Coverage of coming war exposes 
failure of western media

Jim Selby, AFL Staff

It has been said that the first casualty of war is truth. In the case of the American race to war with Iraq, the truth seems to have been sacrificed long before the war "officially" begins.

Unfortunately, the media in both the United States and Canada isn’t so much a casualty as a willing suicide. American journalists are already prepared to have all of their news reporting of the upcoming war censored by the Pentagon. As in the previous American stomping of Iraq, only approved journalists will be allowed access to the front lines – where they will be ‘embedded’ with American troops.

That basically means that we are all going to be fed the Pentagon’s version of the war. This isn’t truth and it isn’t honest reporting – but it is all most of us will get to base our opinions upon. CNN – who were called the "cheerleaders to Desert Storm" in the previous conflict – will be the model other media will be following.

In fact, CNN is already censoring itself on news from the Middle East. All filed stories from the region are first cleared and altered by anonymous officials at head office in Atlanta. News stories have been either killed or changed because they did not support the official line of CNN.

In Canada, the mainstream media have also been prone to spin-doctoring instead of reporting. The Globe and Mail consistently underestimated the numbers of protestors on February 15th – while highlighting a story critical of the protests. The Southam newspapers are now following the company line instead of reporting the news.

For example, where has it been reported that the Americans have never stopped aerial attacks on Iraq – or that the British and American air forces have already begun systematically bombing targets since the beginning of February?

What about the frequently repeated fabrication about the Iraqi’s using poison gas on their own citizens – when the CIA itself says that the Iranians were responsible for that incident? The obvious connections between American oil interests and the Bush war are ignored. The failure of the Americans to prove that Saddam Hussein still has the "weapons of mass destruction" that were provided and paid for by England and the United States is glossed over. The lack of any link between the Al Quaeda and Iraq is ignored.

The media fail to ask the obvious or to present an impartial picture. Why is a two-bit dictator like Hussein branded as an arch-fiend? He is no better or worse and no more dangerous than a whole string of other tyrants that the U.S. and Britain feel no need to attack. And, why do the Americans insist upon sanctions that are cruelly punishing the innocent men, women and children of Iraq – despite international protest and the failure of the sanctions to hurt Hussein himself?

The Americans and British have been screwing around with the internal politics of Middle Eastern countries since the end of the Second World War in an effort to control their oil fields. They propped up Saddam Hussein, and the Shah of Iran, and the Taliban and the Saudi’s, and the military in Pakistan. The area has become a hotbed of intolerance, violence and suppression of human rights.

Now we’re all being asked to pay a price so that big oil can keep its grip on the Middle East. And, we’re being asked to do so while being fed lies, fabrications and distorted facts by both our democratic governments and a media "business" that is supposed to do better.