The American Conservative this month has more antiwar articles than any publication on the left. The cover piece is by Jordan Bloom, “When News Is Propaganda,” and its most disturbing section details the ways that the cable news networks folded in the runup to the Iraq war. Jeez, look at the memo about Phil Donahue– not a good face for the network at at time of war.
Since CNN broadcast some of the opening volleys in the first Gulf War, the history of cable news has been inextricably tied to foreign conflict. War is a godsend for the networks. The public sits at home in rapt patriotism while the network brings on experts who speculate about minute details and strategies in language with just enough jargon to sound convincing.
The elephant in the room—the advertising and viewership benefits of war—has never been acknowledged by any of the three networks. But they regularly censor antiwar voices.
“There is little room for an antiwar point of view, either from the left or right, on television today,” says [Bill] Press, whose show on MSNBC was cancelled because he and co-host [Pat] Buchanan were both against the Iraq War. He criticizes the media’s failure to question government assertions about military operations.
“It did not do so in Vietnam, the first Gulf War, nor the war in Iraq. For the most part, reporters just recycled propaganda coming out of the White House and helped the White House sell war after war to the American people. Also networks mainly book cheerleaders for the war—because they’re afraid of being dubbed ‘anti-American.’”
“That was clearly a show where there was debate,” says Jeff Cohen, founder of the liberal media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting and a producer at MSNBC when “Buchanan & Press” was on the air. “It was often Buchanan and Press against two interventionists. That show didn’t last. One by one the voices of reason, the ones that turned out to be right on Iraq, were silenced.”
Uncritical coverage of the Iraq War was a product of either fear and cowardice or opportunism. At least in the case of MSNBC’s “Donahue,” where Cohen was senior producer, that’s perfectly clear. An internal NBC memo warned that antiwar host Phil Donahue might be a “difficult public face for NBC in a time of war.”
“We were still the top-rated show” at the time, says Cohen, and “if we could have been the one show that allowed moderate voices and noninterventionist voices, we would have been huge.” But network executives “were less interested in ratings than in tamping down controversy.”
“As it got closer to the invasion day, they clamped down on our program more and more with edicts that came down from management that we had to have more pro-war views than anti-invasion views. What that resulted in—and I think management was happy about this—was that the hawks seemed to outshout the voices of reason that were arguing we should wait.”
Don’t forget Ashley Banfield:
“I was office-less for ten months … No phone, no computer. For ten months I had to report to work every day and ask where I could sit. If somebody was away I could use their desk. Eventually, after ten months of this, I was given an office that was a tape closet. They cleared the tapes out and put a desk and a TV in there, and a computer and phone. It was pretty blatant. The message was crystal clear. Yet they wouldn’t let me leave. I begged for seventeen months to be let out of my contract. If they had no use for me, let’s just part ways amicably—no need for payouts, just a clean break. And [NBC News President Neal Shapiro] wouldn’t allow it. I don’t know what his rationale was—perhaps he thought I would take what I felt was a very strong brand, and others felt was a very strong brand, to another network and make a success of it. Maybe that’s why he chose to keep me in a warehouse. I will never forgive him for his cruelty and the manner in which he decided to dispose of me.
—in New Canaan-Darien Magazine, January 2009[4]”
Shapiro now runs Thirteen, the NYC PBS.
God darn the gatekeepers.
Banfield also showed Israel in a non-flattering light, and I don’t think people like Shapiro liked that if he’s a right wing guy. That’s why he was petty. He’s a fascist plain and simple.
The antiwar left should reach out to the paleocons and/or libertarians who don’t like endless wars. Too many of the left don’t know anything about the right and accept whatever propaganda that’s spoon-fed to them. If you scratch the surface, you’d know that the grassroots are another thing entirely from the neocon establishment. Having a bi-partisan antiwar movement would do great and there is certainly a lot of room to work together on.
Agreed Krauss. I have mentioned AntiWar Radio a number of time here on MW and will do so again, with a hearty recommendation.
It’s a libertarian outfit but host Scott Horton regularly has guests on that would qualify as left. He refers to the Dems and the GOP as The War Party, and then there’s the rest of us – who largely agree on foreign policy issues.
