http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38689
FILM-US: A Blurry Line Between Propaganda and News
By Khody Akhavi
Credit:"War Made Easy"
Then Secretary of State Colin Powell at the U.N. Security Council, in a
scene from "War Made Easy".
WASHINGTON, Jul 27 (IPS) - A shocking thing happens midway through Norman
Solomon's documentary film "War Made Easy".
While analysing the George W. Bush administration's lead-up to the Iraq
invasion, Solomon plays a news clip of Eason Jordan, a CNN News chief executive
who, in an interview with CNN, boasts of the network's cadre of professional
"military experts". In fact, CNN's retired military generals turned war
analysts were so good, Eason said, that they had all been vetted and approved
by the U.S. government.
"I went to the Pentagon myself several times before the war started and met
with important people," he said. "We got a big thumbs up on all of [the
generals]."
In a country revered for its freedom of speech and unfettered press, Eason's
comments would infuriate any veteran reporter who upholds the most basic and
important tenet of the journalistic profession: independence.
But the relationship between the press and government in the U.S. during times
of war is changing. In Solomon's film, it is just one example of the collusion
between the government and the mainstream news media.
"War Made Easy", which is narrated by Hollywood actor and peace activist Sean
Penn, begins as an anti-war film that decries the Bush administration's
interventionist rationale and misinformation campaigns during the post-9/11
era. Through a montage of video clips from cable news networks, presidential
statements, and historical footage from previous U.S. military interventions,
it compares the propaganda techniques of the past with the present, and draws
striking parallels.
Richard Nixon's "Vietnamisation" rhetoric, which expanded the Vietnam War
instead of ending it, sounds very similar to President Bush's declaration that
"as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down."
The first half-hour of this 73-minute documentary spends too much time
explaining to the audience much of what it probably already knows. But it
redeems itself by delving into the insidious tactics used by the Bush
administration in managing a war of choice, and how the mainstream media
colluded with the U.S. government to boost the war effort.
"Rarely if ever does a war just fall down from the sky. The foundation needs to
be laid, and the case is built, often with deception," says Solomon during an
interview in the film.
"War Made Easy" was produced and directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp for
the Media Education Foundation, a non-profit that distributes educational
programming "to reflect critically on the media industry and the content it
produces," according to organisation's website. Its board of advisors includes
prominent left-wing academics such as Noam Chomsky and Cornell West.
Six years after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, the U.S. news media's tepid
performance during the build-up to the war has been exposed and criticised by
the very establishment that was supposed to hold political officials' "feet to
the fire," as the journalistic proverb goes.
In one interview clip from the Jon Stewart comedy show, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer
shrugs and says, "We should have been more sceptical," drawing a puzzled look
from Stewart.
"War Made Easy" does not dispute the idea that the press is self-correcting, is
willing to investigate its own reporting lapses (as the New York Times did
after the Judith Miller WMD scandal), and issue apologies and retractions. But
it warns against the ostensible collusion between press and government. In
Solomon's view, the U.S. mainstream news media is cast as part and parcel of
the Bush administration's war apparatus, an echo chamber that packages, builds
support for, and, through the vehicle of "leaked misinformation," sells the war
to the U.S. public.
For example, in the lead-up to "Operation Iraqi Freedom," CNN chairman Walter
Isaacson sent a memo to his anchors and reporters asking them to "remind
viewers why they are watching the war." As video of the clean-up at Ground Zero
in Lower Manhattan rolls across the screen, one can't help but thinking about
Sep. 11.
Solomon also labours over the parallels between U.S. government propaganda and
how the rhetoric is now filtered into a more sophisticated media campaign, yet
for all intents and purposes, fulfills the same goal. In short, it is more
insidious than ever.
In one scene, he describes how a Hollywood set designer was hired to build a
news set (with polished backdrop and sleek high-definition televisions) for the
public relations arm of the U.S. military during the Iraq war. Presentations by
military commanders and officials resemble news broadcasts. There is no
discussion of the facts, and what the government says is accepted without
question.
None of these revelations are exactly new, but the historical parallels between
Vietnam and the Iraq war are becoming increasingly clear as the U.S. remains
for a fifth year in Iraq. "War Made Easy" offers a timely criticism of the
media, and portends an ominous future for the U.S. news viewing public should
they sit back and accept without question the pronouncements of political
leaders and evening news anchors.
(END/2007)<<powell_final.jpg>>
