather, whose illustrious career was tarnished by a forged document allegedly planted by the same 'Darth Vader' of the White House.

Reports from Iraq, dispatched by 'imbedded reporters' are often edited, embellished versions of power-point presentations given by the PR field commanders, who invariably offer a sunny and rosy picture of the war. A carefully crafted lexicon of terms, such as 'Iraqi Freedom, democratization of Iraq' convey a false picture of US intentions. If the stated goals of withdrawing coalition forces from Iraq are to be believed why would the US build the largest embassy in the world and why are so many US bases being built with such haste, while the civilian population continues to suffer from lack of basic amenities such as electricity, clean water and security?

Our democracy and unimpeded access to reliable TV network news has been further compromised by the advent of pre-packaged TV segments that has been masquerading as real news on our local stations. These Video News Releases (VNR's) have been prepared by Public Relations Firms under contract with major federal agencies to put a positive spin on government policy decisions - all paid for by our tax dollars. It is appalling that the major TV networks are willing participants to this charade to mislead the American people.

At least 20 federal agencies, including the departments of Transportation and the Pentagon have used VNR's to advance their agenda and blunt any opposition to their policies. These pervasive actions by the government must be vigorously opposed by the American people. Failure to do so will be the death knell of a free, independent and reliable source of news. I urge readers to call their local TV stations and their elected representatives and demand a halt to this insidious, crude form of covert propaganda. Finally, I urge Indo-Americans to resist the siren song of 'wonderful career opportunities' espoused by the aggressive ROTC sharks lurking in hallways of college campuses.

Get a copy of Harper's magazine which details the utter dehumanizing, merciless abuse of Iraqi prisoners and dramatic increase of US soldiers going AWOL.