[Media-watch] FW: [media-squatters] Media Channel--analysis of media responses to Saddam's capture

[David Miller]

The "News Dissector Weblog": Danny Schechter's dissections of the day's
news.
http://www.newsdissector.org/weblog

To unsubscribe, log onto:
http://www.mediachannel.org/email
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DECEMBER 15-16: HOORAY FOR US

SADDAM IN CUSTODY
BUSH IN HEAVEN
WHAT HAS CHANGED?

I started writing about the big score just after President Bush went on TV
to
remind us who deserved credit. Since then, there has been little. The news
this
Monday morning recycled the story of "the get." The only thing news is that
Saddam reportedly is "not cooperating" and is sarcastic. While I am happy to
see
him out of the way, I am skeptical on the way to becoming sarcastic myself.
This
great event is being used to justify the war, with a gaggle of Democrats
falling
over themselves to praise the troops and pass the ammunition. As The Nation
puts
it:

The capture of a murderous fiend is good news. Hussein deserves to rot for
the
rest of his days in the underground rat's nest where he was found. But the
apprehension of Hussein does not justify the war.
What they should all check out is the Gallop Poll, which has shown no
significant bump for the President in connection with the arrest. A
$25-million-dollar reward is not a bad way of loosing lips and sinking
Saddam's
ships.


SOUNDTRACK

There was a song I remember but I am not sure of the title. I think it was
"THE
HUNTER WAS CAPTURED BY THE GAME."

The "arrest" of Saddam Hussein was called operation RED DAWN. Didn't the
Pentagon planners and intelligence jarheads who sent the "Raider" division
out
to snag this big game realize that the title was already taken by the 1984
movie
RED DAWN, directed by John Milius. The plot: "It is the dawn of World War
III.
In mid-western America, a group of teenagers bands together to defend their
town, and their country, from invading Soviet forces."


"60 MINUTES" RECAP

"60 Minutes" recapped the event with long snatches from official press
conferences. The piece was long on recycling what had been reported all day
but
short on analysis. (See below for a reader comment on their interview with
Mr.
Rumsfeld.)


ARREST NOT END TO UNREST

Yesterday, they stood the plot on its head. Of the websites, only MSNBC had
it
right: "Arrest not end to unrest: arrest seen more as a coup for Bush
administration." This was the point made by Baghdad blogger Salam Pax in the
Guardian: "The Bush administration will be able to use this. . . . [H]e
needed
this so bad." People in the White House were admitting as much to CNN. CNN's
headline: U.S.: "We got him."


FOX AND THE COMMIES

FOXNEWS.com sounded as usual like the Administration it serves. Their
headline:
"SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURED"

The stories: "Bush Knew of Capture Saturday.
President was at Camp David when he learned Saddam possibly in custody "
"Joy in Iraq Over Saddam's Arrest.
Iraqis celebrate by firing guns into the air, honking horns, cheering"

What is odd is that Fox was showing all these Iraqis dancing around and
waving
red flags with Arabic slogans, which I (and they) could not read. Later, a
shot
from another angle showed that on the other side of the flags was the hammer
and
sickle! These cheering Iraqis, portrayed as backers of the Coalition, were
actually Communists.

What is interesting about this-and not noted on any of the networks-was that
the
US connived in Saddam's rise to power in the first place in order to stop
the
Iraqi Left from posing a threat to Western oil fields. Brutal nationalists
such
as Saddam then-and more recently, fanatical fundamentalists such as the
Taliban-were backed by the US as part of its anti-Communist Cold War
strategy.
The first people killed by Saddam in Iraq were the Communists. At the time,
Washington had little critical to say about those human rights abuses.


Al-Jazeerah reports that the Arabs, fearing the capture of Saddam will
strengthen Bush, greeted it with mixed emotions.

BUSH LINKS IRAQ TO TERROR WAR (AGAIN)

Today we are champions of "liberty," a word President Bush used twice in his
address to the nation, which was pushed back from noon to 12:15 perhaps to
allow
the networks more time to promo it. Of course there were no questions
allowed.
His tone was somber and congratulatory, subtly linking the war on Iraq to
the
Global War on Terror, a point for which no evidence has been produced. Again
the
claim is that this arrest will make Americans safer.

Needless to say there was no mention of the still-missing Weapons of Mass
Destruction 226 days after the Saddam statue came down. Recall that that was
the
nominal pretext of the war. They could find Saddam in a spider hole-but no
weapons
. But wait: don't think that some weapons will not sensationally
turn up
just before the election!

