I«! JI
The truth vs. Georgie’s killing orgy
Bush the conqueror asks journalism:
‘c'mon honey, just another quickie?'
I THE FINE
PRINT
BY PAT MALACH
I had one of tho worst dream/nightmares of my
vi .01)4 lifn the other day it was the type of dream
that ends with vou sitting up in iiec! in ti cold
sweat thanking your lucky stars that what your
mind just experienced was only a subconscious
short story.
Tho causes of my terrifying experience were
obvious to me: the revived tensions in the Middle
hast. George flush's familiar pre-war rhetoric and
tile press' patriotic swallowing of the entire affair.
Apprehension began building as I witnessed
the press jump till over the story of the evil
Saddammeister's sinister plot to keep his military
and nuclear establishment and the Bushtnr's
build up to tear it down. Throughout this latest
foreplay to Calf War; Tho Sequel, there has been
little media attention to the fact that Georgia left
Saddam the new Hitler — in [lower because
Republicans lavor un i;viI
dictator who likes selling
oil over lu ml amenta I i.si
Muslims who would give
Western powers nothing
but the finger.
Another important cata
lyst for mv dream was a
! -I ent edition of lixtni! the
pu-blirnlion of a media
watchdog group called
I airness and Act uracy in
Reporting, which detailed
American journalism's
! lilure n> cover the entire story of the Gulf War.
There has been litlle-tn-no press coverage ol the
.ast.ill-:i Iraqis have been dealt A risen! 1!..r
, ird study reporting that 55,000 Iraqi children
ivo already died from post war coniplii ations.
ad at least 170,000 more will die within the next
year unless sanctions are lifted, cannot he found
nywhere in mainstream American media No, i!
..hi want to find out about truths like that your
only hope is to come across small monthly publi
cations such as The I ’regressive.
!' S .Votes and World Report recently ran arti
cles dealing with conditions in Iraq, but head
lines like "Still tin: big man in town” and "On the
street where he rules” imply Saddam has brought
of this on himself Maybe, hut these articles
nib Iraqis of their humanity by treating, all citi
. os as if they are simply extensions of Hussein.
K.k ism plays a big part in being able to tre.it all
Iraqis as one entity, hut that is another column
There has been a premium put on the truth by
the profit-driven, corporate-owned pres-, as one
editor of a paper in Pennsylvania found out the
hard way The gentleman wrote an editorial with
the headline, "How alxiut a little l'EAGE?" and
-.non found that he had no job.
The truth, or lac k thereof was the theme of my
-nt nightmare I dreamt I was granted an inter
view with the head of the American pre s «on
glomerate the editor of the Globe Times Chron
icle Nightly Veit s. 1 M Bottinpaidfer
Bottinpaidfer s office was on the top floor of a
magnificent skyscraper in the middle of New
Turk's Business district His lavish oak desk took
up about three acres. He sat at one end, and 1 sat
at the other, alxmt a half mile away.
"So, little hoy. they tell mo you want to talk to
me about my press corporation’s coverage of that
gulf crisis thing." lie said, looking down from bis
stock market report.
"Well sir, I think it was actually a full-blown
war."
"Nonsense. Wars are long, drawn out, bloody
uffairs.” he scoffed "This gulf thing lusted, what,
uh, urn...” Bottinpaidfer leafed through some flies
searching for an answer. “Oh. here it is, one-hun
dred hours. And the casualties were, nil lie
searched his papers again "Oh yeah, a few hun
dred. That’s no war. son.”
"Well, that seems to lie part of the problem
with your coverage sir. It was a bit one sided. 1 he
casualties you’re referring to are American. What
about the Iraqi point of view?”
”1 don’t think you understand, son.” he re
plied. "Iraqis don't buy advertising with us "
"I don’t mean to lie rude, sir. but your coverage
of the Gulf War fell well short of even approach
ing a lovul of being fair or accurate. Especially
when it comes to reporting the results of what a
month of unprecedented bombing can do to a
tiny, third-world country.”
