For the Press, No Iraq Introspection
On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War, the media reexamined just about everything—except for themselves.
In the thousands of articles and television reports marking the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, nearly every important aspect of the war was probed. Fingers were pointed at the usual suspects—Rumsfeld, Bremer, and Cheney; stubborn Republicans and weak-willed Democrats, among many others—but conspicuously absent from the media coverage was any soul-searching on behalf of the press, as if there had been no major media slips or tragic omissions over the past five years. With months to plan for the commemoration, the media were ready to take stock of everything—but themselves.
By and large, when the press did revisit their Iraq coverage, they showcased some of the undeniably terrific reporting, photography, and videography that have emerged from the war zone. But a frank assessment of the overall media performance, from the "run-up" to the "surge," was virtually nonexistent. That’s not only shameful and revealing, it’s also a real missed opportunity, since there is so much to be learned from the media's Iraq coverage—the good, the bad, and the ugly—by future generations of journalists, not to mention the current one.
Yes, the fateful media mistakes and misreporting of Iraqi WMD before the war have been widely covered in the past, but how could this not be widely revisited at the fifth-year mark, with 4,000 American soldiers dead and thousands wounded for life? What about the media’s role in falling victim to official propaganda in the Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman cases? The delay in exposing the abuses at Abu Ghraib and attacks on civilians in Haditha and numerous other places?
The list goes on: Why did it take years to really focus on ill treatment of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans back here at home? To expose the rising suicide rate among soldiers and vets? To assess the full financial costs of the war? Why did the media go along with the Pentagon’s ban on showing coffins returning from Iraq, and the restrictions on running pictures of dead or injured American soldiers—thus preventing the public from absorbing the true costs of the war? On reflection, what were the strengths and weaknesses of the much-ballyhooed "embedded" journalists plan?
What about the reluctance of editorial pages and pundits to propose, even tentatively, a real change in course in Iraq, as month after month, and then year after year, passed? Almost four years went by before a major newspaper called for the beginning of even a very slow, phased withdrawal. What do they think of that delay—now?
And in recent months, why are there so few reporters covering the war now? Are budgetary excuses—and blaming readers for not being much interested anymore—really valid? Do readers take their cues from the (increasingly disinterested) media?
There has been a tremendous amount of truly heroic journalism from the war zone and tough-minded reporting into the war causes and conduct here at home, and that certainly deserves to be celebrated. But the media’s current failure to reexamine themselves only adds to the black mark journalists have received for past oversights and errors in their chronicling of this war.
Photo of reporters interviewing military personnel by flickr user jamesdale10 used under a Creative Commons license.
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of course you neglected one of the larger omissions: why did the media omit (and still omit) every positive story (of which there are TONS by direct soldier accounts) and play up the ever shrinking negatives?
I just got back from Iraq, it is a totally different place from what was there 2 years ago. you can walk down the street in Bagdadh considerably more safely than you ever could and the city is beginning to flourish, but hey, why not focus on Basra since the blood is what sells right?
Shameful.
How come the press doesn't go after the Tillman story now? We still don't know who killed him and why. What is the status of the investigations going on, including Henry Waxman's?
yes, true, but the examination has been done on Bill Moyers piece "Buying the War"....http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html Too bad it wasn't re-shown back to back with the Frontline two-parter.
Sen. Proxmire had a award of sorts, Fleece? any way, there should be an award plague sent to all news media or journalists written in the a negative way of how they fouled up, by not using the brain they trained for.
Much more importantly, WHY are they NOW playing the same game of omission in the run-up to invasion of Iran?
Why aren't they reporting over and over about the build up of Navy forces in the waters near Iran which includes ships capable of launching nuclear warheads into Iran? Bush and Cheney's saber rattling has proven more than once to be lies and yet they wait a few weeks and start over. Did they ALL forget, or JUST DON'T CARE ONE BIT that Russia has nuclear weapons TOO? And Bush and Cheney have been warned about attacking Iran. But they are CRAZY!!! And they don't CARE about nuclear fallout OR the destruction that will be launched on US right here at home. THEY WILL INVADE IRAN ANYWAY, AFTER THEY LAUNCH THE FIRST STRIKE.
I've heard dozens of interviews from Iraqis, and they say that Iraq is MUCH WORSE than it ever was before. They said before they lived in relative peace and security! What "positive stories"? It's been a nightmare for them, and to think we did anything but damage just goes to show how Americans have no empathy or understanding of their world, just bloated egos and a guilt that continues to try to assuage itself by saying we did something good. We were friends with Hussein when he was commiting his "terrible atrocities"--kind of like the one's we created by dropping white phosphorus, which burns people alive, right to the bone. But no, we can never do wrong. We're the biggest terrorist country since nazi Germany, and george W. bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, supplied the Nazis with steel and other materials during the war, and was part of a coup with the Nazis to overthrow the American Government. They may still succeed, the Bush family.
