[Peace-discuss] …the Vanishing Context in American News

[Morton K. Brussel]

Here is an excerpt from Anthony Dimaggio's article from ZNet  
regarding the smothering and spin of information propagated by our  
major news media. Dimaggio, who lists an email address at UIC.edu,  
has had a faculty position at ISU, Bloomington. Perhaps, as a  
neighbor, he would come to tell us more about his research and thoughts.

The full article is at:  http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm? 
SectionID=21&ItemID=13562


… 2. The Anti-War Movement:  An August 7th story in the Chicago  
Tribune reported on the activities of anti-war protestors throughout  
America’s heartland.[5]  The article focused on the activities of two  
protestors, Ashley Casale and Michael Israel, who are traveling to  
towns and cities across the country spreading their message against  
the occupation of Iraq.

What you won’t hear: Don’t expect to actually hear anything  
substantive about why Casale and Israel are protesting the war –  
those reasons are nowhere to be found in the Tribune piece.  While  
the story is full of references to various anti-war banners carried  
by the protestors reading “Peace,” “Bring the Troops Home,” and “War  
is not the Answer,” there is not a single coherent argument against  
the war visible throughout the 1,000-word piece.  The lack of a  
context for understanding anti-war arguments is not isolated to the  
Tribune’s coverage.  A content analysis of articles printed in 2007  
(from January to July) in the New York Times discussing withdrawal  
from Iraq reveals a similar pattern.  At a time when the majority of  
Americans are opposed to the occupation and favor withdrawal within a  
year, there are virtually no criticisms of the war (from quoted  
sources) reflected in the New York Times coverage.  Criticisms of the  
occupation as driven by imperialism or a desire to control Iraqi oil  
are not mentioned a single time in the coverage.  Neither is the  
challenge that the U.S. is conducting an illegal occupation.  No  
source is cited arguing for withdrawal on grounds condemning U.S.  
terrorism and American responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of  
thousands of Iraqi civilians.   Majority Iraqi public opposition to  
the occupation is never mentioned by a quoted source in a single  
story either. …


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