With the fifth anniversary of the start of the war approaching, I am happy to lead a discussion on the media performance at the Talking Points Memo site all week. The site recently won even wider attention in winning a George Polk Award. Others taking part in the online "roundtable" discussing issues raised in my new book include media critic/professor Jay Rosen, famed war reporter Joe Galloway, veterans leader Paul Rieckhoff, military historian Lt. Col. Bob Bateman and Spencer Ackerman, who has covered the war. Readers can join in, too. Ackerman has just posted, others will follow. The book, of coruse, is "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq" (Union Square Press). Link: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/tpmcafe-book-club/
Monday, March 17, 2008
Discussion around my book -- and the media and Iraq -- starts at TPM
With the fifth anniversary of the start of the war approaching, I am happy to lead a discussion on the media performance at the Talking Points Memo site all week. The site recently won even wider attention in winning a George Polk Award. Others taking part in the online "roundtable" discussing issues raised in my new book include media critic/professor Jay Rosen, famed war reporter Joe Galloway, veterans leader Paul Rieckhoff, military historian Lt. Col. Bob Bateman and Spencer Ackerman, who has covered the war. Readers can join in, too. Ackerman has just posted, others will follow. The book, of coruse, is "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq" (Union Square Press). Link: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/tpmcafe-book-club/
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I'm sorry, I select what I read largely based on the frame the writer uses. Undoubtedly I select against some reliable sources, but there are lots of sources that adopt sensible frames of reference. One of the frames I discriminate against is the idea that anything about the Iraq war was a mistake, especially how the main stream media was "mistaken" in its coverage. That frame just doesn't square with the obvious observation that such coverage has been highly coordinated and faithful to a series of specific propaganda lines. No mistakes have been made in the propaganda war. Trying to blame "the media" for failing is like trying to ignore the strings on a puppet and blame the puppet for his awkward moves. The smattering of "good reporting" likewise has served the purpose of providing a fig leaf for the propaganda crimes that have been so effective in misleading the US population about the truth of the war. Allowing a little honest coverage enables the lie that we have a free and diverse media. What I would like to see is a book about how successful and well coordinated the propaganda war has been in supporting this evil imperial aggression.
Herb Ruhs
hruhs@pacific.net
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