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EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION contract that reporters sign explicitly requires reporters to ‘follow the direction and orders of the Government” and prohibits them from suing for injury or death even where this “is caused or contributed to” by the military. Unprecedented access is the carrot, but the stick is always on hand. Two embedded journalists who have allegedly strayed over the line have been expelled and during the second weekend of the war “many embedded reporters found their satellite phones blocked for unexplained reasons”. In addition, some embeds are, according to Christian Lowe of US military magazine Army Times, being “hounded by military public affairs officers who follow their every move and look over their shoulders as they interview aviators, sailors, and maintainers for their stories.” Each military division in the gulf has 40 to 60 embedded journalists, and between five and six public affairs officers “behind the scenes”. They report up to the Coalition Press Information Center (CPIC) in Kuwait and the $1 million press centre at CentCom in Doha. From there the message is co-ordinated by the Office of Global Communications in the White-house in consort with Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s top spin doctor in Downing Street. The fanciful notion that the misinformation of the first weeks of the campaign were been due to journalists having conversations with “a squaddie who’s shining his boots”, as a British MoD official spun it, is itself a key part of the propaganda war. All of the myriad misinformation coming out of Iraq in the first two weeks has been fed out by the U.S./U.K. global media operation. As one 86 reporter in Doha noted, “At General Tommy Franks’s headquarters, it is easy to work out whether the day’s news is good or bad. When there are positive developments, press officers prowl the corridors of the press centre dispensing upbeat reports from pre-prepared scripts, declaring Iraqi towns have been liberated and that humanitarian aid is about to be delivered. “Yet if American and British troops have suffered any sort of battlefield reverse, the spin doctors retreat into their officers at press centre and await instructions from London and Washington.” If the embeds have been an opportunity, the Pentagon and British military have seen independent journalists as a threat. There have been a stream of reports of hostility, threats and violence against independent reporters. UNESCO, The International Federation of Journalists, Reporters Sans Frontieres and the British National Union of Journalists have all condemned these threats. Some have been subtle and others less so. On the ground and away from the cameras the threats are pointed and can include violence, as several journalists have already found out. The subtle threats include those made by British Ministers such as Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, “One of the reasons for having journalists [embedded] is to prevent precisely the kind of tragedy that occurred to an ITN crew very recently when a well known, hard working, courageous journalist was killed, essentially because he was not part of a military organisation. Because he was trying to get a story. And in those circumstances we can’t look after all those journalists on this kind of fast moving
attlefield. So having journalists have the protection, in fact, of our armed forces is both good for journalism, [and] it’s also very good for people watching.” Here, Hoon takes on all the charm and authority of a Mafia boss explaining the bene- COUNTDOWN TO WAR 87 fits of a protection racket. The message is clear: stay embedded and report what you are told or face the consequences. ● David Miller is a member of the Stirling Media Research Institute, Scotland. Contact him at David.miller@stir.ac.uk.
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EMBEDDED . WEAPONS OF MASS HOW THE
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EMBEDDED
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EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTI
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DEDICATION To all who fought and th
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PROLOGUE TO A POST LOG IT is safe t
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or was persuaded by its storyline.