Also – all AWR interviews are available as iTunes podcasts which I use since I’m outside the US.
I totally agree, Krauss. I’ve made some calls to libertarian radio shows, and even got to the point of getting them to agree to “we’ll stop bugging you about guns if you stop bugging us about abortion; let’s concentrate on the real enemies”… seriously! Not all libertarians are nut-cases; some are sympathetic to a lot of left issues if you bother to talk to them… I’ve also become more sympathetic (if not participatory) to 2nd amendment stuff. The establishment’s trip has always been divide and conquer… And there is a lot to agree on. Details are tricky, the Devil’s in them. But I do think we have to try. The libertarians can be completely ridiculous about issues like climate change, but the Left hasn’t exactly tried to engage or talk to them.
Edit: Sumud, post noted and thank you, will check out that link.
Heh heh, we libertarians are trying to reach out to the antiwar left. Actually, we’re not trying, we’re doing.
Right on, I feel the same way. I’m a “recovering leftist”! I’m doing, too… people like you give me a lot of hope, which is somewhat scarce these days.
“Too many of the left don’t know anything about the right and accept whatever propaganda that’s spoon-fed to them.”
Another ‘fact’ you pulled out of your butt. Want to give us one example of the “propaganda” “about the right” which is being “spoon fed” to “the left”?
Krauss, I don’t want to shock you or anything, but words have actual meanings. And weasel phrses like “too many of the left” are so typical of you.
Yeah, you’re right, but you can turn that sentence around, replacing “left” with “right” in many cases. I think many of us on the left have left the white underclass out in the cold, and haven’t thrown them a bone in a long time. Joe Baegent (RIP) wrote a lot about this. I think a lot of leftists talk of “Tea Party” people in a general way which doesn’t represent a lot of people. I have a lot of friends on the Libertarian side.
slightly off topic, but the war mongers are up for a game of chicken over syria.
The Obama administration said Tuesday that Russia is sending attack helicopters to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime and warned that the Arab country’s 15-month conflict could become even deadlier.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was “concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria.”
link to news.yahoo.com
if you’ll notice yahoo!news couples the headline with a video of explosions in homs. not that the russian attack helicopters have been delivered or were the cause of the explosions. see also the BBC running photos of iraqi dead claiming that the dead were the corpses of syrian children ‘massacred’ by the SGovt.
marc, i recommend this radio interview:
link to mpegmedia.abc.net.au
he talks about
Prime German Paper: Syrian Rebels Committed Houla Massacre
i had read about that elsewhere, annie. it’s hard to sort out responsibility for the atrocities sometimes, but there is little doubt that there is a destabilization campaign going on against syria. no babies thrown from incubator stories yet, but ‘syrian forces are raping and murdering children’. or is it ‘murdering and raping’?
syrian forces are raping and murdering children
‘the regime is killing their own people’ is code for western regime change
Yes, Fox News yesterday was rampant with spreading the news we really got to do something drastic about the Syrian regime, the theme led by interview with that Israeli who’s coming over here to get his medal from Obama (& hopefully Obama’s release of Pollard), who pleaded to save the Syrian people from Assad because America always saves the horribly treated underdogs of the world and can you imagine the America allowing any other country to treat people so badly? (I felt like throwing my shoe at the interviewer because everything he said Israel has been doing for ages), followed up by Hillary stating how horrid Syria regime was and “we” won’t allow this to stand, followed by film of the Russian “attack helicopters” Russia was sending Assad (they looked like fat Bell copters), from the same Russian company that we have purchased a bunch of the same helicopters from–for our Afghanistan friends, and we should cancel that contract, and Russia is deliberately interfering with our wonderful policy in the ME, etc.
Fox never mentioned the US is quiet about the rebellion in Bahrain, and have not said anything about Saudi Arabia sending troops there.
Or that MEK is being put into service as rebels. Courtesy who?
I would do more than recommend your radio interview and the translated Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung article clip. Annie. I would say ‘essential’.
Thanks for the links. Great links.
i recommend this radio interview . . . he talks about
Prime German Paper: Syrian Rebels Committed Houla Massacre
Here is the relevant extract from an article over at Dr. Joshua Landis’ Syria Comment blog, where he also is reporting that reliable sources have backed-up the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung account:
– link to joshualandis.com
i’m going to slog through the french source tonight, but can’t help with dutch. don’t trust toolbar translations.
