[Peace-discuss] The Pres is Selling This War

[Barbara Dyskant]

Here are some newsclips I read and wanted to pass on --


CNN -- 11/8/01
• President Bush's top political strategist Karl Rove plans to meet with an
array of entertainment executives Sunday to discuss the war on terrorism and
ways that Hollywood stars and films might work in concert with the
administration's communications strategy. 

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL had an ad recommending that advertising over and over
again was the best way to get a positive image for whatever product they
wanted
to sell -- certainly what the feds are doing.  Talking to corporations  here,
but the government no doubt is paying heed.



Article Forwarded:(Sorry about those funny marks-- I couldn't get rid of
them)..

CNN officials dictate direction of news, including phrases, to support and 
distort reporting of the war against Afghanistan.  Quote from article --

" Davis (a CNN director of standards) concluded with an ultimatum to
journalists concerned that they may 
> sound like parrots for the White House: "Even though it may start sounding 
> rote, it is important that we make this point each time."
> 

> CNN tells reporters: NO PROPAGANDA EXCEPT AMERICAN  (This article did NOT
appear on CNN).  I'm attempting to find out where it was printed.
> 
> By Patrick Martin 
> 6 November 2001In an extraordinary directive to its staff, Cable News 
> Network has instructed reporters and anchormen to tailor their coverage of 
> the US war against Afghanistan to downplay the toll of death and 
> destruction caused by American bombing, for fear that such coverage will 
> undermine popular support for the US military effort. 
> 
> A memo from CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson to international correspondents 
> for the network declares: "As we get good reports from Taliban-controlled 
> Afghanistan, we must redouble our efforts to make sure we do not seem to 
be 
> simply reporting from their vantage or perspective. We must talk about how 
> the Taliban are using civilian shields and how the Taliban have harbored 
> the terrorists responsible for killing close to 5,000 innocent people.” 
> 
> "I want to make sure we’re not used as a propaganda platform,"Isaacson 
> declared in an interview with the Washington Post, adding that it “seems 
> perverse to focus too much on the casualties or hardship in Afghanistan.” 
> 
> "We're entering a period in which there's a lot more reporting and video 
> from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan,"he said. You want to make sure 
> people understand that when they see civilian suffering there, it's in the 
> context of a terrorist attack that caused enormous suffering in the United 
> States. 
> 
> In a second memo leaked to the Post, CNN's head of standards and 
practices, 
> Rick Davis, expressed concern about reports on the bombing of Afghanistan 
> filed by on-the-spot reporters. Davis noted that it may be hard for the 
> correspondent in these dangerous areas to make the points clearly about 
> the reasons for the US bombing. In other words, the CNN official feared 
> that overseas correspondents might be intimidated by local opposition to 
> the US military intervention and allow such sentiments to influence their 
> reports. 
> 
> To ensure that every CNN report always includes a justification of the 
war, 
> Davis prescribed specific language for anchors to read after each account 
> of civilian casualties and other bomb damage. He suggested three 
> alternative formulations: 
> 
> * We must keep in mind, after seeing reports like this from 
> Taliban-controlled areas, that these US military actions are in response 
to 
> a terrorist attack that killed close to 5,000 innocent people in the US.l 
> 
> *We must keep in mind, after seeing reports like this, that the Taliban 
> regime in Afghanistan continues to harbor terrorists who have praised the 
> September 11 attacks that killed close to 5,000 innocent people in the 
US.
> 
> *The Pentagon has repeatedly stressed that it is trying to minimize 
> civilian casualties in Afghanistan, even as the Taliban regime continues 
to > harbor terrorists who are connected to the September 11 attacks that 
> claimed thousands of innocent lives in the US.
> 
> Davis concluded with an ultimatum to journalists concerned that they may 
> sound like parrots for the White House: Even though it may start sounding 
> rote, it is important that we make this point each time. 
> 
> 
>

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