Latin America

Judi Lynn

(160,545 posts) Sun Feb 22, 2015, 06:53 PM Feb 2015

Media Bias For War

Media Bias For War
By William Blum, www.williamblum.org
February 5th, 2014

“Bias in favor of the orthodox is frequently mistaken for ‘objectivity’. Departures from this ideological orthodoxy are themselves dismissed as ideological.” – Michael Parenti

An exchange in January with Paul Farhi, Washington Post columnist, about coverage of US foreign policy:

Dear Mr. Farhi,

Now that you’ve done a study of al-Jazeera’s political bias in supporting Mohamed Morsi in Egypt, is it perhaps now time for a study of the US mass media’s bias on US foreign policy? And if you doubt the extent and depth of this bias, consider this:

There are more than 1,400 daily newspapers in the United States. Can you name a single paper, or a single TV network, that was unequivocally opposed to the American wars carried out against Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Panama, Grenada, and Vietnam? Or even opposed to any two of these wars? How about one? In 1968, six years into the Vietnam war, the Boston Globe surveyed the editorial positions of 39 leading US papers concerning the war and found that “none advocated a pull-out”.

Now, can you name an American daily newspaper or TV network that more or less gives any support to any US government ODE (Officially Designated Enemy)? Like Hugo Chávez of Venezuela or his successor, Nicolás Maduro; Fidel or Raúl Castro of Cuba; Bashar al-Assad of Syria; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran; Rafael Correa of Ecuador; or Evo Morales of Bolivia? I mean that presents the ODE’s point of view in a reasonably fair manner most of the time? Or any ODE of the recent past like Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, Moammar Gaddafi of Libya, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, or Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti?

Who in the mainstream media supports Hamas of Gaza? Or Hezbollah of Lebanon? Who in the mainstream media is outspokenly critical of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians? And keeps his or her job?

Who in the mainstream media treats Julian Assange or Chelsea Manning as the heroes they are?

And this same mainstream media tell us that Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, et al. do not have a real opposition media.

The ideology of the American mainstream media is the belief that they don’t have any ideology; that they are instead what they call “objective”. I submit that there is something more important in journalism than objectivity. It is capturing the essence, or the truth, if you will, with the proper context and history. This can, as well, serve as “enlightenment”.

It’s been said that the political spectrum concerning US foreign policy in the America mainstream media “runs the gamut from A to B”.

Sincerely, William Blum, Washington, DC

More:
https://www.popularresistance.org/media-bias-for-war/

5 replies

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Highlight:

Media Bias For War (Original Post) Judi Lynn Feb 2015 OP

Useful closer to this article by William Blum: Judi Lynn Feb 2015 #1

american have a very short bgr1938 Feb 2015 #2

They have short memories, and they also are information deprived by our corporate media. Judi Lynn Feb 2015 #3

I'm an American, most Americans don't know shit about history. bemildred Feb 2015 #4

The brain-wash against the world's poor both creates apathy for horrific abuse of the poor, Judi Lynn Feb 2015 #5

Judi Lynn

(160,545 posts)

1. Useful closer to this article by William Blum:

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sun Feb 22, 2015, 06:57 PM

Feb 2015

I lived in Chile during the 1972-73 period under Salvadore Allende and his Socialist Party. The conservative Chilean media’s sarcastic claims at the time about shortages and socialist incompetence were identical to what we’ve been seeing for years in the United States concerning Venezuela and Cuba. The Washington Post article on Venezuela referred to above could have been lifted out of Chile’s El Mercurio, 1973.

bgr1938

(13 posts)

2. american have a very short

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Mon Feb 23, 2015, 01:19 AM

Feb 2015

memory of history. the usa has a long history of overthrowing gov't around the world. when I travel to c.a. I tell people i'm a canadian, makes for a friendlier relationship with people i meet. thanks Judi Lynn for your informative information.

Judi Lynn

(160,545 posts)

3. They have short memories, and they also are information deprived by our corporate media.

Reply to bgr1938 (Reply #2)

Mon Feb 23, 2015, 04:01 AM

Feb 2015

The more we learn, the more we realize we've been "played" for a very long time. We have to do the research ourselves, as they aren't ever going to share the facts they know themselves, as they don't support the political picture they are trying to project.

We are all learning together, as we go. In time, all the information is going to be known. They can't hide it forever.

Thank you for your comments.

bemildred

(90,061 posts)

4. I'm an American, most Americans don't know shit about history.

Reply to bgr1938 (Reply #2)

Mon Feb 23, 2015, 08:40 AM

Feb 2015

Their own or anybody elses. And what they do know is false, sanitized, and cartoonish. And it's been that way as long as I can remember and gotten worse over the course of my life. It's costing them an arm and a leg too, we're getting robbed. Our middle class has been getting the Shock Treatment and Austrerity for decades.

Been that way forever too, read Twain or Mencken on the American Booboisie.

I felt that way in High School in the 60s, about the jingo propaganda that is our "history", and it's much worse now. But our problems with racism and sexism and other forms of bigotry have improved a bit. They're all just "the poor" now, no need to talk about why they are poor.

Judi Lynn

(160,545 posts)

5. The brain-wash against the world's poor both creates apathy for horrific abuse of the poor,

Reply to bemildred (Reply #4)

Mon Feb 23, 2015, 05:37 PM

Feb 2015

and reinforces the illusion among the racism-inclined idiots that people are poor because they are inferior, and they are lazy, and they are criminals.

What kind of people would make propaganda their life's work? Simply hideous people, they've found a way to justify it to themselves, apparently. They can't hide from their consciences forever.

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