Hostage,
I’m glad you’re referencing Landis’s blog. it’s a great source. He was the only one–only one–to publish military reporter Trish Schuh’s on the ground reporting from Deir al-Zur in September 2007.
link to joshualandis.com
From her report
thanks hostage, just saw your comment.
i just do not believe anything i read about assad’s ‘massacring his own people’. i just do not believe it. it completely follows the pattern of what the neocons always say when they want regime change.
lots of false flags,that’s what’s going on. masking the civil war they are instigating. sure they would rather he step down but they want him out. preferably before they take out iran.
Yes, Annie, the orthodox zionist rag algemeiner. com is trying to fudge the Houla incident, which the Pro-Zionist mainstream TV News media here has been using to push harsh US treatment of the Assad regime: link to algemeiner.com
Don’t forget this, Citizen. Everyone should watch this 1:38 min 2007 clip of General Wesley Clark saying that we intended to invade seven countries, including Syria. The decision was announced by the Secretary of Defense right after 9/11. It wasn’t a military need, but a political decision.
“Gen Wesley Clark Reveals US Plan To Invade Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Lybia [sic], Somalia, Sudan, And Iran”
link to youtube.com
This is flat-out Zionist-run Israel-First policy. Period. Nothing else. And if Russia gets involved with the current mess in Syria because of US/Israeli recklessness, the social backlash against Zionists, who will not be filtered or protected with PC correctness, is going to be beyond unfortunate. And they will have no one to blame but themselves.
Well it all makes perfect sense from a certain pov……following right along with the Clean Break scenario of doing Iraq, Syria, then Iran, with a few minor tweaks. ……we’ve done Iraq already and they are still busy having a civil war….now we are ‘probably’ doing Syria and will leave them neutered and in a ongoing civil war also….and then on to Iran where we hope to starve them into submission and regime change if we don’t get bored with that and just bomb them to speed thing up.
On September 20, 2011, the Pentagon had already decided to go to war. Unbelievable.
omg citizen i can’t believe the lowdown dirty of that article!
unreal! they even mention pallywood! anything to glorify poor israel
Annie, you rule. Great links. I would add NPR’s coverage last week to the war cheerleaders. Thanks.
The BBC also among the war cheerleaders. And The Guardian.
thanks rizla. and here is another from b @ moon ofalabama:
more at link: link to moonofalabama.org
and where would we be w/out the brookings institute
link to brookings.edu
Patrick Seale mentioned the FAZ report on this morning’s Democracy Now!.
Putin has said that Russia will intervene militarily if the West does in Syria. At least, so I read on one of the blogs. This situation is getting quite dangerous.
Stephen Lendman has a good piece on Syria right now on Veteran’s Today.
“CIA, MI6 Orchestrating Massacres in Syria”
link to veteranstoday.com
The links in his piece to the PressTV interviews Lendman did are worth watching if Syria interests you.
link to presstv.ir
link to presstv.ir
I listened to Aaron David Miller on Talk of the Nation yesterday pressing the neocon view of Syria while driving around. Got so infuriated I pulled off to the side and emailed the show.
What really bothers me are the tens of millions of Millennials of voting age who hear this drivel inadvertently and think its true.
———–
As for Russia in Syria, watch Brzezinski take on the neocons on Morning Joe, made mincemeat of them:
link to msnbc.msn.com
I listened to Aaron David Miller on Talk of the Nation yesterday pressing the neocon view of Syria . . . As for Russia in Syria, watch Brzezinski take on the neocons on Morning Joe
Brzezinski is correct that there are many other situations in the region in which the US, the Arab League, and the UN did not intervene. Here is another blog that was highlighted at the Landis Syria Comment blog:
NPR’s Talk of the Nation has been having Aaron David Miller on regularly. His Iran war push is more subtle than other war pushers. But he clearly pushes
Morning Joe has been having Brzezinski on regularly. That morning when Dr. B took down Ignatius, Senor, Bernstein, Haass was especially delightful. I get the feeling Joe Scarborough is not in support of all of these interventionist activities
And thank you, Kathleen, for being the person who first alerted this board about that 17-min Brzezinski interview.
