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As a non-american, my picture of the american media started shattering with the Iraq war, and especially the events preceding it. It's only been down-hill since
by kiryin 5y ago
As a non-american, my picture of the american media started shattering with the Iraq war, and especially the events preceding it. It's only been down-hill since then.
- breckenedge 5y agoJust curious, are you implying that the media was simply parroting the lies about WMDs that led to the (second) Iraq war?
- matthewdgreen 5y agoThere is a lot of self-criticism from the media itself that more or less admits this. Here's a NYT article from 2004: https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/world/from-the-editors-the-times-and-iraq.html https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/world/from-the-editors-th... See also this article on Judith Miller's stories from 2001-2002 (she was forced to resign from the NYT): https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/ https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/ These aren't isolated incidents, but they were particularly egregious.
- tootie 5y agoMiller was essentially a saboteur. She was primarily operating out of self-interest but used her position to promote false stories in exchange for access. And she was punished for her crimes. NYT also ran Joseph Wilson's oped explaining the yellowcake accusations against Iraq were likely fabricated.
- mandmandam 5y agoAn apology and a retraction don't outweigh years of cheer-leading. They did serious harm by loaning W and his goons credibility. It's hard to overstate how responsible they are for the whole thing.
- kiryin 5y agoThat is a part of it. Some organizations were better than others, but for certain publications/channels, it felt like their sole purpose was to coax the american public into endorsing another war, using whatever rationalizations necessary.
- zz865 5y agoIts not just that. I remember in the build up to the war CNN having lots of patriotic style coverage with how great the US armies were, how bad Saddam was (and his brother), lots of pictures of jets and battle ships. Once the war started there were lots of amazing shots of smart bombs doing amazing things, but no coverage of anyone living there on the receiving end.
- NittLion78 5y agoAll of that was just them dusting off the 1991 playbook from the first Gulf War. That was the first time an ongoing war was mass marketed in the "modern" way, I think (you could argue successful war propaganda has been happening for centuries through other media). I even remember this thing at the Scholastic Book Fair that was basically a book-magazine thing and contained a large fold out map and a list of all the int'l military divisions that would be participating in Operation Desert Storm; essentially armchair generalship marketed to kids.
- zachguo 5y agoSurprisingly people easily accept the media's foreign coverage without doubt even if they are skeptical about their domestic coverage.