[Media-watch] War Dances and Media Complaints

[david Miller]

fyi

Excerpt:
This battle within the media, between new media and old, alternative and
independent voices and mainstream pundits, is also heating up. A culture
war is erupting as well as popular musicians, actors and even athletes
take sides. It's 'Law and Order' versus 'West Wing' is how one
commentator put it.

 From AlterNet.org

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15312

War Dances and Media Complaints

*By Danny Schechter, Globalvision News Network
<http://208.251.133.165/html/USUnderAttack/>*
March 6, 2003

Gore Vidal, the American essayist and novelist who lives in Rome was in
the U.S. recently where he overdosed on homeland media coverage of the
coming war. It made him indignant.

"The media [have] never been more disgusting ... Every lie out of
Washington - they're out there doing war dances."

War dances or not, there clearly is a pattern of coverage that is
beginning to attract more dissection and complaint. Andrew Tyndall, who
analyzes every U.S. TV newscast, has been keeping track of the tilt in
the coverage. USA Today found his research newsworthy, reporting:

"Of 414 stories on the Iraqi question that aired on NBC, ABC and CBS
from Sept. 14 to Feb. 7, Tyndall says that the vast majority originated
from the White House, Pentagon and State Department. Only 34 stories
originated from elsewhere in the country, he says.

"Similarly, a check of major newspapers around the country from
September to February found only 268 stories devoted to peace
initiatives or to opposition to the war, a small fraction of the total
number. Most editors and reporters think the diplomatic story - the
great power narrative - is more 'real,' New York University's [Jay]
Rosen says. 'And people who move into the White House know how to
dominate the news agenda.'"

But could they dominate the agenda without media complicity and the
promotion of what most media pundits see as the "inevitable." Village
Voice media critic Cynthia Cotts, who follows coverage closely, notes,
"Last week, journalists were still using phrases like 'a possible war,'
'in the event of war,' 'if war breaks out,' and 'assuming there is a
war.' Events were unfolding so quickly behind the scenes that results
were impossible to predict. But by press time, the subtext that was
previously embedded in every newspaper, Internet, and TV war story had
become the main thesis: The U.S. is going to attack Iraq. Case closed."

The case seems to be closing against the quality of journalism we are
seeing and reading as well. More than two dozen journalism school deans
and professors, independent editors, journalists and authors, major
media editors, publishers, producers and reporters have signed a letter
to the major media indicting the tendency of many media organizations to
become a megaphone for the Bush Administration. Their letter cites six
specific complaints over the nature of the coverage:

1. "The Horserace Syndrome & Highlighting Tactics Over Political
Analysis: Endlessly repeated news features with titles like 'Showdown
with Saddam' present a grave matter as though it were a high-stakes
sports contest," the letter says. It goes on to highlight major news
stories the media has failed to cover adequately as they obsess over
military tactics."

2. "Failing to Protest Government Control of Information: The government
has frozen out the media and carefully controlled their access to
information. Newspapers and TV news have underreported this freeze out,
and failed to contest it aggressively."

3. "Failing to Maintain an Arms-Length Relationship with Government:
State-controlled media comes in many garbs," warns the letter, noting
the over-reliance of TV news in particular on government-approved
retired military and intelligence consultants."

4. "Failing to Question the Official Story: The media should never
confuse patriotism with obeisance and a rubber-stamp mentality."

5. "Failing to Present a Diversity of Viewpoints: There is a duty to
seek out and quote the many experts who express skepticism about claims
by the state, rather than simply to rely on the same pundits
repeatedly," the letter states. It calls as well on editors, publishers
and producers to see that their op-ed pages, letters-to-the-editor
sections and talk shows are "open to a vigorous diversity of viewpoints."

6. Radio: "Years ago, radio actually acknowledged the concept of orderly
debates with widely varying viewpoints," the letter states. "It should
do so again."

Influential newspapers like the Washington Post seem to be leading the
charge to war. Columnists Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman surveyed
Post coverage, concluding: "We would say that the Post editorial pages
have become an outpost of the Defense Department - except that there is
probably more dissent about the pending war in Iraq in the Pentagon than
there is on the Post editorial pages."

"In February alone," they observe, "the Post editorialized nine times in
favor of war, the last of those a full two columns of text, arguing
against the considerable critical reader response the page had received
for pounding the drums of war. Over the six-month period from September
through February, the leading newspaper in the nation's capital has
editorialized 26 times in favor of war. It has sometimes been critical
of the Bush administration, it has sometimes commented on developments
in the drive to war without offering an opinion on the case for war
itself, but it has never offered a peep against military action in Iraq
...The op-ed page, which might offer some balance, has also been heavily
slanted in favor of war."

Even as it appears the bulk of the coverage has joined the march towards
war, the public still has not fully enlisted. This points to a growing
gap between what the polls are showing about popular attitudes, and even
support for anti-war views, and the mainstream media's enchantment with
the spin of the Washington consensus. In an intensifying media war,
alternative sources flood the internet as anti war articles from
European media circulate in the American heartland.

This battle within the media, between new media and old, alternative and
independent voices and mainstream pundits, is also heating up. A culture
war is erupting as well as popular musicians, actors and even athletes
take sides. It's 'Law and Order' versus 'West Wing' is how one
commentator put it.

Stay tuned.

/"News Dissector" Danny Schechter writes a daily weblog on media
coverage on mediachannel.org
<http://www.alternet.org/www.mediachannel.org>. His latest book,
"Mediawars" is out this month from Rowman and Littlefield.

/




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