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----- Original Message -----
From: <robtice2 at aol.com>
To: <ARP_Issues at yahoogroups.com>; <clarkcountygreens at egroups.com>;
<Equity at egroups.com>; <Ind at yahoogroups.com>; <ReformTalk at yahoogroups.com>;
<USAttacked at topica.com>; <uwsa at uwsa.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 2:35 PM
Subject: The Fourth Estate IS officially propoganda


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

Robert

>
>
> CNN tells reporters: No propaganda, except American
>
> 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: =E2=80=9CAs 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.=E2=
=80=9D
>
> =E2=80=9CI want to make sure we=E2=80=99re not used as a propaganda platfo=
rm,=E2=80=9D
Isaacson
> declared in an interview with the Washington Post, adding that it =E2=80=
=9Cseems
> perverse to focus too much on the casualties or hardship in=
 Afghanistan.=E2=80=9D
>
> =E2=80=9CWe=E2=80=99re entering a period in which there=E2=80=99s a lot=
 more reporting and
video
> from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CYou want=
 to make sure
> people understand that when they see civilian suffering there, it=E2=80=99=
s in the
> context of a terrorist attack that caused enormous suffering in the United
> States.=E2=80=9D
>
> In a second memo leaked to the Post, CNN=E2=80=99s 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 =E2=80=9Cmay be hard=
 for the
> correspondent in these dangerous areas to make the points clearly=E2=80=9D=
 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:
>
> * =E2=80=9CWe 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.=E2=80=9D
>
> * =E2=80=9CWe 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.=E2=80=9D
>
> * =E2=80=9CThe 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.=E2=80=9D
>
> Davis concluded with an ultimatum to journalists concerned that they may
> sound like parrots for the White House: =E2=80=9CEven though it may start=
 sounding
> rote, it is important that we make this point each time.=E2=80=9D
>
>
> The Tailwind capitulation
>
>
> A turning point in the transformation of CNN into a thinly disguised
outlet
> for Pentagon propaganda was the 1998 controversy over the network=E2=80=99=
s
> broadcast of an investigative report entitled =E2=80=9CValley of Death.=E2=
=80=9D The
> program dealt with allegations that the US military used chemical weapons
> in Laos in 1970 during the Vietnam War. Produced by April Oliver and Jack
> Smith, and narrated by Peter Arnett, it provided considerable evidence
that
> Operation Tailwind, as the military called it, involved the use of sarin,
a
> deadly nerve gas.
>
> But coming amidst a series of US provocations against Iraq over
allegations
> that Saddam Hussein=E2=80=99s regime was developing weapons of mass=
 destruction,
> the CNN program threatened to cut across a major objective of American
> foreign policy. A storm of protest was whipped up by far-right elements,
> including former military officers, and both former Secretary of State
> Henry Kissinger and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell
> denounced the television report.
>
> CNN=E2=80=99s response was complete capitulation. Network founder Ted=
 Turner,
still
> the largest stockholder in the parent Time-Warner conglomerate, made
abject
> apologies to the Pentagon. CNN repudiated the expos=C3=A9, fired its two
> producers, and reprimanded Arnett who, to his shame, distanced himself
from
> the program and claimed he was not responsible for its allegations.
>
> Less than a year later Arnett himself was fired. The Pulitzer
Prize-winning
> journalist had been widely acclaimed for his on-the-spot reporting from
> Baghdad during the Gulf War. His dismissal, in the midst of the war on
> Yugoslavia, was followed by another demonstration of the ties between the
> network and the national security apparatus. CNN=E2=80=99s chief=
 correspondent in
> the former Yugoslavia, Christiane Amanpour, married State Department
> spokesman James Rubin, the Clinton administration=E2=80=99s principal=
 liaison with
> the Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas. Both continued in their jobs as
> full-time apologists for the war on Yugoslavia, one at the State
Department
> podium, the other in front of a CNN camera in the Balkans.
>
>
> =E2=80=9CHuman shields=E2=80=9D and other lies
>
>
> While CNN=E2=80=99s policy may be the most crudely expressed=E2=80=94or=
 the only one
> recorded in a corporate memorandum that has become public knowledge=E2=80=
=94its
> stance is characteristic of the entire American media, which serves in the
> Afghanistan war as 24x7 propagandists for American imperialism.
>
> Isaacson=E2=80=99s reference to =E2=80=9Ccivilian shields=E2=80=9D is=
 typical of the
cynical lies
> spread by the American government, with the obedient support of the media.
> This claim was first broached during the Persian Gulf War, when US
> officials routinely dismissed reports of horrific civilian casualties
> caused by the US bombing of Iraq, claiming that Saddam Hussein had ordered
> tanks, warplanes and entire chemical and biological weapons facilities to
> be moved into residential neighborhoods.
>
> The most notorious US atrocity of that war was the destruction of a bomb
> shelter in the Al-Amariya neighborhood of Baghdad, in which hundreds of
> civilians were killed, the majority of them women and children. The
> Pentagon claimed that Al-Amariya was a top secret command-and-control
> center for the Iraqi military, and that the women and children had been
> deliberately planted there as =E2=80=9Chuman shields.=E2=80=9D Subsequent=
 investigation
> revealed that these claims were spurious.