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BLOGGING THE WAR AWAY ew of us esca
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aging the perceptions” of those w
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The embedded journalist THIS book f
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as if it was the property of, and i
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Middle Eastern studies and internat
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world. Clearly some of it brought b
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“Can there be a democracy when th
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TRAINING MEDIA FOR WAR By KATHLEEN
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unprecedented access to the war in
Page 37 and 38: depicted people hit by weapons. Med
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Page 43 and 44: What is the connection between the
Page 45 and 46: emain in Afghanistan, and they may
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Page 53 and 54: NEW YORK / FEBRUARY 24, 2003 IRAQI
Page 55 and 56: WAR CALLS AND THE NEWS BIZ RUSHES T
Page 57 and 58: seem to want to be in the media mor
Page 59 and 60: more can be made of.” Underscore
Page 61 and 62: dent would only go to Strasbourg to
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Page 79 and 80: NEW YORK,MARCH 17,2003 WASHINGTON D
Page 81 and 82: (who, overseas readers should be aw
Page 83 and 84: PBS to the Rescue SURELY there were
Page 85 and 86: can we do here? 1) Rumsfeld has alr
Page 87: Phillip Rochot, a respected reporte
Page 93 and 94: NEW YORK,MARCH 19,2003 RIGHT WING L
Page 95 and 96: CNN later quietly settled with them
Page 97 and 98: War dances or not, there clearly is
Page 99 and 100: sources, military types, other CC n
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Page 103 and 104: oadcast industry are now seeking, i
Page 105 and 106: most of the rest of the world out o
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Page 109: By GREG MITCHELL THE war is only a
Page 113 and 114: NEW YORK, MARCH 25, 2003 IS THE INV
Page 115 and 116: demoralized by the enemy’s fierce
Page 117 and 118: eral Wesley Clark, former supreme a
Page 119 and 120: www.iraqbodycount.net/bodycount.htm
Page 121 and 122: 500 embedded reporters, who natural
Page 123 and 124: Put this warning on your TV set FIN
Page 125 and 126: interest up close and personal stor
Page 127 and 128: Reporting or distorting? HOW do we
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Page 133 and 134: emphasized that bombing a televisio
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interviews that Secretary of Defens
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information is probably more freely
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BATTLEFIELD BLUES WAR AS ONE BIG JO
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NEW YORK, MARCH 25, 2003 INVADERS F
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clients. “Air the National Anthem
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“The right-wing media and politic
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eporter as they come. They used a r
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Their Master’s Voice YEARS ago, R
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alongside the reporters in Iraq,”
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What are we seeing? Last night Aaro
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cell door was closed and the click
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SURROUNDING BAGHDAD WORDS OF THE WI
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NEW YORK, APRIL 3, 2003 DEATH TOLL
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APRIL 4: WHAT WOULD DR. KING SAY AB
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ance, bad weather and vulnerable su
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It’s an invasion, not a war. It
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Arnett back on the air PETER ARNETT
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eport is compromised.” “When a
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Red Cross horrified IT was in the C
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military conflict, it is getting ug
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offer a useful framework to integra
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eporters and photographers out of t
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Peter Wilson, London correspondent
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used on television). J - Jihad, Jih
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NEW YORK, APRIL 10, 2003: LOOTING E
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EMBEDDED: SO, WEAPONS THIS IS OF VI
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could see bullets flying and then w
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in an attempt to kill Saddam Hussei
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could this all be part of the plan?
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Off the charts IN FACT, there was a
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The CIA role: Out of sight, not out
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assess each market whenever a compa
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although we never met. It was his b
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chaos, violence, unrest. And it jus
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Off with their heads JOURNALISTS wh
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esearcher David Miller of Stirling
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worked for Iraq now says WMD eviden
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tiques. Without passing judgments,
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“At least 15 paintings, gold-plat
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or downloading video games that are
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its case. If it does not, the world
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Kurds. At that time, in the Bush ye
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grams such as the “Birthright Isr
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to gullible reporters. ABC further
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NEW YORK, MAY 30, 2003 AFTER THE WA
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As Linda McQuaig wrote in the Toron
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REMEMBERING THE FALLEN SOME FACTS F
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A CALL FOR MEDIA ACTIVISM Now’s t
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weapons of mass destruction. The te
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A MILITARY VIEW EVEN experienced mi
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statesman overnight. 9/11 provided
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“media.” That is a dangerous wo
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diers can eventually be withdrawn.
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State of the Union address, it was
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lenged the journalists present to t
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your TV programs, See It Now, Harve
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had when our voices could reach onl
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to reason why.” Sometimes, not to
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“March 10. Pro-Government rallies
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MEDIA TENOR (BONN) THE WAR AGAINST
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many’s public broadcaster ARD - w
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actions to that of international po
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But, surprisingly, protests did not
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in that direction, however, were si
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of the war,” citing Nielsen Media
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NEW YORK, OCTOBER 10, 2003 COVERING
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view of events there that put our B
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BBC and the leading lights of the A
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had taken off. This time, there wer
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of the Media was too soft on Presid
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they play to engineering consent, a
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LAST WORDS
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CREDITS
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EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
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