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A new study concludes that the British press toed the government line in the first month of the Iraq war. Study author Peter Goddard shares some of the findings. And London-based journalist John Pilger explains why he isn’t surprised.
Donald Rumsfeld, in his final hours steering the ship of war, admits he might have given the whole affair a better name. OTM weighs in.
This week, NBC started referring to the violence in Iraq as “civil war.” The New York Times cautiously edged closer to that terminology. NYT executive editor Bill Keller explains the editorial and political reasons for allowing reporters and editors to call it as they see it.
Last month, Sunni-run TV channel al-Zawraa was banned by Iraqi authorities. After a few weeks, it returned to the air as an explicitly anti-Shiite pirate broadcast. McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Hannah Allam describes the civil war that’s playing out on the airwaves.
Listen to examples of English-language propaganda being broadcast on Al-Zawraa:
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With the midterm elections over, all eyes are on congressional Democrats, and their plans for U.S. involvement in Iraq. Party leaders talk a lot about troop “redeployment.” Critics respond that “withdrawal” is not an option. The media use the two terms interchangeably, leaving many confused about what, exactly, is being proposed. Brooke examines the wordplay with the Council on Foreign Relations’ Les Gelb, and the American Enterprise Institute’s Fred Kagan.
For four years, the Bush Administration has revealed next to nothing about who it’s detaining at Guantanamo Bay. What little we know is the product mostly of habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of the detainees. This week, Bush signed a bill that eliminates the right of detainees to pursue those petitions. Brooke speaks with Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg about the implications for journalists.
When President Bush told ABC News this week that the Iraqi situation may indeed be reminiscent of the Tet Offensive, the media went wild. For many, it represented a turnaround for an administration that has consistently brushed off Vietnam comparisons. However, as Vietnam chronicler David Halberstam tells Bob, there are different ways to remember Tet. And the meaning of the president’s concession depends entirely on how he views Tet.
Three years ago, hopes were high for the newly-liberated Iraqi media. But more than a dozen Iraqi journalists have been arrested this year for “insulting public officials” and “inciting violence,” raising the spectre of Saddam-era censorship and retribution. Bob talks to Simon Haselock, former advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority, about what happened to the legal protections for journalists that he helped create.
