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Josh:
I used to believe that, too, evil media. I was an engineering major and my buddy was a journalism major. He claimed that my cynicism was unfounded because a journalist could make a bigger story by uncovering a slick slime-ball than the slime-ball could make by promoting sound bites and being slick.
Isn't that still a part of the media's check and balance system? Or am I living in the past? Or did the past ever exist?
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The more things change the more they seem to stay the same..
The quote I posted earlier was from 1953, about 40 years ago. But a dozen years ago again, some of the writen facts on media spin and purpose it serves:
are we being led down the same path again?
...before his seizure of Kuwait, the Iraqi dictator was regarded by many politicians and journalists as merely another unpleasant Third World strongman, for whom US foreign policy establishment had a necessary affinity...
...on the heels of the Iranian kidnapping of the US embassy in Tehran, guaranteed at the very least official us neutrality in the Iran Iraq war.
In this case however, neutrality rapidly metamorphosed into quiet backing for Iraq, which eventually led to military support...
... In her famous meeting with Hussein on July 25 1990, U.S. ambasdor April Glaspie tried her bestto help out with the dictator's reputation....She also noted wistfully that if George Bush "had control over the media, his job would be much easier"...
the media spin and lies coming out to fool the public:
...The most notorious of these Iraqi massacres occurred at Halbja, in March 1988. There according to human rights monitors, about four thousand Kurdish civilians, including women, children and elderly. were killed in a chemical attack, allegedly ordered by Iraqi forcesto punish Kurds for helping Iran. BUT in spring 1990, Pentagon leakers appeared to convey another perspective: they said the victims were killed in crossfire of Iraqi and Iranian gas...
Later in the summer, the Bush administration would cynically beat back attempts by members of Congress, disturbed by Hussein's Violent conduct...
and in July 25th meeting between ambassador Glaspie and Hussein, the U.S. strongly suggested it would not intervene in a conflict between Iraq and Kuwait.
But on August 2, when Hussein grabbed Kuwait he crossed the line....
Suddenly more was required than manipulationby leak. Convincing Americans to fight a war to liberate a tine Arab sheikdom ruled by a family oligarchy would require the demonization of Hussein in ways never contemplated by human rights groups...
...In August 1990, the Bush administration's task was to sell two images-an ugly one of Hussein-and a handsome one of Kuwait. For this task the Administration required the best press money can buy.
So we formed the CFK Citizens for Free Kuwait. First move of CFK was to hire Hill and Knowlton (H&K), one of the largest and most politically connected public relations firms in America.
...Quality work costs money. First 90 daysH&K racked up fees of 2.9 million end expenses of 2.7 million (sounds like Arthur Anderson?) By end of war it had collected nearly 10.8 million from the Kuwaitis.
...And of all the accusations made against the dictator, none had more impact on American public opinion than the one about the Iraqi soldiers removing 312 babies from the incubators and leaving them to die on the cold hospital floors of Kuwait City...
....So the initial forum for public discussion in Congress was the Human Rights Caucus...
...H&K sent a fifteen year old girl named "Nayirah" allegedly a Kuwaiti with first hand knowledge of the situation in her tortured land....
parts of he testimony in Congress:
While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns andgo itno the room where 15 babies were in incubators. they took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators and left the babies on the cold floor to die.
Congress was unaware that she was the Kuwait's ambassador's daughter and not a disinterested witness.
...Maryam Elani told me months later that Nayrah's lurid tale was the first she had heard the baby incubator story...
But it was enough to tip the vote for war back then. Media spin got the numbers to the low 300.. ggg
...After the war, Middle East Watch said it was shown death certificates for 30 kuwait babies who were buried on August 24th 1990. Nineteen had died before the Iraqi invasion. 11 died during occupation. None of the 30 were shown to have been removed from the incubators.
(Dr. Behbehani also backed off his story of "supervising" the burials of 120 babies) He was another "witness produced by the H&K group....
from second chapter, Selling Babies
Book: Second Front by John R. Macarthur
as in stocks, buyer beware do you own due diligence, we need know some of the facts before we act. War is not to be taken lightly. at least in the market we have some chance to rebuilt if we lose. But in War, the mistakes are final.
Josh
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=7621&perpage=6&pagenumber=10
