Critic Accuses Media of Aiding U.S. War Propaganda: It is one of the most famous images of the war in Iraq: a U.S. soldier scaling a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and draping the Stars and Stripes over the black metal visage of the ousted despot.
But for Harper's magazine publisher John MacArthur, that same image of U.S. military victory is also indicative of a propaganda campaign being waged by the Bush administration.
"It was absolutely a photo-op created for (U.S. President George W.) Bush's re-election campaign commercials," MacArthur, a self-appointed authority on U.S. government propaganda, said in an interview. "CNN, MSNBC and Fox swallowed it whole."
Media Tonic for War Fever: Many Americans got their news and attitudes about the Iraq war from alternative sources showing far more skepticism than mainstream U.S. television.
The U.S. news media covered the war in Iraq the same way they cover the Olympics—with red, white, and blue trappings, human interest stories, bombastic theme music, and an almost total focus on American accomplishments at the expense of any international context. Around the clock coverage gave the illusion of telling and showing everything and made us forget how little we actually knew.
Embeds and Unilaterals: One reporter who covered the war estimates that only 50 to 70 of the 600 embeds saw any interesting combat during the conflict. Others found themselves embedded with units that saw little action or were never deployed.
