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. 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Sarah .. m • : • •* , Advertising Director i i r m ' oppaugw Newsroom W6-!»51t [iu‘i iin-.s Office 346 S!>1? t'tOOUHHJII rvi.t nu ,; «• r Omplay Advartimng M'j J/1 Classrtiad Advertising 14*1 4343 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?"