"Has Mao Become A Role Model For Our Media?"
".... And what about CNN?
Similar propaganda techniques are driving news presentation here and there. Yes, alas, we too have ideological correctness and sloganeering all over the media spectrum.
Consider the coverage of the Iraq war—what there is left of it. We have all seen how it has mostly disappeared.
I was watching CNN’s Wolf Blitzer report on all the “progress” being made in Iraq. No, he didn’t go to a reporter in Iraq or seek out critics, but turned instead to the CNN’s Pentagon correspondent who relayed the official view.
CNN noted (how surprising!) that the Generals are glad the war is no longer a key issue in Presidential politics. Yet no assessment is offered on how a fall-off in coverage is letting politicians off the hook.
CNN reported - for the upteenth time - that the “surge is working.” How many times have you heard that? This focus assumes that the main problem is military, when everyone one who has looked closely recognizes that stability requires an equitable political settlement and the withdrawal of US forces.
Yes, casualties may be down but the Washington Post reports that Iranian influence may be more responsible than US military patrols. That story has not seeped into much TV coverage because like Iraq before it, Iran is now the boogie man and a target in the crosshairs of neo-cons urging a military attack. Balanced coverage is as rare on that front as it is from Iraq.
Conn Hallinan writes: “The narrative in the media these days is the success of the U.S. “surge,” which has poured an additional 30,000 U.S. troops into Iraq. Last month, war critic and close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa), said, “I think the surge is working.”
Polls indicate that concern over the economy has replaced the war as the major issue for voters, and, that while a majority of Americans want the troops out, those saying that things are going better jumped from 33 percent to just under 50 percent. Are they going better? Car bombings, sectarian violence and attacks on U.S. troops are down, although 2007 has been the deadliest year of the war for the Americans. But does the reduced violence have anything to do with the surge?
As Patrick Cockburn of The Independent points out, Americans and the U.S. media tend to “exaggerate the extent to which the U.S. is making the political weather and is in control of events there.”
