On February 5th, 2003, former Secretary of State Colin Powell made the presentation at the United Nations that for many people ended their doubts about whether or not Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or ties to international terrorism. A review of the major US media the next day reveals what impact Powell's speech made on the information gate-keepers.
In their book The Best War Ever , authors John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton provide excerpts from 8 major US newspapers. New York Times reporter Michael Gordon stated that "it will be difficult for skeptics to argue that Washington's case against Iraq is based on groundless suspicions and not intelligence information." The Dallas Morning News said that, "Powell did everything but perform cornea transplants on the countries that still claim to see no reason for forcibly disarming Iraq." Even the Washington Post added that, "it is hard to imagine how anyone could doubt that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction." Those of us working on an anti-invasion campaign before the war were contacted by channels 13 and 17 in Grand Rapids for our reaction to Powell's speech. Even they were pretty much convinced by the claims made by the then Secretary of State.
However, there was one problem with what the national and local media was saying that day and pretty much everyday since then...they never bothered to verify the claims made by Powell, Bush, Cheney, Rice and all other administration spokespersons on the claims made against Iraq. The independent US media did their homework. One of the best assessments of Powell's speech was done by media critic Ali Abunimah. Powell himself has since distanced himself from that speech and on an ABC interview with Barbara Walters called the speech a "blot on his reputation." Powell has even attempted to shift the blame on others in the administration.
The truth of the matter is that the US is at war with Iraq in part because of the news media's complicity and lack of investigative journalism. The media continues in this role as stenographer to the administration in that it rarely questions the ongoing policy of occupation in Iraq. They do this through a constant use of "official sources" and when dissenting perspectives are provided that means a Democratic Party perspective, which is hardly a dissenting point of view. We have documented this coverage at the local level, by monitoring the Grand Rapids Press, and the three Grand Rapids based TV stations - WOOD TV 8, WZZM 13, and WXMI 17 - both with published reports and with ongoing news analysis. While local news departments might claim that they are just relying on wire service stories or news feeds from the networks, they still do not utilize or seek out critical perspectives of the war locally. Members of Congress are frequently heard, terrorism "experts," local soldiers, families of military personnel, and an occasional person on the street comment. When anti-war groups hold events and get coverage, there is usually no mention of their reasons for protesting or the news media goes out of their way to ask pro-war people what they think of these actions.
A recent example is when the group ACTIVATE held a demonstration at a local US military recruiting center and was ignored by all the local news outlets, except for WOOD TV 8, which gave more time to military recruiters than those who organized the demonstration. The Grand Rapids Press ran a front page story about the national anti-war march in DC on the day after the march, but made no reference to local actions that were in conjunction with the January 27 march, even though local actions took place on January 26 and 27.
In order to challenge the media's role in its failure to question the war policy, we are kicking off a campaign that will do the following:
1) Pressure the local news media to improve its coverage of the war in Iraq - this campaign will begin by having people come to the Grand Rapids Press on Feb. 28 and WOOD TV 8 on March 1st to demand a formal apology for not questioning the US government's reasons for going to war. We will also have a list of recommendations for future war coverage.
2) Democracy Now! reporters and the information/perspectives they provide there would be a decent alternative to the right wing syndicated talk radio that currently dominates the greater Grand Rapids area. People can download the petition or support bringing Democracy Now! by signing the petition online.
3) We need to create more independent media. We encourage people to write articles for us, and to make a financial contribution. Media Mouse has been reporting on the US War in Iraq since the beginning, and covers antiwar activities, documents local war profiteers,
and provides information on counter-military recruiting.
4) Lastly, we have a variety of resources in the form of books, videos/DVDs, and speakers that the community can utilize to educate around the realities of war and how we can build a movement to stop it.
For more information, visit mediamouse.org/democracynow or contact us.
