Robin Andersen

VVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY important book, but not an easy one to read. In parts it made me so sick to my soul that I almost became physically sick. It is by Robin Anderson, and I really recommend reading it... don't know that I can do it justice.

She takes the wars in the US from WWI on and talks about the media coverage. There was a lot of propaganda in WWI by the Allied side, the Germans didn't get the hang of it yet, including the "Huns" bayonetting babies, which she thinks was recycled in teh frist Gulf War when the Kuwaitis produced the teenage girl who testified she worked in a hospital and the Iraqis came in and dumped babies on the lloor out of their incubators. Turns out the girl was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US and the story was entirely fabricated, with the help of an advertising firm.

The most strking thing is how often the media went along with the administration in pwoer in its enthusiasm for war and lack of concern for the civilian casualties. The best of the media coverage was in Vietnam, and it was an unpopular war. The Reagan administration was one that really studied how to use the media to increase the support for its policies, including its support for the contras, who terrorized the population in El Salvador. She also includes Hollywood in the mix. for example, the use by the Bush jr. admin. of Top Gun to stage its "Mission Accomplisihed" event, and its use of the movie Black Hawk Down, as well as the Army use of video games.

Even though it appears the tide has turned and the media is against Bush, there is still very little coverage of the war that exposes its brutality and the suffering of civilians. The fight in Fallujah, for example, was covered nn a highly managed way. The US audience did not see that 70% of the city was destroyed, and that phosphorous weapons were used, which burn horribly.

BUT... an important point to me that she makes is that the rest of the world DOES see these images, and that it strongly affects the views of the international community. It strongly affects the insurgency in Iraq and elsewhere. Along the same lines, the Downing Street memos that showed that the decision to go to war with Iraq was made while the US and British governments were still seeking a rationale for the war was hardly covered in US media, but got exctensive coverage overseas.… (more)