Iraq

Defense Contractor 'Re-establishes' Iraq's Media

by Laura Miller — May 18, 2003 - 10:00pm

"US efforts to re-establish Iraq's media hit a milestone last week as defense contractor Scientific Applications International (SAI) rolled out the country's first post-Saddam newspaper and original TV news program," PR Week reports. "The 30-minute nightly news show, staffed by Iraqi journalists formerly in exile, reportedly addresses concerns about electricity, water, and lawlessness in the region. The twice-weekly newspaper, al Sabah ("the Dawn"), began printing on Thursday with an initial run
of 50,000 copies.

Main Source: 
PR Week, May 19, 2003

Who Is the US Trying to Fool?

by Sheldon Rampton — May 16, 2003 - 10:00pm

"The situation in Iraq, even by friendly accounts, seems to be deteriorating," writes William Pfaff, "and unfriendly accounts in both the British and the French press are scathing." According to the international relief organization CARE, millions of people in Iraq are at risk as water and sewage systems crumble. "Many people do not have access to safe drinking water, and human waste is backing up and out of the drains in many parts of Baghdad," said CARE's Nick Southern.

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International Herald Tribune, May 17, 2003

Two Wars In Iraq

by Laura Miller — May 14, 2003 - 10:00pm

"There must have been two wars in Iraq. There was the war I saw and wrote about as a print journalist embedded with a tank company of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized). Then there was the war that many Americans saw, or wanted to see, on TV," writes Ron Martz , a former Marine and military-affairs reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I saw and wrote about a war that was confusing and chaotic, as are all wars. It was a war in which plans and missions changed almost daily - and on one occasion changed three times in an hour.

Main Source: 
Editor & Publisher, May 15, 2003

Private Lynch's Rescue 'Hugely Overblown'

by Laura Miller — May 14, 2003 - 10:00pm

The dramatic rescue of Private Jessica Lynch became one of the big moments of the war, but her Iraqi doctors say the rescue was staged. "We were surprised. Why do this? There was no military, there were no soldiers in the hospital," said Dr Anmar Uday, who worked at the hospital. "It was like a Hollywood film. They cried 'go, go, go', with guns and blanks without bullets, blanks and the sound of explosions.

Main Source: 
Guardian (UK), May 15, 2003

Press Not Ready to Cover Our Own Gaza

by Sheldon Rampton — May 13, 2003 - 10:00pm

"Now that the feel-good, flag-waving part of war is over, the real culprits, the commercial-broadcast media, are going to pack up and leave," says longtime war correspondent Chris Hedges. "What they've done is a huge disservice to the nation. They have no sense of responsibility to continue reporting as the story gets more complicated and difficult to report." The result, he fears, is that "we'll see Iraq in terms of flare-ups and incidents, without any context or sense of what's happening or why. That makes it difficult for us to have informed judgments."

Main Source: 
Editor & Publisher, May 14, 2003

Where Have All The Weapons of Mass Destruction Gone?

by Laura Miller — May 11, 2003 - 10:00pm

With George W. Bush proudly proclaiming victory in Iraq, many worldwide continue to ask, "Where are the weapons of mass destruction?"
In the U.S., "Some [Congressional] members are beginning to ask and to wonder, but cautiously," a senior legislative aide told the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh. "For many, it makes little difference. We vanquished a bad guy and liberated the Iraqi people. Some are astute enough to recognize that the alleged imminent W.M.D. threat to the U.S. was a pretext.

Main Source: 
The New Yorker, May 12, 2003

The War, As Told To Us

by Laura Miller — May 8, 2003 - 10:00pm

"Washington has constructed a simple, heroic narrative of freedom and asked us to ignore the much messier human devastation and tragedies of this war," novelist Diana Abu-Jaber writes in the Washington Post of the U.S. war on Iraq. "There are angry outbursts against America across the Middle East, and most Americans have almost no idea why. ... Our news programming has been instrumental in the marketing of this war. ...

Main Source: 
CommonDreams.org, May 9, 2003

Salam Pax Back in Iraq

by Sheldon Rampton — May 7, 2003 - 11:30pm

At the beginning of the war, an anonymous Iraqi calling himself "Salam Pax" was weblogging from Baghdad. The postings stopped for several weeks, but now he is back online, with a backlog of street-level stories about the war and its aftermath. "War sucks big time," he says. "Don't let yourself ever be talked into having one waged in the name of your freedom.

Main Source: 
http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/

DJs Nixed for Dixie Chicks Picks

by Sheldon Rampton — May 5, 2003 - 10:00pm

Country radio station KKCS, part of the Clear Channel network, has suspended two disk jockeys for defying the station's ban on playing music by the Dixie Chicks. The Chicks were banned from many Clear Channel stations after lead singer Natalie Maines criticized President Bush.

Main Source: 
Washington Post, May 6, 2003

Bush's War on Iraq: Was it Just for the Photo Ops?

by John Stauber — May 5, 2003 - 10:00pm

Paul Krugman asks "why is the failure to find any evidence of
an active Iraqi nuclear weapons program, or vast quantities of chemical and biological weapons ... a big deal? Mainly because it feeds suspicions that the war wasn't waged to eliminate real threats. This suspicion is further fed by the administration's lackadaisical attitude toward those supposed threats once Baghdad fell. For example, Iraq's main nuclear waste dump wasn't secured until a few days ago, by which time it had been thoroughly looted. So was it all about the photo ops? Well, Mr. Bush got to pose in his flight suit.

Main Source: 
New York Times, May 6, 2003
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