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And what about Arab news outlets with their
own sources? They will be targeted, says media
war expert, Harper’s Magazine publisher John
MacArthur. He told Editor and Publisher he
thinks Al-Jazeera, whose office was “accidentally”
bombed in Kabul, Afghanistan, may face
similar treatment in Iraq. MacArthur predicts
Al-Jazeera will be “knocked out in the first 48
hours, like what happened in Kabul.” He told
Barbara Bedway: “The Pentagon is expecting a
kind of Panama-style war, over in three days.
Nobody has time to see or ask any questions. I
think if embedded reporters see anything important
– or bloody – the Pentagon will interfere.
Same result, different tactic: the truth gets distorted.”
But that’s not all. Network news managers
have effectively accepted the administration’s
rationale for war. Its pundits and experts tend to
function as cheerleaders with few dissenting
voices given voice.
A study by FAIR, the media watchdog group,
found that anti-war views were conspicuous by
their absence: “Looking at two weeks of coverage
(1/30/03 to 2/12/03), FAIR examined the 393 oncamera
sources who appeared in nightly news
stories about Iraq on ABC World News Tonight,
CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and PBS’s
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
“The study began one week before and ended
one week after Secretary of State Colin Powell’s
Feb. 5 presentation at the U.N., a time that saw
particularly intense debate about the idea of a
war against Iraq on the national and international
level.
“More than two-thirds (267 out of 393) of the
guests featured were from the United States. Of
the U.S. guests, a striking 75 percent (199) were
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either current or former government or military
officials. Only one of the official U.S. sources –
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D.Mass.) – expressed
skepticism or opposition to the war.
Even this was couched in vague terms: “Once
we get in there, how are we going to get out,
what’s the loss for American troops going to be,
how long we’re going to be stationed there,
what’s the cost going to be,” said Kennedy on
NBC Nightly News on Feb. 5.
Similarly, when both U.S. and non-U.S. guests
were included, 76 percent (297 of 393) were either
current or retired officials. Such a predominance
of official sources virtually assures that independent
and grassroots perspectives will be
underrepresented.
The reporting will be closely managed. Robert
Fisk of The Independent points to “a new CNN
system of script approval‚” the iniquitous instruction
to reporters that they have to send all their
copy to anonymous officials in Atlanta to ensure
it is suitably sanitized – suggests that the Pentagon
and the Department of State have nothing to
worry about. Nor do the Israelis.
“CNN, of course, is not alone in this paranoid
form of reporting. Other U.S. networks operate
equally anti-journalistic systems. And it’s not the
fault of the reporters. CNN’s teams may use
clichés and don military costumes – you will see
them do this in the next war – but they try to get
something of the truth out. Next time, though,
they’re going to have even less chance.”
That was Fisk before the countdown to combat
was approved. Now he advises us to move a War
of Words watch up to an elevated level. More
recently, Fisk issues a language alert now moving
to an elevated level. His clichés to counter:
“Inevitable revenge” – for the executions of