CNN Sold Us the War. Now It Sells Us the Heartbreak with Unctuous Consoling, "Heroic! Brave!"

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jay_jans_070310_cnn_sold_us_the_war_.htm

CNN Sold Us the War. Now It Sells Us the Heartbreak with Unctuous Consoling, "Heroic! Brave!"

by Jay Janson


CNN Anderson Cooper's Monday evening, March 5th, heartbreaking documentary traces the lives of young American members of a 'Striker' armored car/tank unit through to their deaths at mealtime in an Army facility in Mosel, Iraq. CNN sold us on the War, and no matter how often CNN praises our dead and wounded as brave and heroic, we remember that CNN sold us the war on Iraq. It currently sells continuing the war of occupation. Soon CNN might openly begin selling us a pull back. It is slowly becoming too costly for some of the business community that has overriding prerogatives in influencing how entertainment/news is presented.

CNN, more than the other conglomerate owned TV networks or print media, is responsible for the deaths of the American soldiers of the 'Striker' group who perished when an Iraqi dressed in police uniform blew himself up in that mess tent in Mosel. Why is CNN more guilty than the other war eulogizing channels? Because viewers remember the time, back when founder Ted Turner, husband of Jane Fonda, was still its owner and president, and CNN was independent of the entertainment/news industry's united front of uncritical support for all violent U.S. foreign policy.

In a way, Ted Turner set the public up. Because now when present owner Time-Warner advertises CNN as being the most trustworthy news source, millions of viewers believe it, having the memory of a previously more honest and semi-independent Cable News Network still in mind.

Why is conglomerate owned media, and CNN in particular, guilty for our tragic war casualties and guilty for the tenfold or hundredfold more tragic loss of life and limb within the country our boys have been sent to bomb, invade and occupy?

Firstly, because in the lead up to war, CNN temporized and equivocated, misinformed and disinformed by presenting facts out of context, colored its reports with unwarranted fears, exaggerated the capacity and capability of Iraq to endanger a superpower, featured sensationalist pro war arguments uncritical of their source, blacked out any reference to the U.S. complicity with the crimes of Saddam especially during the Reagan administration, subtly cast doubt on the veracity of UN inspectors by quoting and giving undue exposure and credence to voiced suspicions and the opinions of those wanting war, presented outrageously unproven accusations as apparent possibilities, distorted the case for peaceful negotiation, ignored the findings of reputable investigative historians, and presented unsubstantiated evidence as gospel truth enabling unscrupulous war mongers and weak-minded large corporation beholden establishment politicians to successfully dupe enough of the public as to allow this nation to go forward with what is now finally recognized as an illegal war by a majority of the U.S. and world opinion.


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If there is any doubt of their role, just review Paula Zahn's interviews with Scott Ritter. Scott was trying to sound alarms about the lies being spread during the drumming for war, during a time when the public didn't know what to believe. Had Paula been a real journalist, or for that matter, a real human being, she would have had some curiousity at least to look into what Scott was telling her.

September 9, 2002
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/09/ltm.14.html

September 13, 2002
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/13/ltm.02.html