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Today's
Stories
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
Weekend Edition
October 22 / 24, 2004
The Second
Invasion
Al
Hurra TV
By
MIKE WHITNEY
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently
opined, "The Iraq conflict is a war of perceptions".
His remark reflects his belief that events can be shaped simply
by controlling the flow of information. Rumsfeld has been a major
player in making sure that the Pentagon's world view is writ
large in America's newspapers and TVs. He's also made sure that
stations that depart from his narrative of "benign US intervention"
are punished for their defiance. (Both Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi
TV were bombed twice) It's all part of a greater "Information
war" that is taken every bit as seriously as one being fought
with tanks and guns. For Rumsfeld, whoever controls the message
will control the outcome of the conflict.
So, it shouldn't surprise us
that the US has spent $62 million creating an Arab TV channel
called Alhurra (the free one) to promote an American-friendly
view of escalating violence in the Middle East. So far, it has
been an abysmal failure with awful ratings and only marginal
public interest. Never the less, American conservatives proved
that propaganda is a long term investment that cannot be expected
to produce dividends overnight. The saturation of the public
consciousness is an arduous process that requires patience and
perseverance. Eventually, however, a large portion of the population
can be dramatically affected by the half-truths they glean from
people they,ve come to trust. This explains why 45% of Americans
still believe that Saddam had WMD and assisted Al Qaida in the
attacks of 9-11. Cultivating a broad base of people who will
accept the calculated "deceptions of the state" is
critical in advancing a pro-business agenda.
Alhurra is clearly designed
to mold public perceptions in a way that is favorable to America's
corporate and political interests. Their daily broadcasts cover
the same stories as Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi, but in a way that
disputes the assumptions of aggression, occupation and plunder.
It's a tough sell and, so far, Al Hurra has not succeeded.
This tells us a great deal
about the media. The illusion of a "free press" is
pure nonsense. America's media giants are merely employees of
the corporations who own them. (Many of them are directly connected
to the financial, energy and weapons industries) For the sake
of credibility they must ensure that the mask of objectivity
never slips too far, but we can be certain that the stories they
produce are carefully filtered through a corporate-friendly lens.
Al Hurra is the brainchild
of "Norman Pattiz, the California radio executive who created
Westwood One, the nation's largest radio network". (Westwood
One produces Bill O, Reilly as well as other luminaries from
the right) Pattiz also oversees the more traditional parts of
the American propaganda system, including Radio Marti and The
Voice of America. His mandate is to create media in the Middle
East that is both sympathetic to American interests and that
downplays the negative aspects of US foreign policy. It hardly
needs mentioning, that the taboo on criticizing Israeli brutality
in the territories is scrupulously maintained.
"Al Hurra will have the
look of a CNN, a FOX, or an MSNBC, boasts Pattiz. "It will
also have the look of Arabic satellite TV stations. But in terms
of production value, it will raise the bar." (Christian
Scientist Monitor)
Production value? Is Pattiz
admitting that his goal is to attract viewers with glitzy sets
and toothy anchormen rather than solid, well-researched news?
Isn't his comparison to FOX etc a tacit admission that he is
invoking a propaganda model that has worked successfully in the
US?
We don't like to think of our
televised news as propaganda. When Dan Rather appears on the
screen with an American flag unfurled in the background or Tom
Brokaw has a profile of Saddam in the crosshairs with a background
drum-roll, we dismiss it as patriotism. Never the less, what
Pattiz is telling us, is that Al Hurra will apply the very same
principles to its production as its American counterparts. The
public will be lured in by flashy accoutrements (the symbols
of credibility) making them more receptive to the message being
delivered. The message, of course, is light-years from unbiased
journalism. It reflects, in the subtlest terms, the prevailing
views of ownership and a narrative that supports that agenda.
This imperial storyline is called a "balanced view".
Even in its infant phase, all
the elements are in place to ensure that Al Hurra will achieve
a level of acceptability in a hostile environment. (Al Hurra
is transmitted to 22 countries) It has assembled a crack staff
of anchors, writers, and producers from Middle East television
stations and spared no expense to increase its chances of success.
Television creates the rationale
for nonviolent conformity by presenting events through the eyes
of those who seek a particular result. In the case of Al Hurra
the obvious goal is to anaesthetize the public to the injustice
of American foreign policy. Its message is fine-tuned to provide
a persuasive alternative to other regional media that shock the
viewer with endless footage of cruelty and slaughter. Instead,
their aim is to frame the respective occupations in Israel and
Iraq in the most benevolent terms possible. We should expect
that Al Hurra will emphasize the "generous motives"
of the US in "liberating" the Iraqi people and that
the 37 year occupation of the West Bank will be presented as
a reasonable response to Palestinian terrorism. Much of this
is accomplished by simply avoiding the inconvenient facts related
to military activity and repression. For example, Al Hurra has
devoted almost no time to the Abu Ghraib scandal while focusing
considerable attention on the meager efforts at reconstruction.
Also, when Sheik Yassin was assassinated in Gaza, Al Hurra chose
not to report the incident, but to continue with a cooking program
instead. This illustrates how Al Hurra uses its platform to redirect
the viewer's attention and, thus, diminish the brutality of occupation.
It's a clever shell game and an indispensable tool in pacifying
the public. The changing of "hearts and minds" has
become a matter of calculated deceptions bearing only the faintest
resemblance to the truth.
The process of public pacification
has been called "manufacturing consent"; a subtle mode
of controlling the masses through techniques that have been developed
and perfected over the last century. Its part of a broader public
relations scheme that is intended to transform the public into
consumers. The underlying cynicism of the strategy is hard to
ignore. The implication is that people must be prodded cattle-like
towards the goals of their masters (elites in government and
business) and that manipulation of the public mind is the basic
organizing principle of society. It's a world view strikingly
similar to that of Joseph Goebbels.
This explains why the US has
invested $62 million in a project that is aimed at placating
the Arab public. Altruism played no part in that decision. Despite
Pattiz's claims of wanting to bring "balanced coverage"
to the Middle East, no such desire exists. Al Hurra represents
a secondary invasion; an army of media specialists and technicians
who will eventually take the place of Abrams tanks and Bradley
Armored vehicles. Their role, however, is much the same; to legitimize
aggression and subdue the public. The corruption of information
is just as crucial to the imperial mission as "boots on
the ground."
So far, Al Hurra has been widely
derided as an Arab façade for US objectives. Pattiz has
responded by dismissing his critics, cheerfully noting that,
"Even negative publicity is helpful. It gets people looking
for themselves."
He adds, "There will be
times when some governments get their noses out of joint with
us--but that's the price of a free press."
Free press, indeed. Modern
media emanates from the epicenter of corporate power and is solely
accountable to the boardroom taskmasters who determine its content.
Al Hurra is no exception. It operates under the same hierarchal
system of information management as media in the US; its motives
are just more conspicuous.
Al Hurra's place in the imperial
arsenal is unsurprising. Propaganda is always a reliable partner
of war and occupation. It provides the soothing background noise
that accompanies the rape and destruction of entire civilizations.
This brings us to the real purpose of commercial media which
is to ensure the smooth transition of wealth from one group to
another. All the tricks that are employed to achieve that objective
are just variations on the same theme. The heart of the matter
is the need to increase the level of capital accumulation and
profit. Al Hurra is simply the logical extension of this system,
no different than the torture camps at Guantanamo Bay and Abu
Ghraib; all jewels in the imperial crown.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can
be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com
Weekend
Edition Features for October 16 / 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
/
|