Iraq vs Tsunami: The Duplicity Of The Media
By Mike Whitney
Jan 2, 2005
The American media
has descended on the Asian tsunami with all the fervor of feral animals in
a meat locker. The newspapers and TV’s are plastered with bodies drifting
out to sea, battered carcasses strewn along the beach and bloated babies
lying in rows. Every aspect of the suffering is being scrutinized with
microscopic intensity by the predatory lens of the media.
This is where the
western press really excels: in the celebratory atmosphere of human
catastrophe. Their penchant for misery is only surpassed by their appetite
for profits.
Where was this “free
press” in Iraq when the death toll was skyrocketing towards 100,000? So
far, we’ve seen nothing of the devastation in Falluja where more than
6,000 were killed and where corpses were lined along the city’s streets
for weeks on end. Is death less photogenic in Iraq? Or, are there
political motives behind the coverage?
Wasn’t Ted Koppel
commenting just days ago, that the media was restricting its coverage of
Iraq to show sensitivity for the squeamishness of its audience? He
reiterated the mantra that filming dead Iraqis was “in bad taste” and that
his American audience would be repelled by such images? How many times
have we heard the same rubbish from Brokaw, Jennings and the rest of their
ilk?
Well, it looks like
Koppel and the others have quickly switched directions. The tsunami has
turned into a 24 hour-a-day media frenzy of carnage and ruin, exploring
every facet of human misery in agonizing detail.
The festival of
bloodshed is chugging ahead at full-throttle and it’s bumping up ratings
in the process.
Corporate media never
fails to astound even the most jaded viewer. Just when it appears that
they’ve hit rock-bottom, they manage to slip even deeper into the morass
of sensationalism. The manipulation of calamity is particularly
disturbing, especially when disaster is translated into a revenue
windfall. Koppel may disparage “bad taste”, but his boardroom bosses are
more focused on the bottom line. Simply put, tragedy is good for business.
When it comes to
Iraq, however, the whole paradigm shifts to the right. The dead and maimed
are faithfully hidden from view. No station would dare show a dead Marine
or even an Iraqi national mutilated by an errant American bomb. That might
undermine the patriotic objectives of our mission: to democratize the
natives and enter them into the global economic system. Besides, if Iraq
was covered like the tsunami, public support would erode extremely
quickly, and Americans would have to buy their oil rather than extracting
it at gunpoint. What good would that do?
Looks like the
media’s got it right: carnage IS different in Iraq than Thailand,
Indonesia or India. The Iraqi butchery is part of a much grander scheme: a
plan for conquest, subjugation and the theft of vital resources, the
foundation blocks for maintaining white privilege into the next century.
The Iraq conflict is
an illustration of how the media is governed by the political agenda of
ownership. The media cherry-picks the news according to the requirements
of the investor class, dumping footage (like dead American soldiers) that
doesn’t support their policies. That way, information can be fit into the
appropriate doctrinal package, one that serves corporate interests. It’s a
matter of selectively excluding anything that compromises the broader,
imperial objectives. Alternatively, the coverage of the Asian tsunami
allows the media to whet the public’s appetite for tragedy and feed the
macabre preoccupation with misfortune. Both tendencies are an affront to
honest journalism and to any reasonable commitment to an informed
citizenry.
The uneven coverage
(of Iraq and the tsunami) highlights an industry in meltdown. Today’s
privately owned media may bury one story, and yet, manipulate another to
boost ratings. They are just as likely to exploit the suffering of Asians,
while ignoring the pain of Iraqis. Neither brings us closer to the truth.
It’s simply impossible to derive a coherent worldview from the purveyors
of soap suds and dog food. They’re more devoted to creating a compatible
atmosphere for consumerism than conveying an objective account of events.
We need a media that
is dedicated to straightforward standards of impartiality and excellence,
not one that’s rooted in commercialism, exploitation and hyperbole.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=21&ItemID=6941
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