Decius wrote:

] I don't really need to rip the Iraqi propaganda. The press is
] happy to offer every imaginable question about it whenever it
] is released. However, at least the American press is never,
] ever seen to question the information coming out of the U.S.
] Military. I've turned my TV off serveral times simply because
] I didn't feel like I wanted to be treated like an idiot
] anymore. They are covering this like a football game, and they
] seem completely naive about how they are being manipulated.
]

This is finally getting to me. How on earth can you reconcile the worlds of military intelligence, battlefield tactics and 24-hour news channels? Are we looking at the best possible compromise, or just being force-fed the Gerber Baby Propaganda?
We all know that everyone else in the world (including Iraq) is watching CNN. How much can we expect from any such coverage?

I'm afraid to say that this whole thing is showing that we (the info-rich individuals with half of a skeptic bone in our body who wish that the Internet was able to serve us the raw data that it SHOULD) have absolutely nothing when compared with the MediaMachine. Raw Data? The lowest common demoninator rules this land, and the LCD just loves to know that the RedWhiteBlue is flying high over some poor little brown people who need to be liberated. In the meantime, CNN is going to show the LCD what it wants to see, which is tanks rolling across the battlefield. In the meantime, when someone finds a good (deleted) who can forward along battlefield recon data, let me know - I'm game.

] Seriously, in Bush's talk on Monday he gave the EXACT time
] when the conflict would begin. We ALL turned on our TVs at
] that exact time. We all saw exactly what we expected to see.

Well, give them a little bit of credit ... When you know that the war machine is about to come barrelling over you and you have a chance to avoid it... I seem to recall that there were some memes around here about Saddam making some kind of movement in the last few hours... which actually seemed kind of likely, didn't it?

Sorry. I'm just mad because I've spent a lot of good time and effort towards helping my inner child defeat my inner cynic. The inner cynic has, in the past few days, fairly abused my inner child.

My inner cynic says he's worried that Baghdad will go up in a nuclear blast as soon as it looks like it's about to be taken, but my inner cynic is also paranoid as hell.

I don't thin it will end up in a nuclear blast. I think they have done a good job in showing some restraint and sparing as many cicilians as possible.

The press is always manipilated during wartimme. What better wa to spread disinformation and win the psychological war. However, I think what we are recieving is far more of an actual protrayal that what the Iraqis are seeing.

RE: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Military mind games