http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=236866
rint Date : Sunday, March 6, 2011
CNN's war
By Dave Fryett
"Do you want him dead?" This was the last query Ze'ev Barak, better known to
viewers of cable news broadcaster CNN as Wolf Blitzer, demanded of his guest
Muhammed Shalgan, former Libyan Foreign Minister. The deepening coarseness of
the reportage one hears from CNN and the rest of the media wolfpack is a
measure of how alarmed the Lords of Capital are with the groundswell of
rebellion sweeping across the Maghreb. There are revolts all over the Islamic
world, but it is upon oil-laden Libya and its embattled "Brother-leader",
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, that the media has compressed the world's attention.
As with Tunisia and Egypt, the anti-imperialist, anti-neoliberal ethos of the
protests are being camouflaged and the uprisings attributed to the smug
indifference and craven corruption of the head of state. What makes this
revolution different is the dictator in question is seen as an enemy of the
West. The media slant, accordingly, has been merciless from the start.
The rats are abandoning Libya's sinking ship of state to appear in broadcast
studios. The very same functionaries who administered Gaddafi's oil fiefdom,
like Shalgan, are now renouncing their lucrative sinecures to condemn the man
who elevated them to wealth, power, and international prestige. In addition to
the usual harangues against Gaddafi -- megalomaniac, authoritarian, sponsor of
terror, martinet -- we now hear junkie, freak, senile. Most scandalous of all,
we are informed that he consorts with a woman who is (brace yourselves ladies
and gentlemen) Ukrainian! A non-white man and a fair-haired, fair-skinned girl
from the home continent of the fair-gened? Jim Crow has found a home in the
Twenty-first Century, and it is CNN.
In a moment when all pretense to journalistic objectivity and integrity were
left behind like a lame camel, and the subinfeudation of media to ruling class
interests was laid bare, CNN confided that they had "reports" that Gaddafi was
headed to Venezuela. Both nations denied the story and Venezuela, through its
state radio, issued unequivocal support for the insurgents. Yet CNN continued
to broadcast this absurdity saying that their "sources" were from high inside
the Gaddafi government. The attempt to link the maverick statesmen and portray
the Bolivarian republic as a haven for state criminals splices most
conveniently two veins of imperial censure. The better informed will observe
that the premise is also specious as both Gaddafi and Chavez have an
all-too-cozy relationship with international finance capital.
Reporters were there to greet the ferry carrying American evacuees from Tripoli
as it docked in Valletta, Malta. They tried valiantly to dramatize the event,
but the banality of bored, luggage-toting travelers trying to find their way
proved too great an obstacle even for CNN's accomplished infotainers. They did
manage to bring two young women before their cameras. They did not tell their
viewers that Yusra Tekbali, an American of Libyan descent, was a journalist who
had written for, among others, CNN. In fact, this bit of essential information
was recorded on tape but was edited from the version which aired. The
wordsmith-cum-evacuee trained her eyes on the camera as she described a rapidly
deteriorating environment: "Libyans have always known what this regime is
capable of, now for the first time the world is seeing it." Ms. Tekbali was
followed by Joan Polaschik, Charge d'affaires from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.
She testified to "very serious gunfire" and a "fluid and dangerous situation".
"We were lucky to get out" she added.
I leave it to you, dear reader, to divine what, if anything, it suggests that
the only two people to get off that ferry and be interviewed on camera were a
journalist and a diplomat, a CNN contributor and an employee of the U.S.
government, both of whom were quite comfortable in the role. In any case, no
American has been injured during the revolution.
In an interview with the Islamphobe Pete Hoekstra, the former ranking member of
the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Wolf Blitzer called for
the Libyan leader's murder: "Couldn't we assassinate him with a drone or
something like that before he kills thousands of people?" A noble thought
perhaps, but the former AIPACer has never issued a fatwa against any Israeli
leader despite the countless thousands of Palestinians who have been killed by
Zion. It must be confusing being binational. Whatever his motive, it is clear
that he has no regard for journalism or justice, nor do his employers who seem
undisturbed by their host's dystopian cry for extrajudicial blood.
Between segments detailing Gaddafi's nefarious history, CNN's viewers have been
treated to reports suggesting that the revolution in Libya is going to cost
Americans a lot of money. Gas may reach $5/gallon if it goes on much longer, we
are told. Prices of foodstuffs and other essential commodities are going to
skyrocket as the cost of transport will increase with the price of a barrel of
oil. And there are mysterious "reports" that Gaddafi plans to set his oil wells
ablaze as Saddam Hussein did in Kuwait. The implication is one of dire
consequences if a "humanitarian intervention", as Blitzer termed it, does not
occur soon.
In recent years, and perhaps for quite longer, Gaddafi has shamelessly done the
bidding of Western imperial interests, enriching himself drinking from their
trough in the process. His posturings to the contrary are nothing more than
empty words. Capital doesn't want to remove him, not now that he conforms to
their wishes, but as in Tunisia and Egypt, the people are interfering with
their plans. The efforts of the oligarchy to quell the burgeoning discontent,
thus far, have been ineffective. Imagine the fear as control slips from their
hands, as the institutions of oppression in which they have straight-jacketed
the working people of the world now crumble before their eyes. Their man in
Tripoli falters, barely holds on. The old lies are not working anymore, the old
admonitions fall on deaf ears. The ploy of fomenting internecine conflict
likewise surrenders to the fellowship of shared subjugation, of common cause
and conviction. The servants have overcome their ancient prejudices and now
focus their anger on their masters. That which enriched the few has galvanized
the many. They now choke the streets with their indignation and roil the sweet
desert air with their demands.
The palaver of the empire's advocates rings shrill and desperate, and is
quickly overwhelmed by the clamor rising from the multitudes. Imagine the
anxiety as our overlords look down from their commanding heights, down across
the Mediterranean and see the rebel campfires growing in number evening after
evening, growing and growing, proliferating across the Maghreb and beyond,
until their glow merges with the first rays of a new day.
(Source: Countercurrents.org)
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