Propoganda, by any other name, is still as manipulative
As I write this, CNN is announcing that the U.S. Military is now posting “unfiltered” videos on YouTube, to show what it’s really like on the ground in Iraq.
In the five minutes I watched the segment, every one of the videos showed uniformed servicemen playing with kids, shooting hoops, and giving presents to grateful families. Wow! Iraq looks like my 19th birthday party, only with cool combat fatigues and neat machinery.
Noticeably missing are the body bags, the servicemen whose limbs have been blown off by roadside bombs, and the blood and bodies of Iraqi civilians killed in the daily suicide bomb attack. And oddly, other than campaign ads for Republicans in 2004, no coffins of the young men and women who have died in Iraq.
Let’s hear it for unfiltered videos.
Coming soon: “unfiltered” financial data on Enron, Worldcom, and many other of your other favorite companies.
We have a long history of censoring and manipulating the media during times of war. But this time, we have mounting evidence that the people in charge of this war manipulated the media as they built their case for the invasion, and then attempted to cover up their mistakes in prosecuting the war. That makes the propaganda much more distasteful this time.
May 3rd, 2007 at 1:22 pm