Western Media - Commentary

In these days when the Western news media are becoming increasingly entertainment-oriented, and the "news" consists more and more of instant stories, to be forgotten next week when the media circus moves on, or of blatant propaganda, such as live White House or Pentagon briefings, it is not easy to understand what is actually happening on our planet. The articles and news broadcasts contain many euphemisms that reflect the prevailing double standards, and the mainstream media has become a well-oiled propaganda machine for the large corporations and the US government. As four journalists have found out, it has become dangerous to criticise the president.

Forgotten voices and hidden news

The following topics have been rarely reported, even though by any standards they are news-worthy:

• Noam Chomsky, who has been called one of the greatest intellectuals of the Twentieth Century, has been a consistent critic of US foreign policy since the Vietnam War. His voice has been rarely heard in the mainstream media.
• depleted uranium (DU), is built into in US bombs and shells, for the first time extensively used in the Gulf War. DU is basically nuclear waste. Up to 100,000 US troops are suffering from Gulf War Syndrome after being exposed to it, and many Iraqi babies suffer from congenital deformities unknown before the Gulf War.
• The sanctions against Iraq caused well over one million deaths. If mentioned at all in the Western media, the blame is placed on Saddam Hussein. Dissenting voices, such as the former UN Assistant Secretary General, and Humanitarian Aid Co-ordinator for Iraq, Denis Halliday, were ignored.
• The Portuguese colony East Timor was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 two days after US president Ford and Henry Kissinger approved the invasion during a visit to Jakarta. As a result 200,000 of an original population of 600,000 were murdered.

Media bias

There are also stories that are consistently reported from a biased point of view, and where questions that need to be asked are never heard:

• The illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. In 1917 Great Britain gave part of its occupied territory of Palestine to the Jews to found their own state. In 1948 the state of Israel was recognized by the United Nations, after most of Israel had been ethnically cleansed of the original inhabitants. In 1967 the Israelis occupied the rest of Palestine. The Palestinians have staged two uprisings, the first Intifada, and the current Al-Aqsa Intifada. They are fighting for the right to self-determination and against the brutal suppression of the Palestine population by the occupation forces. The media has somehow turned the victims into the criminals. Pictures of Palestinian casualties rarely make it into the media, while clips of Israeli casualties are shown over and over again on television. The Electronic Intifada website has many articles and links.

Myths

Goebbels, propaganda minister to Adolf Hitler, was a proponent of "the big lie". "Any lie," he said, "that is repeated often enough, will eventually be believed.". The media is very good at repeating half-truths and lies so often, that people will often assume that they are facts. Some examples:

• At the time of the Clinton administration, Barak, prime minister of Israel, generously offered Yasser Arafat 95% of the Occupied Territories including East Jerusalem, but Arafat rejected the offer, and chose the path of terrorism.

  In fact, there was no firm offer on the table, just a proposal. Barak was prepared to pull out of all of Gaza but sought to reduce and cantonise the West Bank. Israel would retain sovereignty over "Greater Jerusalem," covering 28 per cent of the West Bank, and annex another nine to 13.5 per cent. Israel would lease a further 10 per cent in the Jordan Valley, establish six military bases, several staging areas and three early warning stations.

  In exchange for the annexation of at least 47-51.5 per cent of the West Bank, Barak offered land in the Negev desert equivalent to one per cent. Israel would retain control of external borders and main West Bank roads which carve the area into three cantons, giving Israel control of all movement between the three West Bank cantons as well as between the West Bank and Gaza. Israel would also retain control of Palestinian water sources and airspace. To call this a "country" is a cynical lie.

  Also the intifada (uprising) did not start until two months later, after Ariel Sharon decided to talk a walk on the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque, accompanied by a thousand heavily-armed Israeli troops.

  For more information see Myths – Barak's Generous Offer

• Israel is a democracy.

  Israeli Arabs suffer from discrimination in many aspects of their lives. For example:

  • Arab children's segregated schools receive less money per pupil.
  • Social benefits are lower for those who have not served in the Israeli Defence Force. No Arab is allowed to serve in the IDF. For example, until 1997 child benefits were different.
  • Housing. No Israeli Arab is allowed to buy a house in 93% of Israel. This land is reserved for Jews.

  This is incompatible with what is generally accepted as democracy. See "The only democracy in the Middle East" for more information.

• Sadam Hussein was to blame for the suffering of the Iraqi people due to the sanctions, because he did not allow food and medicine to be distributed to them. All he had to do was to allow UN inspection teams to enter the country, and the sanctions will be lifted.

  The fact is that the forces led by the US and the UK destroyed the infrastructure of Iraq, including water purification plants. The lack of clean water is a large cause of disease, and the sanctions did not allow the plants to be repaired. Before the Gulf War, Iraqis had a reasonably high standard of living, and the combination of the bombing (which continued after the "Gulf War I") and the sanctions sent the country back to the middle ages. The main problem with medicines was not the distribution, which was generally fair, but the vindictive US-controlled bureaucracy that tied up attempts to import the medicines with delays and petty restrictions, as attested to by Denis Halliday in his resignation speech. As for the UN inspection teams, the CIA admitted that it had infiltrated them and was passing on strategic information to the Israelis.

  See essays on war and sanctions by Ramsey Clark and Citizens Concerned for the People of Iraq.

Ignored history

Since history is written by the victors, there are many aspects of history that have been ignored or "spun", for example the statement that Columbus "discovered" America or that the British Empire was a noble institutution. For more information see Alternative media and criticism of Western media/Alternative History

Misuse of language

The use of euphemisms such as "collateral damage" for "murdered citizens" is well-known. For several lists of these euphemisms see Alternative media and criticism of Western media/How to Interpret What the Mass Media Say.