For a reminder on the WMD issue, check out
www.kaicurry.com/gwbush/remindus.swf


RESISTANCE COMMENTS

President Bush did not admit that the violence in Iraq is not over. As if to
make that point, a car bomb went off in Baghdad within minutes after Bush
finished. I could swear a smile was creeping through his lips, but he left
the
room before his lips betrayed his sober posture.

The US went to great efforts to assure the world that it really was Saddam
and
not one of those many doubles we kept hearing about. Dan Rather told us that
his
former Vice President Tariq Aziz was brought in to identify him. The anchor
on
Fox gloated that we now had the ace of spades in that deck of wanted
officials,
an ace "in the hole." Ha. Ha. I think they got him.


This has not, however, convinced one Indy Media activist who wrote to me:
Like the image of the chunky Osama bin Laden which showed up in the
conveniently
found confession tape, and the images of Saddam Hussein's sons which did not
look like the real Uday and Qusay, I think that the CIA has released more
fake
imagery.

Politically, NBC's Tim Russert used the occasion to bash Howard Dean's
anti-war
stance, claiming that the issue had "just turned on a dime. " The capture
led
Joe Lieberman to claim outrageously that if Dean had his way, Saddam would
still
be in power. Kerry also rushed in to praise the troops. I did not see any
reporting of Dennis Kucinich's statement:

With the capture of Saddam Hussein the Administration's stated goal of
removing
him from power has been accomplished. Now the focus must be on ending the
occupation. International law must be followed and Saddam Hussein must be
held
accountable for his actions.

The United States must seize this moment and end the occupation of Iraq. The
United States must reach out to the world community with a new plan to
stabilize
Iraq, bring UN peacekeepers in, and bring US troops home.


JOE THE JUDGE

Lieberman wants to play hanging judge in the spirit of Alice in Wonderland:
"First the Sentence, then the Crime." He has called for the death sentence.
Will
the US try Saddam or will he be sent to The Hague, which is not authorized
to
try crimes in Iraq? Remember that the US government, which now wants a war
crimes trial, rejected an International Criminal Court. Oddly, Wesley Clark,
who
some think should himself be in the dock at The Hague for his bombings of
civilians, is there this week to testify against Serbian strongman
Milosevic.


WHAT HAPPENS NOW? (1)

Where do they put Saddam? Conveniently, in anticipation of this event, the
"governing council" just LAST WEEK passed legislation authorizing war
crimes.
Writer Cheryl Seal notes that "Three days before his alleged capture, the
Bush
Interim government in Iraq set up a special war crimes tribunal that will be
closed to the world except for 'outside experts' (hand-picked by the Bush
junta,
of course) and presided over by US government officials and their Iraq
counterparts. How very, very convenient."

Now they have someone to try. Where do they stash Saddam? Who will defend
him?
The Scotsman raises questions about the first question. Reports Tim Ripley:

Amid the euphoria over the capture of Saddam Hussein, the American military
authorities in Iraq realise they now have a serious new problem to deal with
-
where do they keep the world's most hated prisoner?

His capture late on Saturday night set in train a well rehearsed plan for
his
incarceration, involving his rapid removal to a secure location where he can
be
interrogated without interference.

Immediate speculation centred on the complex of barracks, palaces and
prisons
operated by the US army around Baghdad International Airport. This is where
the
US keeps other top Iraqis, including former foreign minister Tariq Aziz.

The camps consist of little more than a series of tents surrounded by barbed
wire and are infamous for their basic sanitation. Captured members of the
Iraqi
leadership spend their time eating bad lunches and digging latrine trenches
to
pass the time between interviews by arms inspectors of the Iraq Survey
Group.

www.news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=1373702003


WHAT HAPPENS NOW (2)?

Joyce M. Davis writes for Knight Ridder on a possible implication of all
this:

Saddam Hussein may be under lock and key, but experts warn that the anger at
the
United States that he came to symbolize in the Arab world and Iran is far
from
contained. It still seethes in every capital from Rabat to Tehran, in the
streets if not always in government.

"To some extent, Saddam was a measure of the depth of the region's
alienation
from the West," said James Zogby, the president of the Arab American
Institute
in Washington. "He symbolized the anger; he symbolized the divide."

