Hello Harley >Keith: > >Interesting Article.
I thought it was weak, so did Hakan. But it's a start I guess. >It is hard to believe the line "the "liberal" U.S. >media are strikingly conservative - and in this case hawkish.". The US >news media is so liberal, that it is hard to think of them in any other way. Try, Harley, try - it just ain't so. Here's an excerpt, below, from Eric Alterman's book "What Liberal Media?" http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15187 What Liberal Media? By Eric Alterman, The Nation February 14, 2003 Editor's Note: This article was adapted from Eric Alterman's newly released book, What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News (Basic), published in February. It's a good piece, 3,800 words, give it a read. You might try this piece too, though you might not agree with much of it. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15217 Media Mythbusters By Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange.com February 20, 2003 Best Keith >I am not swayed over, but my perspective has changed a little. > >Harley > -----Original Message----- > From: Keith Addison [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 11:41 AM > To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com > Subject: [biofuel] Behind the Great Divide > > > A bit weak, especially for Krugman... but it's a start, maybe about > the maximum-sized bite the average cable-viewer could chew on without > choking. > > Keith > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/18/opinion/18KRUG.html > > Behind the Great Divide > By PAUL KRUGMAN > > There has been much speculation why Europe and the U.S. are suddenly > at such odds. Is it about culture? About history? But I haven't seen > much discussion of an obvious point: We have different views partly > because we see different news. > > Let's back up. Many Americans now blame France for the chill in > U.S.-European relations. There is even talk of boycotting French > products. > > But France's attitude isn't exceptional. Last Saturday's huge > demonstrations confirmed polls that show deep distrust of the Bush > administration and skepticism about an Iraq war in all major European > nations, whatever position their governments may take. In fact, the > biggest demonstrations were in countries whose governments are > supporting the Bush administration. > > There were big demonstrations in America too. But distrust of the > U.S. overseas has reached such a level, even among our British > allies, that a recent British poll ranked the U.S. as the world's > most dangerous nation - ahead of North Korea and Iraq. > > So why don't other countries see the world the way we do? News > coverage is a large part of the answer. Eric Alterman's new book, > "What Liberal Media?" doesn't stress international comparisons, but > the difference between the news reports Americans and Europeans see > is a stark demonstration of his point. At least compared with their > foreign counterparts, the "liberal" U.S. media are strikingly > conservative - and in this case hawkish. > > I'm not mainly talking about the print media. There are differences, > but the major national newspapers in the U.S. and the U.K. at least > seem to be describing the same reality. > > Most people, though, get their news from TV - and there the > difference is immense. The coverage of Saturday's antiwar rallies was > a reminder of the extent to which U.S. cable news, in particular, > seems to be reporting about a different planet than the one covered > by foreign media. > > What would someone watching cable news have seen? On Saturday, news > anchors on Fox described the demonstrators in New York as "the usual > protesters" or "serial protesters." CNN wasn't quite so dismissive, > but on Sunday morning the headline on the network's Web site read > "Antiwar rallies delight Iraq," and the accompanying picture showed > marchers in Baghdad, not London or New York. > > This wasn't at all the way the rest of the world's media reported > Saturday's events, but it wasn't out of character. For months both > major U.S. cable news networks have acted as if the decision to > invade Iraq has already been made, and have in effect seen it as > their job to prepare the American public for the coming war. > > So it's not surprising that the target audience is a bit blurry about > the distinction between the Iraqi regime and Al Qaeda. Surveys show > that a majority of Americans think that some or all of the Sept. 11 > hijackers were Iraqi, while many believe that Saddam Hussein was > involved in Sept. 11, a claim even the Bush administration has never > made. And since many Americans think that the need for a war against > Saddam is obvious, they think that Europeans who won't go along are > cowards. > > Europeans, who don't see the same things on TV, are far more inclined > to wonder why Iraq - rather than North Korea, or for that matter Al > Qaeda - has become the focus of U.S. policy. That's why so many of > them question American motives, suspecting that it's all about oil or > that the administration is simply picking on a convenient enemy it > knows it can defeat. They don't see opposition to an Iraq war as > cowardice; they see it as courage, a matter of standing up to the > bullying Bush administration. > > There are two possible explanations for the great trans-Atlantic > media divide. One is that European media have a pervasive > anti-American bias that leads them to distort the news, even in > countries like the U.K. where the leaders of both major parties are > pro-Bush and support an attack on Iraq. The other is that some U.S. > media outlets - operating in an environment in which anyone who > questions the administration's foreign policy is accused of being > unpatriotic - have taken it as their assignment to sell the war, not > to present a mix of information that might call the justification for > war into question. > > So which is it? I've reported, you decide. Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
