TV Fans the Flames of War, But Common Dreams Go Deeper

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Common Dreams is one website providing an important alternative to mainstream TV coverage. TV commentators are increasingly fanning flames of war and rapid retaliation. "Americans are anxious to have some sort of retaliation take place," National Public Radio and FOX TV commentator Juan Williams stated today during FOX coverage featuring stirring music videos of Tuesday's attack set to patriotic songs. Actor and action-figure Chuck Norris appeared on Fox to declare that "good is white and evil is black," saying he was "always against eliminating the draft" and has been riveted to Fox TV. Another FOX guest commentator, a retired military officer, declared this "World War Three." In the midst of such rhetoric it is important to remember that after the 1991 war against Iraq researchers from the University of Massachusetts found that "the more television people watched, the fewer facts they knew; and the less people knew in terms of basic facts, the more likely they were to back the Bush administration," as reported by Lee and Solomon in their book Unreliable Sources.