"Yet with Saddam's regime relegated to history, the danger is that Iraqis
and
other Arabs will see a common enemy in the Americans who destroyed him, and
keep
fighting to end their occupation of Iraq."


OTHER COMMENTS

Mohammad Zaman:

The ogre of Iraq is captured.
He and his myrmidons killed and maimed and raped the innocence of Iraq.
He is captured alive.
Does he deserve to live?"

Jean McCollister writes

I was delighted to see you point out Fox News's coverage of jubilant
Iraqi...communists! I try to avoid TV news but I did catch that bit, and was
scratching my head wondering what all those red flags were about when it
gradually (red) dawned on me that this was the Iraqi communist party
celebrating
the capture of their enemy, thanks to American capitalists. History loves
irony,
I guess.

Just watched Lesley Stahl's disappointing interview with Don Rumsfeld on 60
Minutes. I kept waiting for this question: "Secretary Rumsfeld, are you
concerned that a public trial of Saddam Hussein would reveal incriminating
evidence about the role of previous US governments in abetting and
whitewashing
the crimes of this known sociopath, something that you yourself were
actively
engaged in?" Or how about, "Is the administration concerned that some of the
tyrants the United States is currently allied with, like Rashid Dostum in
Afghanistan or the thugs running Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and a long list of
others, will turn out to be the Osamas and Saddams of the future? Is there
perhaps the remotest possibility that we might learn a lesson from
experience
and rethink our policies towards such people?"

But of course she didn't ask anything of the sort. She could barely disguise
her
nervousness and intimidation. Wonder what conditions Rumsfeld and the
administration set for granting a live interview. Keep on blogging.

Riverbend, our favorite Baghdad Blogger has not yet posted on the capture at
this writing, but did write yesterday about some of the non-violent protests
against the occupation that get no attention:

There was a demonstration in Baghdad yesterday of about 4,000 people. The
parties who are a part of the GC took part in an 'anti-terror' protest. The
roads were closed for security reasons and helicopters were hovering over
head.
There were a couple of women's groups
 I recognized some women from
Al-Da'awa
Al-Islamiya- Al-Jaffari's party. The Iraqi communist party and SCIRI were
also
involved. The irony is seeing SCIRI members hold up the "NO TERROR" banners
(they could start by not terrorizing the Al-Iraqiya station because the
anchorwomen don't wear hijabs
).

There were other demonstrations in some provinces, and they've all been
lobbed
together with the one in Baghdad. The truth is that some of them were
actually
anti-occupation demonstrations, like the one in Khaldiya. There were large
crowds demonstrating in Khaldiya, demanding the release of boys and men who
have
been detained for over 3 months in American prison camps.

Today (well, technically, yesterday) there was another large demonstration
in
Baghdad which was a peaceful anti-occupation demonstration. The
demonstrators
were mainly university students and teachers who were opposing the raids
occurring in some colleges and universities. They were demanding the release
of
three women who were detained when the Technology University in Baghdad was
raided. Their spokesperson, a professor, I think, said that this was going
to be
the first demonstration in a long series of anti-occupation activism being
organized by teachers and students.


KENNEDY: "INCREDIBLY GOOD NEWS"

Dan Kennedy of the Phoenix writes:

This is incredibly good news, and it gives the US a second chance at this
entire
misbegotten war and occupation. The early reports are that thousands of
Iraqis
are celebrating the capture of this evil bastard.

It may not end the insurgency, but it should certainly help lift the fears
of
those who've worried that Saddam might be coming back. Even though we never
should have gone in there, now that we're there we've got an obligation to
get
it right.

Too bad Saddam's going to be executed - from the photos, it looks like he
could
have starred in Bad Santa II.

(http://tinyurl.com/zc0h)

Mary Ellen Churchill writes from the Bay Area:


Now, watching the scruffy images of Saddam, the Iraqi and Kurdish men
dancing
in the streets over and over, and the prez enjoying his PR moment, over and
over.... I notice that when they do the timeline on Saddam's history, they
don't
mention his years of alliance and cooperation with the U.S., and his
friendships
with those now in power here in the U.S..... yada, yada, yada...
Daud X Mohammed weighs in:


Their Saddam "story" is going to backfire on them in spades. We (the United
States) really don't have a case against Saddam; not that the Iraqis don't.
But
then they may also have a case against us. There is enough blame to go
around.
Unfortunately, only Saddam and two Bush administrations can be blamed for
how
those people were so badly written off - no different than the Palestinians
and
South African blacks, as you have well pointed out. And, yes! You are
correct
about the Communists in Iraq (and Iran) as a real factor in how we got from
there to here.