“What do you mean 'lair'?" he asked
“For example. Your news organization jumped
all over a story about Iraqis killing up to 300 pre
matura babies in a Kuwaiti hospital. The story
was all over your hews 'vehicles for week.s But
when Kuwaiti hospital offii ;als ■ . and
said those stories weren't true there w .is not .1
word said about it Why is that:'
"That story wasn't timely anymore
"But to be fair and ryen handed, shouldn't you
be doing stories on the Ira p children dy ing from
disease because they have no clean water to
drink.
"Not relevant."
"OK. why was a cameraman tired to a v nr
gani/uition for filming extensive footage of Basra
and Baghdad and the dex e.iatiun tin e areas sal
fo red ?“
"Silly little hov When yu u've ! eon ill the busi
ness as long as I have you can reeognize the dif
ference between news' and propaganda Obx mus
lv, aggressive pursuit of civilian deaths and lie
‘We were able to
increase ad sales by
assuring advertisers we
would tailor war
specials to provide
positive and patriotic
lead-ins to commercials. ’
stria non would only v«*
uni and comfort to the un
i.'inv
"Hut it was tin) truth In
ii tiomocr.n v isn't it the
duty of journalism to pros
ont the truth anil lot the
<:11 i/.ons r o.n t n s t ho v
will?"
' * I d o a I i s t s ,
Bottinpuidfur said, sh.ik
irtg his head. "Saddam
Hussain is one scurvy dog
Should IJ.S modi.i pro
villi' him with an open forum to indoctrinate gull
ible American citizens like when he paraded
those s around on T V In direct violation
f the denes a convention?”
Well. uh. Mr Bottinpaidfer. why was there no
discussion of American violations of internation
al law? You ran photos of laser guided Iximhs
blowing up hydro-electric dams but never men
tioned that bombing such targets is a violation of
d neva protocols And burying dead soldiers in
in unmarked graves, like the U.S did to Iraq's
al. is also a violation Where was that storv
"Details."
"You didn't miss any of the details when the
Army was inflating figures about how much of a
1. oe Iraq had set up in the desert as one U.S
i i . imander recently admitted doing. In lai t, you
. : i'd all over those figures without so much a
runt of skepticism.”
"More details. The American public was wi ll
informed about the truth.”
Is that right? Then how do you explain that m
.1 raa i nt survey by FAIR, only 1.1 percent id
A ii rit.ms knew that Iraqi Ambassador April
di.ispie told Hussein the U.S wouldn't get in
volved In .m Arab border dispute7”
"She did?”
: nly that, t>r> percent believed the U.S. ac
11 v told Hussein they would use force if he
.1 Kuwaiti territory. Most people do not
know that Syria and Israel, U.S. allies, are also oc
. mg territory ill the Middle hast And only 1!
peicent knew that the U.S. was one of the minor
■, tli.it i .ted against a UN resolution to a polite
i al settlement to the I’alestinian/Isracl conflict
"Silly, silly hoy Americans were well in
liamed about events and politics in the gulf. We
have a poll that clearly shows 81 percent of
Americans know the name of the missile the U.S
used to shoot down Iraqi scuds
' It's no use You're not going to ai < ept the fact
that journalism experienced one of its darkest
moments in the gulf, are you?”
"Darkest moments? What are you saying? We
came out of a situation thut had great potential for
tragedy smelling like a rose. Think ulniut it from
my point of view. Wars can be very dangerous for
journalists. If we had presented facts thut Ameri
cans didn't want to own up to us they ate their
dinners, it could have spelled disaster. It could
have dragged our popularity and ratings down,
advertisers could have deserted us and our ability
to present our side of the news could have been
seriously handicapped. As it was, well maybe
you read about this in tiie Now York Times, we
were able to increase ad sales by assuring adver
tisers that we would tailor war specials to provide
positive and patriotic lead-ins to commercials
"Wow. sir, I guess we just measure journalism
success with different yardstii ks "
"Now you're seeing the light, son. Climb on
hoard, don't rock the float and maybe someday
you can lie a part of the team."
Thank Cod for alarm clocks.
I'iil Miilur.h is rn.'in./g’ing editor lor the Kmeruld
"27 years of
Quality Service"
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THE FAR SIDE
By GARY LARSON
Boy, that s good But it's interesting, Bob
Do you think everybody s mother makes
a ditterent kind ot potato bug salad?"