2005-04-15

Bernard J. Fine

Beating Around the Bush:
the Failure of the American Press

For those of us who monitor news from all over the world, it has long been apparent that the American people are not privy to much news or even to history that conveys a negative image about this country.   The American press for the most part has failed. The major purpose of Fiatlux and the hundreds of similar websites and blogs is to try to bring that news and history to you.

On a personal level, I find it offensive when a major newspaper such as the Boston Globe (04-13-05) displays on its front page a photo of George Bush at a cafeteria counter at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas with the caption, “Bush thanks soldiers for their service in Iraq.”

And Karl Rove thanks you, Boston Globe, for that photo and the positive image of our president it conveys to the American people. You see, Karl Rove is a propagandist and he loves it when people do his work for him.   Basically, his job is to make a “mensch” out of George W. Bush.   Mensch is a Yiddish term for a person who has admirable qualities, such as integrity and compassion. It's actually more than that, but very difficult to define outside of the language. Among those who know, really know, one is born a mensch.   A mensch cannot be manufactured, even by a person as clever as Rove.   To make a man whose lies, misrepresentations and “Bring ‘em on” mentality has led to thousands of deaths of Americans and Iraqis into even a shell of a mensch is an impossible task, for shells of menschen inevitably betray themselves and all those who work with them.   But every little bit of contrived positive spin helps at least temporarily with the myth of mensch and in that regard the Globe has been doing its part.

Thus, in addition to the gift to Rove mentioned above, the Globe recently gave similar “showcase” (photo and written) treatment to Laura Bush's visit to Afghanistan. Laura came back as an expert after her six-hour visit to tell everyone that all is well in Afghanistan, especially insofar as Afghani women are concerned.   Again, Karl Rove dutifully served and the public filled with more disinformation.

Now it's not so much the reporting of the above two events that is the problem. The problem lies in the fact that the Globe did not use those events as bases for providing the public with another aspect of what is going on... the reality side.   One can only conclude that the Globe doesn't know what is really going on or that it does know and doesn't print it.   If it doesn't know what is going on, then I suggest that it take steps to find out, and if it does know and is holding back, then it has failed its mission.   Its parent company prides itself on printing “all the news that's fit to print.”   Apparently, what's fit to print is quite different as seen by the Globe and its parent than by journalists on the scene, not embedded with U.S. troops.  

If Laura Bush's views of   conditions in Afghanistan are considered worth presenting, that's fine, but why aren't Globe reporters and editors knowledgeable enough to know that what she reported is simply not true. If you don't have the knowledge of what is going on, you can go directly to sources such as the RAWA (Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan) website and be informed by the women who are there, who live there, and who are Afghanis, not Americans.   RAWA's material is on Fiatlux simply because I sent them an e-mail asking for permission to reproduce their material.   Wouldn't it be a contribution to Globe reader's educations to present some of RAWA's material in the Globe or the Times and so that reader's can find out what is real going on, instead of relying on Laura Bush's six hour official tour?   Two articles from RAWA in the current issue of Fiatlux are quite revealing of the truth even if only reading their titles: “Afghanistan Media Black Hole” and “Forgetting Afghanistan Again,” but, apparently the Globe felt that Laura was better news. So did Karl Rove.

In Iraq, Falluja has been leveled.   Literally pounded to nothingness.   Where's the Globe?   Where's the Times?   Where's the real news?   Neither paper has done justice to the real news of Falluja. There are news stories, reality based stories available about what happened in Falluja.   Why don't they appear in the American press?

Reading Dahr Jamail and looking at his graphic photos of death in Iraq at the hands of America's best, says something that America is not hearing, perhaps doesn't want to hear, but should hear.   Jamail's material has been on the World Wide Web, freely available. If I can write to Jamail and ask him to volunteer to be a writer (not exclusively, of course,) for Fiatlux, why can't the Globe and the Times do the same?  

The photos of Robert Fisk and Jamail are probably far too gruesome for an American citizenry that is blissfully unaware of what a headless child looks like. Blissfully unaware of how American soldiers kill Iraqi civilians in cold blood, without apparent remorse (though that may come later).   Having been spoon fed the myth that all American soldiers are good and well behaved and all of the enemy are bad, cold-blooded murderers, Americans can't entertain reality.    What mother or father wants to think of his or her child as a baby killer?   However, it's a meaningful question in dire times. Why doesn't the Globe discuss how war can turn good kids into killers?   That is the major story of the ages. Fisk and Jamail are among the writers who graphically demonstrate what happens when good kids go bad in combat situations.   Isn't it the responsibility of the American press to at least bring the topic into people's awareness? Or is the major responsibility of the press not to offend by shielding citizens from the truth? George W. Bush is singularly responsible for a severe downward spiral of the moral, ethical, economic, environmental, health and welfare aspects of our nation.   Abetted by ethical-moral anomalies such as Rove, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Feith , Wolfowitz, Delay,   Frist and others, he has done irreparable harm to the best that our nation has to offer...its kids, its environment, its social and educational systems, its concepts of fairness and integrity.   In his blind religio-stupid pursuit of “democracy” for the world with himself as the new messiah, he has set a moral standard unfit for a democracy, even the sick, crippled one that he has created in his own image. Now, we have been told by one member of congress that there is no absolute truth; truth is what we (the Republicans) tell you it is. It has come to that.

Regrettably, the American press has been the willing handmaiden of this irresponsibility and must forever share the blame.