If Americans don't stand up and get these war criminals out of the White House soon, they will bomb Iran, and we'll be paying 20 dollars a gallon for gas!!! And this time, it will start WW3.
9/11 has false-flag psy-ops written all over it. An official that knows these guys--Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld--said Bush signed the order for operation 9/11--otherwise why would they fight an investigation? Why was WTC 7 demolished? And it was, as admitted by lease-holder Larry Silverstein himself, plus the foreknowledge of countless cops, firemen, and reporters of the buildings collapse before it happened--and it wasn't hit by any plane. Fire has NEVER demolished a steel-framed skyscraper before or after 9/11, even the one in Madrid that burned ferociously for 18 hours still stood. They must have figured out that we would realize that it takes a min. of 3 days to rig a building that size for wireless demolition, and that's why younever heard about WTC 7 again..It was wired to blow days before 9/11..and if it was, why not the towers, too? it would explain the "smoking gun" chemical fingerprint of thermate found in the dust of the WTCs, and the molten metal found in the basements of all 3 buildings. The "Northwoods" documents show the government is willing to kill civilians and soldiers if it suits their agenda. The real conspiracy theory is that some Muslims who couldn't even fly Cessnas managed to manuever a jumbo jet through the state to N.Y. City and find and hit the WTCs..it's not like you can just dial in a number, like for airports.
To say the press has let the public down is to state the sky is blue and water is wet.
Why have they done this? What are the reasons that those items mentioned in the article have not been kept forcefully and continuously in the minds of the American people. That is the way change occurs.
I guess I have my answer. The press does not want change.
The media is owned by corporate America. If they say give Bush's brain/corruption/war a pass, mainstream news outlets say, "How high?"
Cost of the war trillions!! Does that include the cost of rebuilding Iraq? Still waiting for that question/answer!!
Greg, if you are concerned about media omissions in Iraq reportage, why do you fail to mention deaths of Iraqi civilians, which according to one poll runs to over a million? Your criticism of the American media focusses solely on American casualties, the financial cost of war etc without mentioning the genocided of the Iraqi people at the hands of our military. And I do not claim that the British media are any better in this respect. Even our most objective news organs have repeatedly misrepresented the likely civilian death toll. For discussion of media coverage of estimated murder rates in polls such as Iraq Body Count, the Lancet report and the ORB poll, please go to http://www.medialens.org/alerts/07/071003_iraq_body_count.php and have a look at all the related articles. Introspection begins at home.
You'll get no argument, Manny, that few positive stories have been reported out of Iraq. It happens to be the price an empire like ours pays when it starts a preventative war in a foreign country, destroys that country and then occupies it. Thus, we've created such a horrible mess that we can never make it right. We have so much blood on our hands, and the media was complicit.
There's really no way to get the press to report the truth. All the lies before and after 9/11 have just been ignored. We care, but the majority of Americans don't or deny that we're being lied to. So you tell me what we can do? Do we boycott the mainstream media? I know I would if MotherJones started their own news channel. What options do we really have? I'm just a little worker bee that has no way of getting corporate america to change.
I'm a structural engineer. Fire is practically the ONLY thing that can destroy a steel frame skyscraper. The steel columns and girders are protected from fire by gypsum, which foams in the presence of fire and provides insulation. This insulation is rated in hours of protection.
You very seldom read about fire destroying a steel frame building because there is usually too little combustible matter, and VERY tall buildings excepted, firefighters can usually douse a fire before it exceeds the fire rating (in hours) of the structure.
Hijacking planes headed from the East Coast to California ensured a huge supply of combustible jet fuel (basically refined kerosene) to provide intense heat for a long time. The way the two towers collapsed almost precisely vertically indicated that the steel connectors between the steel girders and the steel columns heat-softened, bent, and failed. This only after the intense kerosene fire had burned for several hours (thus the thousands who escaped each tower).
Flying an airplane after it is airborne and not involving landing is considerably easier than it looks; it's just that until 9/11 there was no point in doing only that. Maueuvering out over the ocean south of Manhattan is not much more difficult than driving a car (OK, except for steering with your feet so the airplane banks) and then you just dial, say, 500 feet of altitude into the autopilot. At that point you can even just steer with the rudder (the dingus that looks like a steering wheel), aim for the big shiny target, and wait for Allah to welcome you to Paradise!
I keep a subscription to Rolling Stone magazine not so much for the glamour or the latest news on bands, but because of their investigative reports on politics and the war. Have the secret prisons in Europe been fully reported? Miscellaneous CIA at Abu Ghraib that I read about in RS before anywhere else? What news reporting groups have the guts to break through the BS of "National Security" to report the truth? I am glad I recently signed up for Mother Jones.
Yes Manny, you raise an excellent point. Unfortunately, one of the unwritten laws of journalism is "If it bleeds, it leads" which means bad news is news and good news is not necessarily news.
Basra was not the hotbed of unrest that Baghdad was, and partially continues to be. The situation has changed now in the push to remove power from the Shi'ite militias controlling most of Basra.
However, there should be more stories on Baghdad's slow return to life.
It is rather simple. The utimate perpetrators of the mess are the neocons. Neocons are converted liberals who are almost wholly Zionist/Israeli apologists or enthusiasts. The mainstream press are also liberal Zionist/Israeli enthusiasts or apologists. The press therefore is unwilling or incapable of criticizing its own or their work. Moving on, here is a puzzle. How is it that at the time of our nation's founding we had a public that was insatiable for news and politics and an incredibly effective press, though the press had only the most primitive means of communication, i.e., distribution of flyers, pamphlets, etc., whereas today we have almost infinitely easy means of communication, e.g., the internet, TV, etc., but a totally ineffective press and an indifferent and ignorant citizenry. Never has the means of getting the word out been better; but never has the public been more ignorant or unengaged.
Manny and Rosaria, in your search for the rosy story within Iraq, don't trip over the bodies of the Iraqi citizens and your American soldiers who are the cannon fodder of this war.
Dear journalists (aka liers) who supported the Iraqi misadventure:
This is a letter from a foreigner whom you may scorn precisely because of the fact that I am not American. But do you realize how often we, foreigners, were victims of your government's military and political adventures abroad, and you did not produce a single pip? Don't you feel ashamed? Above all, can you sleep at night knowing that you, too, are guilty of the million, and counting, dead civilians -innocent blood you know- that your stupid, criminal government has caused? To tell you the truth, I really doubt you feel anything. Being so close to evil and lies has turned you into the same. I still remember reading your accounts during the first Gulf War. Those articles were filled to the brim with blind nationalistic militance and seemed more the reports of the Völkischer Beobachter or Pravda. You even gloated over the criminal behaviour of your armies in bombing soldiers who had already surrendered. Of course, the US wanted to set an example with Iraq: there were things Washington was not going to stand in the golden age of Pax Americana: invasions for example, especially those who were not approved by your president. Reading that gave me an idea of what could come, although reality can even be more shocking. Who could have thought, for example, that a little, insignificant nation in the Middle East could hold such a sway over the affairs of your country? And you, searchers of the truth, defenders of the flag, are all part of this. I suppose this is the "new" reality that your country as a hyperpower is creating. In this alternate universe, there are
words, ideas, symbols that make sense only within the borders of the Empire. The rest of the world are left at a loss.
Manny, is your last name McCain? (no offense intended).
Since when has the press ever been free? That myth goes hand in hand with the phony rhetoric about democracy, freedom and freeing the world from evil.
State sponsored terrorism is the main thing responsible for diminishing (destroying) the quality of life for many people in many lands. Wake up to yourselves, Dorian Greys.
..the "Pentagon's ban on showing coffins...dead...injured..." The Pentagon!!!!???? So, the government now gags the media. I also read that there is now a law banning negetive reporting of an incumbant x many months before an election. What the hell. I am about to either revolt or leave. What to do...
Good piece. I knew about the ban on coffin pictures (censorship) but did not know there were additional "restrictions" on pictures of dead or injured. This too is outrageous and so wrong. This sanitizes the war and anesthetizes the citizen.
it may take a millennium or longer to democratize iraq or the three states that may rise out of it; and three millennia or longer to democratize US.
some of us have noted that US always had a ruling class just like every other country but the irongrip of US on foreign and domestic populations has never been equaled by any other evil empire. i also believe that its grip is so strong that even if 50 milion or more americans would hit the streets tomorrow to protest occupation or to demand medicare, bush would hardly bat an eye. the grip is unbrekable because the ruling class (about 10% of population)controls cia, fbi, city police, armed forces. scholing, media; and, of course, money. americans ( and not only americans) have been rendered semantically blind by jingoism. selfpraise, infallibility of presidents, etc.
is it too late to break the grip? thank you.
Bozar it is not to late. As long as thr light of liberty lives. The Zionist warmangers will have fight. Many Americans are enraged In the future you will seean ERUPTION.
The warm feeling I get when
The warm feeling I get when someone is
thoughtful enough to say thank you for having been helped far
outweighs the empty one I get when there's no feedback at all.
