Americans misled by dramatized, unprofessional news broadcasts
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 31, 2003 9:00 p.m.
It is a well-known fact that the American public is painfully
misinformed and misled. U.S. news outlets are internationally
derided for their lack of balanced reporting.
It is interesting to note the differences between the BBC and
CNN, for instance. Cosmetically, switching from the BBC to CNN is
akin to stepping from College Library onto a roller coaster ride.
This is keenly evident in the bumper promotions that both networks
use. For instance, the BBC terms its special coverage “War on
Iraq” while CNN glorifies the conflict as a “Showdown
in Iraq.” CNN’s highly detailed cinematic trailers
complete with footage of Saddam Hussein and an orchestral
soundtrack are often between five and 15 seconds in length. On the
other hand, BBC often has no trailers (the ones it does have are a
mere few seconds).
In total disregard of professionalism, CNN often praises itself
on the air (almost twice every half hour) as the “most
trusted source in news.” Self-praise by a supposedly unbiased
media outlet is unprofessional. The “most trusted”
source of news would not need to engender more of this trust.
Though the BBC is government sponsored, CNN seems more the
mouthpiece of the administration. On average, Headline News spends
most of its time covering President Bush and a bevy of retired army
personnel and former defense department analysts ““ all of
whom have ties to the government. In a recent interview, the
producer of “Bowling for Columbine,” Michael Moore,
thanked Aaron Brown for letting him be one of the few
non-administration personalities to speak on the air.
This unbalanced reporting has resulted in a war of mass
distraction. We are not shocked by this war because we know little
about it.
We aren’t shocked when we know this war is in blatant
violation of international law. Imagine China unilaterally
launching airstrikes against the West Coast because it believes
that a Communist state, not a Republic state, is the natural order
of things.
We are not shocked while committing a crime of epic proportions.
A preemptive strike against a nation is never justified by a
disagreement with its leadership. Imagine if those nations that
disagree with Bush formed a coalition and declared war on us. After
all, we also carry weapons of mass destruction ““ the largest
arsenal in the world.
We aren’t shocked when we learn our nation is committing
an act of terrorism. There’s no evidence that Iraq has ties
to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks; many experts on the matter (like
Daniel Benjamin, former terrorism adviser to the U.S. National
Security Council) deny Hussein’s supposed cooperation with
al-Qaeda. The Iraqi regime has not killed one American civilian,
but over last two weeks the United States has killed scores of
Iraqi civilians (not including the hundreds of thousands affected
by a dozen years of sanctions). If the obvious killing of civilians
is not terrorism, I do not know what is.
We are not shocked when we realize that to this day, Afghanistan
suffers from the same maladies which plagued it before the U.S.
intervention. In fact, it is in a worse condition than ever before.
We are not shocked to learn that Osama bin Laden has yet to be
found and that our troops continue to die in order to locate
him.
In our distraction and misinformation, we don’t realize
the United States has helped train and equip 2.3 million troops in
more than 80 countries, including many military dictatorships; many
of those matters have not been resolved. North Korea is still
seeking to produce nuclear weapons, Somalia is still on the brink
of starvation, and Afghanistan continues to be plagued by violence
and human strife.
People learn best from their mistakes. Yet, buoyed by public
support from a misinformed nation, President Bush continues to seek
to change the fortunes of nations regardless of their wishes.
The fate of the Iraqi regime needs to be decided by its own
people, not us. Their form of government needs to be drawn up by
them, not by us. Their natural resources belong to them, not to
Haliburton and Qualcomm. Instead of isolating Hussein and
empowering the Iraqi people to overthrow their regime, we have
isolated ourselves from the world.
The world is not misinformed, we are. It would be wise to trust
the judgement of the 5 billion people who do not watch CNN.