It always astounds me how eager some Americans are to get in yet another war, this time with Russia over Syria. Southern Russia is 500 miles from Syria. We’re 5000 miles away. We can’t go to war with a country like Russia in it’s own back yard. What are we going to do? Airlift 10,000 tanks to the region in Globemasters?
I just don’t understand this compulsion some people have to be in continual war somewhere in the world. We are still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan with Iran waiting in the wings. And now we’re supposed to go fight over Syria too?
And, if we bring down the Assad regime, there will probably be disastrous results for Syria’s Christians, similar to what happened to Christians in Iraq after the U.S. invasion. Not to speak of what may happen to the Alawites in Syria.
War kills people … as do lies by U.S. and Western Interventionists
link to non-intervention.com
“As the Syrian civil war lengthens and deepens as the result of the support of U.S.-Western interventionists for the Saudis’ funding and arming of the mujahedin already in Syria and those on the way there form other battle fronts, we will no doubt here more lies about the Syrian threat to the United States. We also will hear more about the Syrian threat to Israel, but what once was a lie now will be the truth as Mrs. Clinton and company — in their doctrinaire, Marxist-Leninist-like belief in democracy’s inevitable triumph — help to give to al-Qaeda and the Saudis what they could never attain alone; that is, the gradual entrenchment of militant Sunni regimes from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.
And so U.S.-led Western intervention in Syria will bring what such intervention in the Muslim world always brings: government lies and deceit; quantum increases in dead Syrians; more U.S. taxpayer funds given to or wasted on Israelis and other foreigners; a deepening of Muslim hatred for the United States government; and the sharpening of the clash of civilizations which will cause Washington to further restrict civil liberties in a futile effort to stave off eventual defeat. “
Break up the Federal Reserve, the big banks, and the media conglomerates.
Any real investigation would lead the public to support the breakup of them all.
Charles, there are no real investigations. All are tainted with dishonest agendas for narrow interests.
Big banks (and what they represent) big media, the Fed and even big Arms industry are all one club with big politics.
We really are screwed.
Don’t break up what you don’t understand. 99% of Americans–including the President–have zero idea of how federal accounting works, and perceive it to be the same as state and local governments, households and businesses. It’s not. The federal govt issues the currency. State and local governments, households and businesses use the currency; they can’t create their own. Big effin’ difference. The latter has to balance its budgets and is revenue-constrained. The fed govt does not and is not revenue-constrained; it “prints” money by spending into the economy; it “borrows” money by issuing treasury securities. All done with a computer keystroke.
There’s nothing wrong with a central bank (under the control of a govt) after we went off the gold standard on August 15, 1971. Problem was that Reagan didn’t understand what it meant or the consequences. The other problem is who owns the shares. Banks own the Fed shares in the US (that’s the 1913 thing that never changed). We should be like Canada, where the shares are owned 100% by the treasury (called Ministry of Finance).
“We should be like Canada, where the shares are owned 100% by the treasury (called Ministry of Finance)”
Exactly, break up the Fed. It is owned by the big banks and under no oversight.
President’s are given a list of Fed Chairman candidates to choose from.
The Fed was set up and first headed by Paul Warburg, German born leader of the Zionist movement, and world government conspirator.
That’s the history of Israel right there.
“Bernanke attended Harvard University, where he lived in Winthrop House with the future CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in economics summa cum laude in 1975. He received the doctor of philosophy degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979 after completing and defending his dissertation, Long-Term Commitments, Dynamic Optimization, and the Business Cycle. Bernanke’s thesis adviser was the future governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer”
link to en.wikipedia.org
That’s the modern history of America’s occupation right there.
Great post Phil. I was just thinking about how many anti war folks MSNBC has let go..Keith, Cenk, Pat.
