Either he thinks you’re an ignoramus, or he’s really that clueless. Those are the only explanations we can find to account for Observer managing editor Frank Barrows’ praise of his paper’s war coverage in the Sunday, April 27 edition. Along with his tribute to the daily’s wire editors (who, indeed, have a complex, often unheralded job), Barrows told a whopper: he informed us, apparently straight-faced, that by culling war stories from a narrow range of mainstream news sources, the Observer had provided exemplary coverage of the war in Iraq. The truth is that, like most American media, what they offered was a large number of government-restricted reports that sounded more like a cheerleader chorus rather than the variety of intelligent, independent voices needed by informed readers. To anyone aware of the existence of something called the “foreign press,” much less the American alternative press, US mainstream media’s coverage of the war was largely a shallow, sanitized version of events that must have had Bush administration officials grinning and patting themselves on the back for their “embedding” idea. So, no, Frank, your paper didn’t “bring us all through the fog.” In fact, you were just recycling smoke.With that in mind, here’s our third edition of Missing News, where we publish summaries, and links to, a few stories from around the world that you may have missed. We’ll begin, appropriately enough, with stories on the American press’ performance during the war.
Subject: Head of BBC Lashes Out At US Media
Source: by Matt Wells, The Guardian, UK.
Summary: BBC director general Greg Dyke criticized the American media for its gung-ho attitude in its reporting of the war in Iraq, saying he hoped the British press never became “Americanised.”
Excerpt: In characteristically blunt fashion, Mr Dyke said he was surprised at the “committed political position” of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel, and “shocked” to discover that the biggest radio group in the US was using its stations to organise pro-war rallies.
“We are genuinely shocked when we discover that the largest radio group in the United States was using its airwaves to organise pro-war rallies,” said Mr Dyke, who is also the BBC’s editor-in-chief. “We are even more shocked to discover that the same group wants to become a big radio player in the UK.”
Link: http://media.guardian.co.uk/iraqand themedia/story/0,12823,943107,00.html
Subject: Ted Turner Calls Rupert Murdoch “Warmonger”
Source: by Duncan Martell, Reuters.
Summary: During a speech in San Francisco, Ted Turner condemned Fox network head Rupert Murdoch as “a warmonger” for his news organization’s cheerleader role during the war in Iraq, while also saying the American media was controlled by too few people, creating a disturbing level of conformity.
Excerpt: Turner, who has pledged to give $1 billion to the United Nations and is a vocal proponent of population control and nuclear-arms elimination, criticized the concentration of ownership of the vast majority of US television networks, radio and TV stations and newspapers in a few corporations.
“The media is too concentrated, too few people own too much,” Turner said. . . .There’s really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear. It’s not healthy.”
Link: http://www.reuters.com/news Article.jhtml?type=industryNews&storyID= 2628350
Subject:Franks Faces Belgium War Crimes Charges
Source: Expatica.com.
Summary: US Allied Forces Commander, General Tommy Franks, could face trial for war crimes under Belgium’s unique war crimes and genocide law, after four Belgian doctors, who witnessed the invasion of Iraq firsthand in Baghdad, filed official complaints.
Excerpt: Several events have already been cited by the doctors’ lawyer, Jan Fermon, including an ambulance under fire from US troops, the bombing of a market, an attack on a civilian bus, random executions, and inaction in the face of hospital pillaging.
Link: http://www.expatica.com/belgium. asp?pad=88,89,&item_id=30621
Subject:US Troops Infuriate Iraqis By Stripping Thieves
Source: The Mirror, UK.
Summary: US troops enraged Iraqis Friday when four alleged thieves were paraded naked in a Baghdad park.
Excerpt: The humiliating spectacle of young men running to hide their shame was captured by a photographer for Norway’s Dagbladet newspaper, which quoted a US officer as saying the deterrent was effective.
Amnesty International in London criticised the inhumane treatment and promised to raise the matter urgently with the United Nations next week.
Three of the young men got away but 20-year-old Zian Djumma came back with his head bowed down after he put on grey shorts which he found in a looted house.
He told Dagbladet: “This was terrible. Now I only want to go home and find a hand grenade and throw it at the soldiers.”
Link: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12892681&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=FURY%20AS%20US%20STRIPS%20THIEVES
Subject: Intelligence Agents Say Bush and Blair Lied
Source: by Raymond Whitaker, The Independent, UK.
Summary: According to members of British Intelligence agencies, the case made by Tony Blair and George W. Bush for invading Iraq was based on selective use of intelligence, exaggeration, knowing use of discredited sources, and outright lies.
Excerpt: A high-level UK source said last night that intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic were furious that briefings they gave political leaders were distorted in the rush to war with Iraq. “They ignored intelligence assessments which said Iraq was not a threat,” the source said.
Link: http://news.independent.co.uk/ world/politics/story.jsp?story=400805
Subject: Chalabi Backers Caught Looting
Source: Ananova, UK.
Summary: US-trained troops loyal to Defense Department favorite Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress political organization, were arrested by American troops for repeated looting.
Excerpt: Fighters of the US-trained Free Iraqi Forces have been arrested after they were allegedly found looting abandoned homes of members of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Baghdad police chief, Zabar Abdul Razaq, says FIF forces have looted homes in Baghdad and refuse to obey police orders.
Link: http://www.ananova.com/news/ story/sm_773253.html
Subject:State Dept. Official Says Gingrich an “Idiot”
Source: Agence France Presse.
Summary: A top State Department official, reacting to Newt Gingrich’s recent statement that Colin Powell’s department was trying to undermine the Bush administration’s policies, strongly criticized the former Speaker of the House.
Excerpt: “Newt Gingrich does not speak in the name of the Pentagon and what he said is garbage,” US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Elizabeth Jones told the Publico daily in Lisbon, Portugal.
“What Gingrich says does not interest me. He is an idiot and you can publish that,” she added.
Link: http://story.news.yahoo.com/ news?tmpl=story&cid=1517&e=19&u=/afp/us_mideast_portugal
Subject: British MP Was On Iraqi Payroll
Source: by Nicole Martin, the Daily Telegraph, UK.
Summary: George Galloway, a member of British Parliament, has been accused by the Daily Telegraph of having received payments from Saddam Hussein’s government in return for criticizing the British government’s policies toward Iraq.
Excerpt: Saddam Hussein’s former head of protocol said yesterday that the document found by The Daily Telegraph saying that George Galloway received substantial payments from the Iraqi regime was “100 per cent genuine. . . He was the type of person that Saddam wanted.”
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/24/nevid124.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/04/24/ixnewstop.html
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2003.
