UPDATED - ColdType

This is an issue that protest movements ignore
at their peril. While a Nation editor may pop up
on a talk show, usually “balanced” by a bullying
neo-con and conservative anchor, most of the
news and analysis that shapes the activist
agenda is not reaching the mass audience. Is this
not a political challenge?
Putting anti-war ads on TV is important but
insufficient. We need to sharpen our own understanding
of the way media works and doesn’t.
How can we believe that government will be
responsive to pressure, protest and lobbying but
that the media isn’t? The far right targeted the
so-called liberal media and took it over. Pressure
works. It’s time to press the press to make media
coverage an issue, not just a complaint to cry
about. ●
MARCH 10: HOW TO KEEP
THE MEDIA ON MESSAGE
EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
IMAGINE the scenario. It is Saturday night at the
State Department and more is stirring than a few
mice. The Sunday New York Times has arrived.
In it, that newspaper’s first editorial against the
war. “If it comes down to a question of yes or no
to invasion without broad international support,
our answer is no. Even though Hans Blix, the
chief weapons inspector, said that Saddam Hussein
was not in complete compliance with United
Nations orders to disarm, the report of the
inspectors on Friday was generally devastating
to the American position.”
You can just hear one of their media spinners
exclaim: “We are losing New York!” As they rambled
through the Op-ed page, it got worse. Jimmy
56
Carter, our other Born-Again President, says the
war will not be just. Tom Friedman seems to be
sliding into the anti-war camp since no one in
power seems to be listening to his complaints
that “We” will need international support to
rebuild Iraq, so let’s not piss off the whole world.
And the coup de grace: Maureen Dowd calls
Bush “The Xanax” President, commenting on his
s-l-o-w performance last week at that White
House press conference that seemed to suggest
he was on drugs. She came right out and said it
while others spoke of his sedate manner.
“Sedated” was her conclusion.
Orchestrating a story
WHAT to do? Since the propaganda war is as
important as the real war in the wings, they
would have to find something to keep their
agenda as the main frame of the debate. They
needed to find something to give Secretary of
State Powell a “smoking gun” to reveal/expose,
and to take the offensive during the Sunday TV
talk shows – on which he seems to have become
a permanent fixture. And sure enough, there it
was on page 169 of a 176 U.N. inspector’s technical
report. Iraq may have rockets suitable for delivering
chemical or biological weapons.
Gotcha
On Sunday, on Fox, the homeland network, Powell
cited the existence of drone aircraft that could
unleash black rain on our boys. He hinted at
what was to come: “That’s the kind of thing we’re
going to be making some news about in the
course of the week,” he said. “And there are
other things that have been found that I think