Concocting the case for war in Iran

by M Cotton - MediaBite Fri Mar 16, 2007 15:51

Guilty as charged. It's instructive to realise that even as committed contributors to Indymedia and as media activists in our own right, we can still fail to spot our own subconscious acceptance of the very prejudices we are trying to challenge. Point well made R. We were aware of the other posts and stories here and should have acknowledged them.

To pursue your point further, there is a sense in which MediaBite could be said to be paying too much attention to the corporate media when the effort would be better spent on doing it differently - as is the case with Indymedia. All that attention could be interpreted as flattery, in a way. However, we believe there is an urgent role for media activists to play in challenging MSM journalists, while they continue to dominate the scene, on their use/misuse/ignorance of the facts and to help create an awareness within the MSM that they ought to be having a lot more regard for audiences other than their corporate paymasters - that people are watching how they do what they do and that they can be accountable for it - not merely declaiming news from on high. Hopefully our efforts will compliment and augment the work of the Indymedia collective and other alternatives.

by David Manning - MediaBite Fri Mar 16, 2007 15:00 editors at mediabite dot org

Thanks R. Isible,

Of course there are certain publications and individual voices that don't conform to the assumptions as laid out in the Shot, this piece focuses on one publication only. It is I agree unfair to generalise about all 'Irish media', it would more accurately read 'corporate' or 'mainstream' (though I dislike the term) media.

As the above quote from Amy Goodman contends, the corporate media increasingly acts as the 'megaphone' for power. The purpose of these pieces is to highlight the failings of the corporate media (including RTE), in an effort to highlight the dangers of passive consumption and the need to take back the media.

by R. Isible Fri Mar 16, 2007 14:19

We have focused this time on the extraordinary myopia that appears to have overtaken the Irish media when considering the so-called 'evidence' being pushed by the Bush administration for military intervention in Iran

Actually untrue. Indymedia has had copious coverage of this viewpoint as have left-wing papers and magazines including The Village about a year ago, in fact we carried a link to one of those pieces by Chekov Feeney at the link below. I know that I've been calling attention to the Bombing for Feminism and Gay Rights propaganda campaigns for quite some time too. Don't Hate the Media, Be the Media.

by Miriam Cotton - MediaBite Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:58 mcotton at mediabite dot org

Media Lens have been doing their best to highlight the collective slide into war with Iran:

'It seems to snowball, beginning with the outright cynical propagandists in both major political parties and the media, and growing as the compromisers in both parties go along with it. Then people who just don't know start to repeat it, and then people who had doubts assume all these other people must know better - and you can't be too careful because it's the security of the nation. Finally, you get to where we were with Iraq in 2003: an utterly preposterous threat conjured out of nothing that seemed to have some kind of basis in reality.'

Isn't this exactly what is happening with Iran?

How can more slaughter can even be contemplated there - and in spite of the admissions of failure by Bush and Blair themselves. There is palpable excitement building in anticipation of the greedy news fest in certain media quarters - something major to write about in the offing - more high drama and emotion - and more paper sales too, no doubt. The pundits are already in their posts. Very likely Geraldine Kennedy and her counterparts at other papers have put their reporting strategies in place. The war correspondents will be relishing their opportunities to distinguish themselves. What a career-maker, especially for the obliging embededs! The papers are clearly all spinning like hell in favour of war at the moment, at any rate.

On the BBC's Question Time last night, presenter David Dimbleby referred to the war in Iraq as a 'humanitarian intervention'. What goes on inside that man's head? Where the hell has he been? The war has resulted in three times as many deaths, excluding the million and more deaths resulting from sanctions - than the total deaths attributable to Saddam Hussein.

Commenting on our latest media shot, Media Lens also offered the following very telling quotes to show how the UK media have walked, with eyes wide open, into unquestioning support for this appalling war-mongering:


"...What's also amazing is that just three or four years ago the media were ridiculing the idea that Iran belonged in George Bush's "axis of evil".
Journalists were horrified that this vibrant, modernising country with ever closer links to Europe was being branded another 'rogue state'. It took us about 5 minutes to find these examples, but there are many more like them:

The Times, for example, wrote:

“He [Bush] has discerned an ‘axis of evil’ in Iran, Iraq and North Korea... The notion appeared to receive solid support across the country [US], but it is a serious mistake, and the inclusion of Iran the most damaging part... There is no question that Iran can cause trouble... Yet it is a large, sophisticated country, with many friends in the region, including Saudi Arabia.” (Bronwen Maddox, ‘Why America may have to go it alone,’ The Times, January 31, 2002)

The Financial Times commented:

“When George W. Bush used his State of the Union speech this week to place Iran on a par with Iraq and North Korea in an ‘axis of evil‘, he not only dismayed the Tehran government. He also alarmed some of the closest allies of the US, who saw a shift in the administration's stance... European and US officials believe that Iran has been behaving responsibly in Afghanistan. Some of those involved in the Afghan peace process say that, at least in some areas of Iran's foreign policy, the ideology of revolutionary Islam has given way to a more pragmatic approach driven by national interests.” (Guy Dinmore and Roula Khalaf, ‘America's new enemy,’ Financial Times, February 1, 2002)

Eds"

by Melville Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:22

The convenient postruing on iran hides Blair's black-ops and attempts to
push the Bush regime into Syria- mostly hidden in the Western media.

Only the Guardian and Observor are covering the schism between the
US/ UK on that issue.

Also Globally- whilst the media are covering the war preparation, they are
refusing to look at the S. American Issues including Venezula and Bolivia.

Latin America is strengthening.
The Arab countries are strengthening.
US is becoming radically politically isolated.
Putin is facing of the EU on the Eastern front.

It is incredibly simplistic to focus on Iran as an isolated example of capitalistic
hegamony- when war is part of the whole dialogue on the failure of Capitalism
and it's attendant masculinist christian face- surely journalists and activists
as well as imparting information which is known and public domain
should focus on ireland's special neutral role in these affairs?

Anti-war should be lobbying on the issues of re-defining our policy of
neutrality and emphasising that as part of our culture. unfortunately with
FG/Lab we are entering a well defined pro-federal/NATO coalition.
With FF/PD we are globalised, but Irish people insist on interpreting
our political system in a peculiarly isolated and insular fashion-
and refusing to understand that ;
1. The problems in this state are symptomatic of a global problem.
2. Nationalism cannot be defined within a pro-federal/NATO nexus.
3. The culture (masculinist/ church-dominated) which informs our
policy is not our culture- we were a better more self-determined race
before the 'right' co-option of the principles of the 1916 rebels.

As long as we accept the pap fed to us about the 'next war' we are refusing
to engage at a political level with the issues of abuse and globalised
poverty wherein the OIrsih (owners of global equities/holiday homes in developing nations/
SUV's/ ) are part of that problem- our snobbish standard of living and abuse
of immigrants supports incursion to develop the markets.

There are many wars-border disputes and abuses
we cannot face it because our way of life supports it- please think that when
you walk to the US/UK embassies with your ; 'Not in My Name' sign and small
tricolour.