>
> This did not stop the media from uncritically accepting similar statements
> about the US bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, when civilian casualties were
> invariably blamed on the government of Slobodan Milosevic. The same kind
of
> lies are now circulated about Afghanistan, with reports that the Taliban
> regime is moving heavy weapons and military detachments into mosques and
> relief centers=E2=80=94in order to justify in advance the next American=
 atrocity.
>
> The myth of =E2=80=9Chuman shields=E2=80=9D is only one example of the=
 torrent of lies
> that flows out of the White House, Pentagon and CIA, swallowed and
> regurgitated by the US media without a qualm.
>
> White House political adviser Karl Rove and press spokesman Ari Fleischer
> were caught lying about why Bush took so long to return to the White House
> September 11 after the suicide hijackings hit the World Trade Center and
> the Pentagon. These officials peddled the story that the White House had
> received a credible threat to Air Force One. It later emerged that there
> was no such threat, and the story had been concocted to provide a
plausible
> explanation for Bush=E2=80=99s embarrassing conduct. Now the same=
 administration
> issues alerts about terrorist threats for the entire United States without
> a single major media voice asking why, given the previous lies, these
> alerts should be believed.
>
> The administration initially pledged to release conclusive evidence of
> Osama bin Laden=E2=80=99s role in the terrorist attacks=E2=80=94Colin=
 Powell made the
pro
> mise on national television=E2=80=94but reversed itself abruptly. The=
 supposed
> evidence has never been produced. The American media raised no hue and
cry,
> and continues to repeat the official claims that the guilt of bin Laden is
> incontrovertible.
>
>
> White House, Pentagon shape coverage
>
>
> With the onset of the bombing campaign, the effort by the White House and
> Pentagon to dictate terms of press coverage of the war was stepped up.
Bush=E2=80=99
> s national security adviser Condoleeza Rice called the five television
> networks asking them to limit coverage of statements by Osama bin Laden.
> Other officials suggested these statements might contain coded
instructions
> to terrorists. The networks immediately issued a pledge of cooperation.
>
> White House officials have responded to press criticism of the Bush
> administration=E2=80=99s handling of the anthrax attacks by seeking to=
 rebuke
> reporters whose questions express skepticism about the government
response.
> Campbell Brown, an NBC White House correspondent, said a top White House
> official telephoned her to complain of a hostile question to newly
> appointed Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. =E2=80=9CTo get an=
 unsolicited
> phone call from a senior official at this White House is very unusual,=E2=
=80=9D
she
> told the Washington Post.
>
> The top executive at ABC News, David Westin, was raked over the coals for
> remarks at a forum at the Columbia University journalism school where he
> was asked whether the Pentagon was a =E2=80=9Clegitimate military target.=
=E2=80=9D
Westin
> replied by distinguishing between his personal revulsion at the loss of
> life on September 11 and his responsibility as a journalist to describe
the
> event accurately, including the motivation of those responsible for the
> attack, who may have regarded the Pentagon in that light.
>
> The forum was broadcast by C-SPAN, and Westin=E2=80=99s comments were=
 lambasted by
> Internet gossip Matt Drudge, the New York Post, and other voices of the
> right wing. Westin issued a public statement October 31, declaring, =E2=80=
=9CI
> apologize for any harm that my misstatement may have caused.=E2=80=9D
>
> In the war zone itself, the Pentagon systematically violates its own
ground
> rules for press coverage, which prescribe that the media should have
access
> to all major units and locations. Only a handful of reporters are on the
> ground in Afghanistan, and these operate under the type of self-censorship
> revealed in the CNN memo. Reporters are barred from many US naval warships
> in the Indian Ocean as well as air bases in the Middle East and Central
> Asia.
>
> While the usual justification for such practices is the safety of the
> troops, the Pentagon has never documented a single incident where press
> coverage compromised =E2=80=9Coperational security.=E2=80=9D Seventeen new=
s
organizations
> were aware that the US was about to launch bombing raids on Afghanistan at
> least 24 hours before the attacks began October 7, but not a single one
> broke the story in advance.
>
> Richard Reeves, a veteran liberal journalist, described the informal
> wartime muzzling of the press in a recent column titled, =E2=80=9CTruth in=
 the
> Packaging of War News.=E2=80=9D He cited a 1982 Naval War College advisory=
 on
press
> treatment, which prescribed the following rules: =E2=80=9CSanitize the=
 visual
> images of war, control media access to theaters, censor information that
> could upset readers and viewers, exclude journalists who would not write
> favorable stories.=E2=80=9D
>
> This was predictable for the military, Reeves wrote, but his main
criticism
> was of the submissive response of the media. =E2=80=9CMy gripe is with my=
 own
> business,=E2=80=9D he explained. =E2=80=9CThe press, in general, prefers=
 appearing
> authoritative in war coverage to admitting that we are being manipulated
> and lied to=E2=80=94and that we do not actually know what is going on,
particularly
> in the early combat of any war.=E2=80=9D
>
>



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