[Media-watch] Guardian: The first casualty

[david Miller]

Can this really be the best that the Guardian can do?

http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/comment/0,7494,922866,00.html

The first casualty 

A look at the way the war is being spun and reported 

Steven Morris
Thursday March 27, 2003
The Guardian 

Platform of truth 

All week sizeable chunks of the US's military briefings in Qatar have been given over to cockpit video footage of missiles and bombs hitting targets. The US has tried to emphasise that the campaign is "precise" and designed to keep civilian casualties to a bare minimum. 

Eyebrows were raised yesterday when, with pictures of a Baghdad shopping area apparently in ruins being beamed around the globe, the US again showed images of military targets being cleanly struck. Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks was several times asked about the Baghdad incident but insisted he had no information, to the growing anger of the reporters. 

An Australian journalist pointed out that General Tommy Franks had said the podium from which the US military is speaking was a "platform of truth, not propaganda". When then, the reporter asked, were they going to show video footage and give numbers of bombs and missiles which had gone astray? 

David and Goliath 

A Baghdad lorry driver hardly sounded cowed when he spoke with an Associated Press reporter yesterday. "We are determined to defend our capital after what we have seen of our brothers' resistance in the south," Ahmed Falah said. 

Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi leaders have been working hard in the PR war to flag up the "heroics" of rank-and-file soldiers and citizens who have stood up to the might of the "invaders". 

A woman, Mayssoun Hamid Abdullah, for example, was applauded for apparently firing a rocket-propelled grenade at an armoured vehicle. "Farmers" or "peasants" were given the credit - despite American denials - for bringing down a US Apache helicopter. 

If Mr Falah is to be believed, the tactic seems to be paying dividends. 

Wishful thinking? 

Tony Blair and the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, were yesterday at pains not to knock down the possibility that there had been an uprising in Basra. 

Despite claims from an al-Jazeera reporter in the city and residents' relatives that there had been no signs of a serious rebellion, Mr Hoon insisted: "Certainly there have been disturbances, local people rising up against the regime." He went on to admit: "We haven't witnessed it but we know it is happening from various sources." 

In the Commons Mr Blair sounded less confident. It was a"limited uprising", he said. 

The military campaign has been based on the belief that the Iraqis will rise up against President Saddam.