[Media-watch] Iraq, The Press and the Election - Michael Massing/ Anti-war.com - 23/11/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

Very long piece (11 pages in word!) so cut here . Full text at URL.

JA

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http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=4034

Massing's previous critiques of pre-war and wartime coverage have been 
collected in a tiny paperback, Now They Tell Us, The American Press and 
Iraq. (A version of the book's introduction by Orville Schell - "Why the 
Press Failed" - has already been posted at TomDispatch.) Massing's latest 
piece appears below thanks to the kind permission of the editors of the New 
York Review of Books. (It will appear in the Dec. 2 issue of that magazine.) 
Tom

Iraq, the Press, and the Election

by Michael Massing

In the end, the war in Iraq did not have the decisive impact on the election 
that many had expected. In the weeks before the vote there were the massacre 
of 49 Iraqi police trainees; a deadly attack inside the previously 
impenetrable Green Zone in Baghdad; the refusal by an Army unit to carry out 
a supply mission on the grounds that it was too dangerous; the explosion of 
several car bombs at a ceremony where soldiers were handing out candy, 
killing dozens of children; the abduction of contractors, journalists, and 
aid workers, including the director of the CARE office in Baghdad; the 
release of a report holding the highest reaches of the Pentagon and the 
military responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib; a report by President 
Bush's hand-picked investigator confirming that Iraq had long ago lost its 
ability to produce weapons of mass destruction; and the spread of the 
insurgency to every corner of the country, bringing reconstruction to a 
virtual halt. All of this, in the end, counted for less to voters (if the 
exit polls are to be believed) than such issues as whether homosexuals 
should be allowed to marry and whether discarded embryos should be used for 
stem-cell research.

How did this happen? In many ways, George Bush's victory seems to have 
confirmed the fact that large numbers of voters in America today are very 
conservative, dominated by strong attachments to God, country, and the 
traditional family. At the same time, it's not clear to what extent the 
public was aware of just how bad things had gotten in Iraq. For while there 
was much informative reporting on the war, a number of factors combined to 
shield Americans from its most brutal realities. A look at these factors can 
help to understand some neglected aspects of George Bush's victory. .... 
(very long, full text at URL..)