War Reporting Made Easy

by Diane Farsetta — July 31, 2006 - 4:42pm
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Remixed War Propaganda by Micah Ian Wright

"Propaganda is a part of war," writes Matthias Gebauer from Israel. "Vast armies of public relations workers develop an emotionally charged image meant to provide media and public support for the conflict's architects." And, "it's hard to criticize Israel for wanting to see victims of Hezbollah rockets ... in the media. ... Still, Israel's support and supervision of foreign journalists seems downright excessive. ... When covering other crisis regions, German reporters often have to make an effort to be extra nice and polite and have to search out interviewees and contacts themselves. Not here. In Israel, reporters are on an all-inclusive package trip -- and are well looked after." One of many recent emails to reporters from the Israeli government's press office offered interviewees on 11 topics related to military operations in Lebanon. "There's no need to go anywhere," Gebauer adds, quoting an Israeli press officer as saying, "The contacts can be reached by phone. It's better to do it that way, especially for the radio."

Main Source: 
Spiegel Online (Germany), July 28, 2006

Comments

"Fascist Islamists" back in Dubya's vocabulary

Submitted by stephane mot on August 11, 2006 - 3:40am.

Once again, George W. Bush uttered the "islamic fascist" expression. This time, it was all about a Heathrow plot uncovered at the most convenient time : Bush and Blair were said to have talked about this issue a couple of days earlier but didn't warn their partners, which means either they didn't care for them, or the emergency wasn't that critical. Anyway, Bush and Blair clearly needed a terror fix to go back up in the polls and to give some support to Olmert, also going down for his military failures. The message : war on terror is difficult but it has to be lead whatever the cost ; this is a noble cause, a moral one. Significantly, Jacques Chirac just used the term "immoral" to warn the US : not reaching a ceasefire agreement would be "immoral"... a clear echo to the messianic War on Terror propaganda.
This is not the first time Bush uses the "Islamic fascism" expression ; in a typically Karlrovish move, he's counterattacking with the very words that are being relevantly used against his Administration and now his protégés.

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Stephane MOT -
http://e-blogules.blogspot.com

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