carwreck.com: around Boston harbor...

I've had a hard time fully articulating how I feel about the "War" which is going on in the Middle East. I am not fully in favor of it; I agree with some of the point s regarding why people like Saddam Hussein need to be controlled somehow; and, having been in the military, I am fully in support of the efforts of our servicemen. An aspect of this war I really don't like however, is the way the US media is handling things. I could go on for a while, but instead I will provide this link to a great article which says some things which resonate with me.

i think that's a terrible article... for sure the media is biased, and the news that is actually reported basically amounts to propaganda; but the educated public should be able to read through all the hype and get at the tidbits of real news, however few and far between they may be. what toby fails to point out about the iraqi tactics of dressing in civilian clothes, etc. is that it is an attempt to sway world opinion against the coalition, to try to get us to change our tactics and start killing more innocent civilians. as stated by general franks in many a news conference, that behavior is indicative of a regime that does not care about its people. what must day-to-day life be like for the people living in iraq? i can't even begin to imagine. and has toby stopped to consider the iraqi propaganda machine? i can't believe the things that are said by some of the iraqi officials in those debacles that pass for press conferences... i am against "war" in all but the most extreme cases. it is a terribly costly event in for all involved. however, despite all the legitimacy questions that have been raised, in this situation i think we are doing the right thing. let's hope so anyway.

This article is correct every source of media is controlled by a handful of corporations... among them GE, Disney, and Viacom... this article says 6... in the early 1990's it was 4 i think that international players such as Vivendi and Sony have become much larger through buyouts and takeovers... and this is TV, Radio, Movies, Magazines, etc...

media is a tool of the ruling class... it has been that way for all time from the diMedici's commisioning the painting of the Sistine Chapel to the Monica Controversy during the Clinton years...

there may not be a decree from the CEO or majority stock holders saying you can only report on this or that (but at my time consulting for GE I know Jack Welch and the NBC CEO of that time strongly controlled programming and reporting during certain times and incidents) but there tends to be an overwhelming political overtone to each of these news outlets...

it should be no suprise that there is spin on reporting... and there is no way to remove it... as objective as these reporters try to be they can only come at it from their position in life and based on thier experiences... lukas once pointed out a study that he had seen about the 3 anchor heads reporting on an election and how the facial or tonal inflections one of them had possibly influenced the outcome of the election... his reporting was unbiased but someway about how he pronounced a candidates name... maybe he can fill in a little bit more on that...

and finally in response to peter... war is hell... i think that there are no real rules to it... if the united states invades a soverign country and bombs the fuck out of it kills its citizens destroys its property how dare we complain about the tactics of its people and its army... i think if i were an iraqi soldier i'd be waving white flags and lobbing grenades right after, unleashing chemical weapons anything i could do to beat this invading horde that i am woefully outclassed by... lets remember that the british redcoats complained about the revolutionary soilders tactics as well... "why don't they line up and face us and jsut let us shoot them?"... our general's and media are saying the same thing...

i say fuck the media... and i am embarressed to say i think that sticking my head in the sand and ignoring all this bullshit until a book is written about it 15 years form now might be the best way to get a handle on it all...

crap... after rereading that i realized i didn't make my point... whoops...

the only real weapon iraq has is the media... they aren't gonnna win with bombs and guns... if they can use the media to impact the situation in one of three ways they might have a fighting chance...

1. sway world opinion against the US and Britian to such an extent that we are forced to abandon the war... i think this isn't that hard to sway world opinon against this action... the rest of the world is too politically, economically and militarily dependent on the US to enforce any action..

2. sway US opinion to have the majority against the war, loss of popular support = no more war... a la Vietnam...

3. use media coverage to insight Islamic jihad and all arabs attack the US in the Gulf and at home.... and according to an article about 4000 suicide bombers volunteering to step up to the plate to attack the US i read today (can you trust the media?) that seems to be happening...