<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?section=Opinion&OID=47971">http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?section=Opinion&OID=47971</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=430 border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD class=text>
<DIV>Monday, March 29, 2004 12:14 AM</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=5></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>War as a media spectacle</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><B></B> </DIV>
<DIV><B>By BENJIE PINEDA</B><BR>Special to TODAY </DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=text>
<P class=text><I>Benjie Pineda is the executive director of the Service
Group for National Legislation, or Signal.</I>
<P class=text>
<P class=text>That the use of overwhelming force by the US-led coalition
in the invasion of Iraq on March 20 last year would lead to the fall of
Baghdad was from the very start a foregone conclusion. Any form of
resistance expected from the Iraqi military, no matter how valiant or
barbaric (like the use chemical and biological weapons), was simply to be
no match to the superiority of the invading forces’ weaponry. It was
destined to be a lopsided war.
<P class=text>
<P class=text>The “shock and awe” operations launched by the invading
forces quickly unfolded, not to have instantly shocked Saddam’s forces but
was so presented by the Western media to inspire “awe” among everyone else
around the globe at the military might of the world’s lone superpower.
Before any single Iraqi soldier got shocked by the monstrous and
unrelenting bombardment of Baghdad and various other places in Iraq,
thousands of Iraqi civilians were sent scampering for safety, trembling
with fear and probably forever shaken.
<P class=text>
<P class=text>The preparations for war coverage of the giant international
television networks had long been made. The minute the first bombs were
dropped on Iraq, the broadcast programs that immediately followed,
including the studio props used, were all well in place. Competition was
expected. What was troubling was that journalistic competition was shaped
around a militarist-sensationalist presentation of the war. This was
apparently the lesson drawn from the same nature of coverage of the
earlier Gulf War by the Cable News Network or CNN -- with the network
profiting heavily both financially and strategically in terms of global
positioning. Thus, in the Iraq War, studio anchors and field reporters,
assisted by a phalanx of so-called military and defense experts, all
joined in the broadcast of an o-going war in a mood and tempo not quite
different from the coverage of a sports or entertainment event. </P>
<P class=text>Because the US-based networks and the US-led coalition
command fed the international media with what were obviously sanitized
reports on developments regarding the war, mass viewers all over the world
were somehow spared a little trauma while being treated to a spectacular
gala of weaponry by the invading forces.
<P class=text>
<P class=text>Selective screening of facts, however, presents a different
problem altogether.
<P class=text>
<P class=text>Since its debacle in the Vietnam War, the United States has
come to effectively use the mass media as an extension of the battlefield,
where psywar operations are to be conducted with equal ferocity. Not only
the mass audience but the media people as well have become unwitting tools
in a nasty propaganda war.
<P class=text>
<P class=text>Many journalists like Tom Brokaw, who are understandably
patriotic American citizens first, can be blatant in their role as
purveyors of US war propaganda. Still, others desperately tried to hide
their bias, only to be later betrayed by their body language, facial
expression, choice of words, and “slip-of-the-tongues.” Was it not
revealing of this verity that only the independent Arabic Al Jazeera
network gave an invasionist spin to the raising of the American flag in
the city of Umm Qsr by the American marines? That flag was later ordered
pulled down precisely to avoid an invasionist image of the coalition
forces.
<P class=text>
<P class=text>The mainstream Western media indeed chose to see things
differently. Television news was replete with reporters putting every bit
of qualifications and questions regarding the various pronouncements by
the Iraqi military, while shamelessly taking the words of the Pentagon
hook, line and sinker, as the official interpretation of the events
unfolding.
<P class=text>In this particular war, confusion seemed to be the order of
the day -- but confusion only as defined by the invading coalition forces.
The tack of the US-led coalition, in practical alliance with the
mainstream Western media, was to deluge the international audience with
unverified information, only to much later clarify the truth amid further
overload of more disinformation. Therefore the truth is, in print media
parlance, “buried on page five.”
<P class=text>
<P class=text>But this war involved not only the military protagonists but
also the other forces outside of the military confrontation. At the other
side of the war was the international movement against it. The two main
contending forces, from a larger perspective, were the actual war versus
the peace movement. Thus, the peace marches and other forms of action
waged in various parts of the world against the invasion should have been
given equal attention by the media.
<P class=text>
<P class=text>Only token attention was given to developments in the
international peace efforts because the latter only served to dampen the
war atmosphere. Peace efforts are very seldom sensationalist and therefore
not good material for sustained news coverage like a war. Hundreds of
thousands of people marching in protest of military aggression present a
still tame image, compared to the bombardment of a country with the latest
weaponry and munitions that technology can offer. Truly, the war as a
spectacle never fails in the world of journalistic enterprise and
competition that is dictated no less by the quest for profit.
<P class=text><BR>
<P class=text><BR>
<P class=text>Please send your comments or feedback to <A
href='mailto:"newsfeedback@abs-cbn.com"'>newsfeedback@abs-cbn.com</A>
<P class=text><BR>
<P class=text><I>BENJIE PINEDA/TODAY</I></P>
<P class=text><BR> </P></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--flash news header--></DIV></BODY></HTML>