In the run up to the invasion I was glued to the news, internet, watching listening calling. Hoping that those concerned could stop those hell bent on invading Iraq. On Talk of the nation you could hear Former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, Diane Rehm had Dr. Brezinski others not in support. Questioning the validity of the intelligence. NPR would also have Gerecht, Micheal Rubin etc and those pushing the “pack of lies” on as well Of course Democracy Now had many guest on who were the voice of sanity. But when I would turn on the mainstream TV outlets it was Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rice, Bush, Feith, Ledeen, Gaffney, Kristol, David Frum repeating the “pack of lies” over and over and over again. Kept thinking about if you were an 8-6er and you had just one or two hours for the news and this was all you were watching what else could you think but there must be a need to invade Iraq. That is when I started going out into small coal mining towns that surround our university town of Athens Ohio to talk with Vets sitting in Moose lodges, VFW’s in Glouster, Chauncey, Trimble Ohio. Heard Vet after Vet question the need for the invasion. Had many WWII and Korean war Vets weep about the reality of war and how they did not want to witness our youth sent off to a war that was questionable. One older Korean war Vet that I approached and talked with outside of the VFW in Chauncey Ohio fell back into the seat of his huge old American made Lincoln with tears steaming down his face when I asked him what he thought about what looked like the upcoming invasion of Iraq. Virgil Kittle in his jean overalls, all of his Korean Vet pins on his ball cap just sat there crying and telling me how ‘wrong” this was even though he had been watching the MSM…he had questions. Bet you did not see Virgil on your TV screens.
What was also amazing to watch not be covered was all of the anti invasion marches in Wash D.C. (fall of 2002 , New York (Feb 2003) and across the country. Accumulativelyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War millions of Americans marching, petitioning their government not to invade. Teachers, plumbers, family members pushing children in strollers, seniors in wheel chairs WWII ( I pushed a 92 year old WWII Vet in his wheel chair, Korean, Vietnam, Desert Storm Vets marched against the invasion. The march was led by 9/11 families against the invasion. My dear friends Bev and John Titus who lost their daughterhttp://www.sweetalicia.org/ (airline stewardess on United flight) on 9/11 led that march with other 9/11 families against the invasion. Did you see any of the MSM host interview these people in the run up to that bloody invasion?
Fuck the MSM fuck them they did not do their jobs and they are still not doing their jobs. They are partially responsible for the dead in Iraq, dead American soldiers. They did not do their jobs. They rolled over. As Bob Woodward who also rolled over called it “group think.”
And now… in the push to attack Iran Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews etc have yet to have Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett on to discuss Iran. Rachel Maddow etc repeat unsubstantiated claims about Iran. They let the American public know about how many have been killed in Syria “massacred”. they show horrific images. But never report to Americans about how many Iraqi people have been killed, injured and displaced as a direct consequence of that bloody invasion.. you know “collateral damage” Fuck the MSM. Even though I watch to see what they are not covering
Thank goodness for the internet.
Big defense contractor GE no longer owns a majority share of NBC, but it still has a hefty minority share of the stock.
Comcast, the most hated corp in America bought 51% of GE’s interest.
Read all about them, they are a monopoly, thanks to their political donations. Read the complaint record….it’s so bad it would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that monopolies want to be monopolies so they can rip off their customers.
link to en.wikipedia.org
CAMERA is getting desperate, now urging its readers to complain directly to COMCAST, a board member at C Span, about caller comments to C Span.
In response to this recent caller comment —
CAMERA went ape-doo doo —
Good idea, CAMERA. Send a Courteous, polite email to Susan Swain — tell her we’ve got her back. Tell Comcast etc. that the American people have a right to be heard and to know the truth.
Kathleen, thanks for bringing up those anti-war marches and the lack of coverage. I was at many of them. They were not small, they were not covered. I stopped watching MSM TV when they went digital and haven’t missed it a bit. MSM isn’t relevant to a lot of us anymore, the internet is flawed in the extreme but you can’t say there’s a lack of voices.
Buchanan? Buchanan squelched Buchanan.
you do remember that he is a supporter of Brevik, the perp of the Norway massacre, much like Caroline Glick, right? Buchanan was fired because of mass pressure for his continued racist crap.
just because he doesn’t support israel is not an automatic call for support. please, please, stop supporting racist idiots, it makes you look like… well…
stopaipac, please point out something Buchanan said that makes you conclude he’s a simple racist. Thanks! Is it in his newest book about the decline of American culture? If so, where there?
Did he characterize a group of folks as cradling their “bible & guns” ?
Or was that the President of the US, Obama?