Activist Carol Wolman writes:

>From someone on my right wing nut mailing list

Well Carol: Good news for America is bad news for you and your cohorts! I
bet
you are steaming this morning with the capture of Saddam, aren't you? It is
like
I have said before. Why don't you leave now and go to North Korea; you might
be
more in touch with Kim Il than you do hear [sic]. And maybe our great
military
will capture you next!!! HA HA Ha

My response

We captured Saddam, so what? Bush still lied, and it's still costing us
hundreds
of billions of dollars and the deaths of our soldiers, and for what? James
Baker
is in Iraq to pull junior's nuts out of the fire. Just as he did in Florida.
Just as he's done many times. You know Dubya is in trouble when Poppy sends
Jimbo to fix things.

I wondered how they were going to time his capture. When I heard the news
this
morning, I thought it was way too early. Now I see what they're doing. We
can
now look forward to a trial that will be specifically timed and staged to
win
Bush's election next November.-Carol

Larry Houghteling comments on A TWENTY-MONTH-OLD column:

I am just getting back from a jolly storm-wrapped Yule party in this little
Hudson river town I live in, and I went online and stumbled - a bottle and a
half of champagne'll do that for you! - into an old column (4/02?) of yours,
one
in which you decry the tribalization of the whole Israeli-Palestinian
entanglement. As a non-Jew I always feel a little nervous about speaking
out,
but at the same time I feel it's important for all people of good will to be
willing to speak what they see.

What I see is an America in which Israel and narrowly-defined "Jewish"
interests
have cowed free speech on all these issues to the point that hardly anything
sensible ever gets said anymore. I started saying something I'd thought
about -
comparing Sharpton and his Tawana Brawley misunderstandings to Israelis like
Sharon and their Holocaust-fixations (they've both overreacted to the
horrors of
the past) - and one of the guys I'd been talking politics quite happily with
all
of a sudden announced he was Jewish and that he thought what I was saying
played
into the hands of Arabs who basically just were terrorists and wanted to
wipe
out Israel. (I am oversimplifying, but not much.) And the good, funny, smart
political conversation he and I and a third guy had been having was for all
practical purposes at an end.

He did hear me out for a moment while I stated I thought that the Israelis
had
cornered themselves and, by arming themselves with nuclear weapons, had
invited
a nuclear attack (which if nothing changes is sure to come, sooner or
later),
but he could not get past his "But what are we to do?" soliloquy. What,
indeed?
Certainly not prate at parties that Arafat is a shithead - unless you are
willing to chime in just as loudly that so is Sharon, and then talk
sensibly.

Fifty years after Qibya showed that Sharon can murder just as well as he
imagines the Arabs can, and lie with the best of them, the Jews are stuck
with
him?! What is the point of being the chosen people if Likud is the best you
can
come up with to take the place of David and Solomon?

By the way, your 20-month old column was excellent - it prompted this
letter.

Finally, some news not in the Iraq news we see. From South Africa's Mail and
Guardian:

Army shells pose cancer risk in Iraq
Depleted uranium shells used by British forces in southern Iraqi
battlefields
are putting civilians at risk from 'alarmingly high' levels of
radioactivity.
Readings taken from destroyed Iraqi tanks in Basra reveal radiation levels
2500
times higher than normal.

(www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=13&o=38993)


IN CLOSING . . .
Well I am back in action with a terrible head cold. I am glad to be back and
media channeling with you. Get involved. Share your views with me by writing
dissector at MediaChannel.org.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWSFLASH! We've launched a new daily newsletter featuring media-critical
news from the War & Peace Monitor, Mediaocracy 2004, Ownership Monitor and
Dissector Weblog.

Want to sign up? Visit:
http://www.mediachannel.org/email/

Make MediaChannel your home on the Web for news, analysis, resources and
more:
http://www.mediachannel.org

_________________________________________________________________
Check your PC for viruses with the FREE McAfee online computer scan.
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963


New subscribe/unsubscribe protocol!
--
Subscribe - send a blank message to:
media-squatters-subscribe at yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe- send a blank message to:
media-squatters-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
--
Reduce clutter - default to 'daily digest' at groups.yahoo.com

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/xYTolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Yahoo! Groups Links

To visit your group on the web, go to:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/media-squatters/

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
 media-squatters-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
 http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/