UPDATED - ColdType

– threatening Iraq and threatening the world
organization in Iraq?
“Article 100 of the U.N. Charter states that in
the performance of their duties the Secretary-
General and the staff shall not seek or receive
instructions from any government... Well, of
course, it was not termed an instruction, it was a
recommendation. But what the Secretary-General
did on March 17, 2003, was to accept an
instruction.”
So what happens now? Even before a missile is
fired, the U.N. has become the first casualty of
this war. ●
MARCH 24: “FICTITIOUS
TIMES” ARE HERE AGAIN
EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
WE live in “fictitious times,” filmmaker Michael
Moore said at the Oscars last night, an event celebrating
the dream factory of American culture.
To his credit, he took other documentary makers
with him to the podium for a collective 15
seconds of fame, to contrast the reality their
work is concerned with and the surreal atmosphere
that surrounded them and the rest of us.
He said, “We love non-fiction but we live in fictitious
times, with a fictitious president, providing
fictitious reasons for a false war.”
A night earlier, he rehearsed these same lines
at the Indy Spirit awards on BRAVO when they
too honored his movie, “Bowling for Columbine.”
There, he more directly confronted the media
coverage by demanding the withdrawal of the
U.S. military in the form of all those military
experts from our TV studios where they seem to
be an occupying force. TV newsrooms were
102
invaded long before Baghdad.
TV helped lead to war,critics say
THE disgraceful TV media coverage is finally
meriting some discussion in the mainstream
media. The New York Times reported in its lowcirculation
Saturday edition: “Critics Say Coverage
Helped Lead to War.” Reporters Jim Rutenberg
and Robin Toner wrote:
“Critics of the war against Iraq are not reserving
their anger exclusively for President Bush.
Some also blame the news media, asserting that
they failed to challenge the administration
aggressively enough as it made a shaky case for
war. In an interview, Eric Alterman, liberal
media critic and author of “What Liberal
Media?”(Basic Books, 2003) argued, “Support for
this war is in part a reflection that the media has
allowed the Bush administration to get away
with misleading the American people.”
“The strongest indictment of the press, many
of these critics argue, are recent polls that suggest
many Americans see Iraq as being responsible
for the Sept. 11 attacks,” the Times
reporters said.
The war is finally on
WHILE the media war and the “war” over the
media continues, the shooting war is finally on,
as President Bush acknowledged on the White
House lawn yesterday. That means both sides
are fighting.
All the rest has been prelude and a romp with
the weapons fetishists and their media cheerleaders
making the U.S. invasion “the” story
while leaving the Iraqis, civilian casualties and