Danny Schechter: Reading Between The Lines To Find The Bottom Line

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Danny Schechter, Mediachannel.org

Thank you Harry Reid for acknowledging what the world press has been saying for more than a year, maybe longer: The war is lost. Now we have the Sunday New York Times with a page 1 picture of an Iraqi being tortured, along with a story featuring claims by the U.S. military that it is making headway. The story reports that its "successful interrogation" was enhanced by our Iraqi allies; the paper then reported that he was softened up by being beaten to a pulp with electrical cords.

That's where we are in the war for Iraqi Freedom. The U.S. is now emulating the Israelis by building a wall to separate two neighborhoods in Baghdad. It's apartheid time in Mesopotamia. Any and all pretense to promoting freedom and human rights is off the agenda as a desperate Administration uses all necessary means - and not in the Malcolm X sense - to try to prevent the inevitable and secure as much of the oil that it can.

Even the media, try as it does to promote a "balanced: debate between the stay vs. withdrawal factions in Congress" cannot sanitize this horror much longer. We have to read between the lines to reach the bottom line. Behind all of these reports, the deeper and bloodier narrative often gets lost.

The problem is that the narrow media focus does not fill in the global dimensions of this war - the covert and not so covert warmaking in Africa, Afghanistan, and so many other countries where U.S. soldiers and mercenaries are stationed.

This is only the beginning of the problem...

Full story here: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/960

I grew up listening to Danny on the radio every day.
Truly a journalist. A rare find these days.

http://www.newsdissector.org/dissectorville/

I've interviewed him before - really nice guy. He's always right on with his assessment of the MSM - and he worked a long time in many MSM outlets.

:kick: