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May 03, 2004
Media ineptness Dept.
How propaganda works:Ten days ago, American and coalition forces engaged Iraqi �insurgents,� as the national press politely calls them. Sane Americans know them as the enemy, gunmen of an Islamic religious leader. An American brigadier general gave a televised briefing on the battle for several cities. As he explained the fight for Fallujah and how we had taken three bridges at Kut, suddenly across the bottom of the screen appeared a Fox News Alert: EXPLOSION HEARD IN BAGHDAD!!!!!More here.Fox immediately switched to a camera shot of a Baghdad skyline. The voice of a reporter came on, urgently speculating about an explosion, perhaps caused by a car bomb or a mortar or an RPG (rocket propelled grenade, to the unwashed) or whatever else the reporter could think of. Then the camera zeroed in on a hole in some concrete, perhaps a parking lot or sidewalk. The hole appeared to be about the size of a wheelbarrow, the evident location of the EXPLOSION HEARD IN BAGHDAD!!!!!
They got an expert on the phone. The TV guys keep a herd of experts handy for just such an event. The reporter asked the expert what could have happened. He said to her, and I paraphrase, �I�ll tell you what happened. This is a war of information. You were showing the general�s briefing, and they wanted you off it, so they set off a bomb in Baghdad.�
The reporter stammered, �Uh, oh . . .� and commenced to get the guy off the phone. He had more expertise than she expected.
A quick flick to CNN showed the same camera shot: a hole in concrete. On MSNBC: a hole in concrete.
No doubt the general continued his briefing, the subject of which was the most intense and costly fighting in a year.
Judith | 05/03/04 at 01:53 PM | Categories: - The Fourth Estate
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