Well stated. There are two conclusions we can usually be safe in jumping to
concerning the media. One is that someone in the media is more interested in
promoting an editorial agenda than in objective reporting, or will do his or
her best to pass off the editorializing as objectivity. The other is that
sensationalism and scandal attract readers and viewers, and more readers and
viewers mean that more advertisers will want to do business with the medium
that digs up the dirt.
Best wishes,
Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax 419-352-6086
[log in to unmask]
http://www.hcea.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Deb Fuller" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 9:43 PM
Subject: Iraqis, looting and the press
> You know, I don't think I've seen one message in the whole looting
discussion
> about how the press has really distorted this whole issue. Yet people on
this
> list - who are probably better educated than 99% of the world's
population -
> are quick to belive what they read and slam the US and the troops for
first not
> protecting the museum adequately and then for trying to gloss over the
whole
> incident.
>
> Could it be that the press - to use a quaint Southern expression - is
"letting
> its mockingbird mouth get ahead of its jaybird behind"? (Sanitized for
> propriety's sake. ;)
>
> I live in the Washington, DC area and during the sniper attacks of last
year,
> got a very eye-opening view of how quickly the press is to jump on a
little
> fact, irregardless of its significance or validity, and make a full-blown
story
> out of it. I had just been laid off so needless to say I wasn't sleeping
well
> and spent many nights flipping channels. After one attack, the vehicle
> description of the "sniper van" literally changed every hour. The main
suspect
> vehicles for the whole incident were a white box truck or a white cargo
van.
> For this shooting, it started out that way, then turned to a cream colored
van,
> then a cream colored van with right tail light out, then a cream colored
van
> with the left tail light out, then it was a cream colored van with just a
tail
> light out but also keep looking for that box truck and that ubiquitious
white
> cargo van. When the sniper was finally caught, he was in a blue Chevy
> hatchback. Yet the press had everyone in the area practically in a panic
every
> time they saw a white cargo van, one of the most common vehicles on the
road.
>
> During the war, the press was criticized for reporting just the war and
doing
> very little commentating on it. Wow, for once they were just doing their
jobs.
> It's kind of hard to spin information if you are on the battlefield and
getting
> shot at and have strict controls on what you are allowed to say. But now
it
> seems like the press is more than making up for it by latching on to any
little
> story and running with it. The US press is very liberal as a whole and
doesn't
> like Bush, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld or getting into this war but rallied around
the
> troops like everyone else. Now the main fighting is over and they are back
to
> picking on the troops, and the whole Bush administration. I'm sure some of
it
> is warrented like the lack of planning for looting. But I'm really
skeptical
> about how blown off UNESCO experts were or how little the troops did to
stop
> the looting. Given that in the sniper case, a blue Chevy hatchback was
turned
> into a white box truck, cargo van and cream colored van with a tail light
out,
> I'm not surprised to hear that the Iraqi museum went from completely
stripped
> to "Oh, sorry, we forgot we put all these artifacts down here. We really
only
> lost about 30 or 40." Loosing artifacts is tragic, don't get me wrong, but
it's
> a far cry from a bunch of troops sitting on their duffs while people
blithely
> walked in and carted off 4000 years of history.
>
> So people, please. Don't jump to conclusions about what is in the press.
Like
> most major happenings, the whole truth rarely comes out until many years
> afterwards when it can be looked at objectively from all angles. Right
now,
> we're too close to the entire war to really understand what happened, what
went
> wrong and the major impacts of it and probably won't be in a position to
> understand it for years to come.
>
> Deb
>
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