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Brazen Deceit, Lying And Corruption Of Iraq War News
By Cheryl Seal 3-23-3

Disinformatiion By The Corporate Media Is A War Crime

As the Bush War escalates, so does the intensity and wantonness of the
propaganda disseminated by the corporate media. Overnight, it has cross
the line from exaggeration, suppression, and calculated spin to outright

lies and the total repression of meaningful coverage of dissent. To
prevent the truth from being known is to permit opinions to be formed
and decisions to be made on false pretexts. These opinions and
decisions, in turn, are leading to the promotion of an illegal war and
the deaths, dismemberment and permanent scarring of tens of thousands of

human beings.

Thereby, I believe that any news outlet or newscaster that knowingly
disseminates false information or suppressed true information prior to
and during a war - acts we will collectively refer to as disinformation
- are guilty of war crimes and crimes, in general, against humanity, and

should be held accountable. This regularly updated report will present
evidence of these crimes and alerts to the schemes used by the
perpetrators.

American Media DISINFORMATION HIGHLIGHTS for 3/23

MEDIA Propaganda:
U.S. is pushing ahead, meeting little resistance from a cowed Iraqi
military force, making it obvious that we are being greeted as welcomed
"liberators."

TRUTH:
As of Saturday, 3/22, the U.S. force had not even reached the boundary
of the southern No Fly Zone, a line which runs the 32nd parallel and
approximately through the town of An Najaf, about 100 miles south of
Bagdhad. So, in reality, the U.S. troops have been crossing territory
that has, for years, been essentially secured by air coverage. In short,

the U.S. troops have not yet begun to fight.

MEDIA DISINFORMATION:
All troops and military families are enthusiastic supporters of the Bush

War and view any casualties as "American heroes." This lie helps to
"keep the warm bodies coming" and make potential military dissents
afraid to speak out.

TRUTH:
A growing number of military families are rebelling against Bush. One
group of military wives has started a "Bush Countdown" campaign through
the Internet, that ticks off the days until Bush leaves office, on which

occasion they plan to throw an nationwide party. They also plan to
organize against Bush in the next election to make sure he is defeated
and can no longer needlessly threaten the lives of their loved ones.

When a young Baltimore marine was killed, on the morning of 3/22, the
Today Show was trying to present the usual spin - fallen warrior as
hero, his family was proud he gave his life, etc. But the local news
station got the real story, which, of course was suppressed. This is
from WBAL Baltimore: "As he held a picture of his son, Waters-Bey's
father, Michael, (pictured, left), said: "I want President Bush to get a

good look at this, really good look here. This is the only son I had,
only son." He then walked away in tears, with his family behind him.

Next to this paragraph is a photo of Mr. Waters-Bey holding a photo of
his handsome young son up to the camera. The father's expression clearly

says, "Do you see him, Bush? Do you give a damn?"

Of course, Waters-Bey is black...as a disproportionate number of front
line casualties are likely to be.

<a target=_blank
href="http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/2056537/detail.html">http://www.the

wbalchannel.com/news/2056537/detail.html</a>

(NOTE: on 3/23 in the morning, Katie Couric interviewed Waters-Bey on
the Today Show...trying to wring patriotic schmaltz from the grieving
family, who sat on the couch with stony faces...resisting her efforts.
Then, later in the day, Waters-Bey made a Dixie Chicks-style
apology....sorry he lashed out at Bush. What kind of threats do you
suppose were made between the evening of 3/22 and the afternoon of 3/24?

According to a USA Today report on 3/22, some soldiers are saying they
will refuse to fight because they believe this is an immoral, wrong war.

In its coverage, USA Today commits a war crime by, in essence, calling
in its headline for these soldiers to be condemned as cowards. The
headline was changed by evening, 3/23, with the "critics condemn act as
cowardly" deleted, undoubtedly due to a wave of enraged callers.

DISINFORMATION ALERT !!!!
THE 50-50 LIE

This classic disinformation technique is used to inflate the opinion the

corporate media wants to promote, while minimizing any dissent against
that opinion. To add an even more egregious dimension of cynical fraud
to this crime, it is billed by the perpetrators as "unbiased news." In
the 50-50 lie, instead of reporting the actual fact that the number of
people moved to take to the streets to protest the war totally
overwhelms those willing to protest in favor, the networks or newspapers

report that "protests both for and against the war are being staged."

