Un-Embed the Media

[Guest guest]

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21703/

 

Un-Embed the Media

 

By Amy Goodman and David Goodman, AlterNet. Posted April 8, 2005.

 

Government-supplied propaganda has become pervasive in mainstream

media, from hiring journalists to write puff pieces to credentialing

fake reporters to fawning reports from embedded reporters in Iraq.

Where is independent media?

 

This originally appeared in the Baltimore Sun on April 7.

 

Recent revelations that the Bush administration has been fabricating

news stories, secretly hiring journalists to write puff pieces and

credentialing fake reporters at White House news conferences has

infuriated the news media.

 

Editorials profess to being shocked -- shocked! -- by the government's

covert propaganda campaign in which, as The New York Times revealed

March 13, at least 20 federal agencies have spent $250 million

creating and sending fake news segments to local TV stations.

 

But the media have only themselves to blame for most people --

including TV news managers -- not being able to distinguish journalism

from propaganda. The line between news and propaganda was trampled not

only by the public relations agencies hired by the government but also

by reporters in the deserts of Iraq.

 

The Pentagon deployed a weapon more powerful than any bomb: the U.S.

media. Embedded journalists were transformed into efficient conduits

of Pentagon spin. Before and during the invasion of Iraq, the networks

conveniently provided the flag-draped backdrop for fawning reports

from the field.

 

As if literally adopting the Pentagon's propagandistic slogan --

" Operation Iraqi Freedom " -- for their coverage weren't enough, the

networks bombarded viewers with an unending parade of generals and

colonels paid to offer on-air analysis. It gave new meaning to the

term " general news. "

 

If we had state-run media in the United States, how would it be any

different?

 

The media have a responsibility to show the true face of war. But many

corporate journalists, so accustomed by now to trading truth for

access (the " access of evil " ), can no longer grasp what's missing from

their coverage. As CBS' Jim Axelrod, who was embedded with -- we would

say in bed with -- the 3rd Infantry Division, gushed: " This will sound

like I've drunk the Kool-Aid, but I found embedding to be an extremely

positive experience. ... We got great stories and they got very

positive coverage. "

 

It should come as no surprise that the Bush administration, having

found the media so helpful and compliant with their coverage of the

Iraq war, would seek to orchestrate similarly uncritical coverage of

other issues that they hold dear.

 

TV viewers nationwide have watched and heard about how the " top-notch

work force " of the often-criticized Transportation Security

Administration has led " one of the most remarkable campaigns in

aviation history, " how President Bush's controversial Medicare plan

will offer " new benefits, more choices, more opportunities, " how the

United States is " putting needy women back in business " in

Afghanistan, and how Army prison guards, accused of torturing and

murdering inmates in Iraq and Afghanistan, " treat prisoners strictly,

but fairly. "

 

Such crude government-supplied propaganda would be laughable were it

not being passed off as news on America's TV stations. Even sadder,

nothing about the sycophantic reports seems out of the ordinary.

 

The first casualty of this taxpayer-financed misinformation campaign

is the truth.

 

Mr. Bush must have been delighted to learn from a March 16 Washington

Post-ABC News poll that 56 percent of Americans still thought Iraq had

weapons of mass destruction before the start of the war, while six in

10 said they believed Iraq provided direct support to al Qaeda.

 

Americans believe these lies not because they are stupid but because

they are good media consumers. The explosive effect of this propaganda

is amplified as a few pro-war, pro-government media moguls consolidate

their grip over the majority of news outlets. Media monopoly and

militarism go hand in hand.

 

It's time for the American media to un-embed themselves from the U.S.

government. We need media that are fiercely independent, that ask the

hard questions and hold those in power accountable. Only then will

government propaganda be seen for what it is and citizens be able to

make choices informed by reality, not self-serving misinformation.

Anything less is a disservice to the servicemen and women of this

country and a disservice to a democratic society.

 

Amy Goodman, host of the radio and TV news show Democracy Now!, and

David Goodman, a contributing writer for Mother Jones, are authors of

The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War

Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them, just published in paperback

by Hyperion. Amy is currently on a 50-city 'Un-Embed the Media' tour.