Media Conscience

international | arts and media | opinion/analysis Tuesday March 21, 2006 19:20 by David Manning - toirtap @ blogger

Because the corporate media doesn't have one

The Bloody Shoe Shines

RTE distorts the level of deaths inflicted upon ordinary Iraqis. Senator Brendan Daly likens Shannon protestors to Saddam's minions. John Waters okays an illegal war and lays the blame at the feet of the 'perverse' public.

It is not just Bertie Ahern that shines the shoes of those in power.

Give or take 260,000

[To RTE News Editor] Today's Six One news reports that the death toll in Iraq as a result of invasion is estimated at between 34 and 38 thousand. Presumably these figures were obtained from the organisation IraqBodyCount. However they are arrived at by recording only the deaths reported by English language news sources. Therefore it can in no way be considered to reflect a conclusive account of Iraqi deaths caused or resulting from the continuing war.

In future, if you are reporting the Iraqi death toll please refer to the survey published in British medical journal The Lancet. The report estimates approximately 100,000 excess deaths in the first 18 months of the invasion alone, it also excludes data from Fallujah where deaths were unusually high. Les Roberts lead author estimates that the toll could now be as high as 300,000.

It was also noticeable in the report that coalition casualties were given precedence over Iraqi casualties even though the non-military Iraqi deaths dwarf that of the coalition. Would neutral reporting not require that the greater non-military casualties be given precedence? Ireland is (still claiming to be) neutral.

http://toirtap.blogspot.com/

Email News Editor here:

complaints@rte.ie

Watch it here:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0320/iraq.html

Minister for Propaganda

I rarely ever listen to 'The Last Word', but I had the misfortune to hear anti-war (??) Senator Brendan Daly verbally attack the anti-war movement today. He explained that the Shannon protest was nothing but a propaganda campaign (??) by protesters reminiscent of Saddam's era (??). He then went on to explain that Iran is attempting to acquire a nuclear arsenal.

The Irish Peace and Neutrality Alliance spokesperson failed to counter any of his arguments, although it can be argued that the points raised are hardly worth countering. But it is the obvious absurdity of Mr. Daly's argument that is so enraging. Protesters are engaged in propaganda when they talk about torture and death, whereas government representatives who spread the word that Iran is attempting to attain a 'nuclear arsenal' are simply doing the public a service. Not to mention the fact protesters have little if any access to the most efficient propaganda machine, the mainstream media. Whereas Mr. Ahern, Mr. Daly and co. are most wel

Iran, in fact, is afforded an 'inalienable right' to 'develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination' under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Mr. Daly is surely therefore the propagandist.

The fact the Irish public were neither consulted or informed about their involvement in what Kofi Annan called an illegal war that has costed potentially 300,000 Iraqi lives, according to Les Roberts of the Lancet, is the crime against democracy. The inconvenience to Shannon security guards is of no significance.

Brendan Daly is more likely of the Saddam era, not the unpaid, unappreciated, unheard, ignored, suppressed protester.

http://toirtap.blogspot.com/

Email Brendan Daly here:

http://www.fiannafail.ie/contact.php4?pid=7&bid=281&sho...nator

Audio of The Last Word available here:

http://www.radioireland.ie/lastword/lastword.html

Peace Alliance:

http://www.pana.ie/

Read More here:

www.medialens.org

John Waters Re-Framing Iraq again

[To Geraldine Kennedy and John Waters] John Waters is not alone, I too spent my weekend sifting through the compost heap. Unearthing countless crumpled papers I happened upon a few gems.

In the wake of the Madrid bombings Mr. Waters wrote, "resolve is what is needed to safeguard our people from the evil without." The resolve was maintained. The evil without then struck in London.

Just prior to the invasion of Iraq Mr. Waters wrote, "The anti-war movement has draped itself in a moralistic piety predicated on the fate of Iraqi children" and "It is not just that he [Saddam] is known to possess a massive arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, but that he has shown a willingness to use these without mercy." Since then as many as 300,000 Iraqis have died, according to Lancet author Les Roberts.

Soon after the murders of 9/11 Mr. Waters wrote, "The United States is morally entitled to respond to these attacks." Then the US military invaded Afghanistan. Years later the response to this attack has produced no justice.

In 2003 John Waters wrote, "Those who deny a connection between Iraq and September 11th must dispose of both the explicit nature of this threat and the precision of its prophecy." No links between these two events were ever substantiated. Three years later Iraqis and coalition soldiers die on a daily basis, a proportion of these can be attributed to terrorists who entered Iraq as a result of the invasion said to cure the disease.

The logical conclusion is that compost is rarely a source of accurate information and neither is John Waters and increasingly the Irish Times.

Email the Irish Times here:

jwaters@irish-times.ie, gkennedy@irish-times.ie, edsoffice@irish-times.ie,lettersed@irish-times.ie

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2004/0315/3038....html
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2003/0303/3115....html
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2001/1001/arch....html
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2003/0331/3208....html