Conspicuously absent from such reports is any mention of comparative
numbers of protests and protestors involved. The implication is
everything, the truth nothing.

Here's a classic example: At the height of this week's international
protests involving millions, one headline on AOL's mainpage (AOL is the
FOX of the Internet), described this historic situation as a "Mixed
reaction to war around the world." Mixed reaction? That's like calling
Vermont, which has the fewest non-white residents of all the states, a
melting pot. This isn't unbiased reporting, this is lying by implication

and it is a crime.

The reality is, the number of anti-war protestors outnumbers the number
of pro-war protestors by, at the LEAST, about 100,000 to 100. The
largest protest the pro-war people have mustered is about 6,000, near
Valley Forge in PA. And, it was recently revealed that these protests
had been funded by the corporate media giant, CLEAR CHANNEL i.e, they
were a rightwing corporate sham and hardly a grassroots movement.

On 3/22, as FOX TV showed the hundreds of thousands of protestors in NYC

that that filled all of Broadway south of Times Square, across the
bottom, the banner headline said "protests for and against the war
across the country."

On NBC (Nazi Broadcasting Corporation) 3/23 Nightly News, the footage
was so slanted it was stomach-turning. The New York protests - over
200,000 people of all ages, colors, and backbrounds, was juxtaposed in a

50-50 way with a tiny protest in an ultra-rightwing, very white
community in California.

Then the protest in London - over 500,000 strong! - was (can you believe

it?!) downplayed as being not as big as expected...HUH? Then
heavily-edited clips (edited to slant) of protests elsewhere were shown.

A Beirut anti-war protest was billed as "Pro-Saddam Hussein" by the NBC
commentator - even though the signs shown in the sea of protestors all
read "NO WAR." Then, at the close of this farce, Tom Brokaw says what
proof this is of a "world deeply divided." Since when is 6 billion
people in several hundred nations united against a few million
rightwingers in, essentially, two countries, a "DIVIDED WORLD." It isn't

- and that is the truth Brokaw and his pals in the Bush Corporate Empire

do not want people to see.

Another 50-50 technique is to present an equal number of pro and con
statements on an issue - even if the cons (or pros, depending on the
case) represent a tiny minority. In truly unbiased, accurate reporting,
the number of statements presented reflect the reality of your sample.
If your sampling of "men on the street" includes 10 pros and one con,
then you present several pros and one con, without spin or judgement.
That accurately reflects reality. You do not select the weakest or
flakiest pro statement and pair it with the only con - which is what the

media now does.

DISINFORMATION BRIEFS 3/23

FOX Ad: Running over and over, and always (from witness reports)
directly after footage of protests. This slick package of an ad shows
five scrubbed looking college students saying... "We speak..we
listen..we unite...support our troops...." At the end of the ad, no
attribution is given at all, which is suspicious, to say the least.
Afterall, even Phillip Morris has to stick on an attribution at the end
of its "anti-smoking public service ads). So, who paid for the FOX ad?
The Charitable Rumsfeld Foundation?

Just before 2:00 pm, TV news reports journalists being fired on.
Suddenly, the networks cut back to regular programming." I.e., a
blackout. I learn online later that at least 6 journalists have been
killed in a "secured town." In times gone by, a disaster such as this
would have triggered an intensive round of coverage...minute to minute.
Now, because it works against propaganda, it is scrubbed until an
appropriate spin can be constructed.

Meanwhile, AOL is running headlines (throughout the afternoon of 3/23)
straight out of fantasy land: "Franks says fight is "on our terms." Do
those terms include the slaughter of journalists? I wonder.... Another
AOL headline: "U.S. Won't Use Turkish Bases." This wording, of course,
implies that we have CHOSEN not to use the bases. The fact is, their use

has been denied by the Turkish parliament. Here's the real story:

<a target=_blank
href="http://www.canada.com/vancouver/story.asp?id=90C727C7-29D3-4AFB-8F9B-C

CDBCAD4263B">http://www.canada.com/vancouver/story.asp?id=90C727C7-29D3-4AFB

-8F9B-CCDBCAD4263B</a>
-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST

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