I think few would argue good investigative journalism on network TV or the major newspapers are dead or seriously compromised by the ideologies of the monopolistic owners who control them — Rupert Murdoch being a prime example.
Ernie Pyle, the famous, frontline, World War II correspondent must be spinning in his grave observing all the members of the press in Iraq, forbidden to go to the places where the battles were being fought, and herded into a big mess tent and shown movies by a one general on our “victories” on the field of battle.
Had Pyle escaped from that tent, he may have been shot by a sniper like so many other independent journalists have been in today’s war zones.
The last of the wartime investigative reporters died with reporters such as Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace who went to the front in Vietnam to see what was really going on and to find out if the war was really about stopping the spread of communism as reported by the Hearst Corporation and the government.
Just as the Hearst Corporation, the yellow journalists, and the government mobilized our country for war by falsely accusing Cuba for the sinking of the Maine, the same bogus strategies were implemented to mobilize our country to send Americans to suffer and die in Iraq. Just as there was no Cuban attack on the Maine, there were no weapons of mass destruction as reported in Iraq.
Now the same yellow journalists and rear-echelon war mongers would have us believe that the U.S. and Israel have the right to control the number of nukes in Iran although each has hundreds of their own.
Was it not the Russian and the U.S. realization of the strength of each others’ nuclear strengths that brought peace and ended the cold war? Would we have dreamed of attacking Russia to gain access to the huge oil reserves in the Baltic if Russia had given its nuclear capability to wipe out the U.S.? Is Iran, like Iraq, vulnerable because of its lack of nuclear defense of its oil reserves?
The reality is Iran not only does not have a nuclear bomb to match the 400-plus in Israel but it has abandoned its efforts to build one. Israel’s top military officer has backed U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran has abandoned efforts to build a nuclear bomb.
In an interview, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz called Iranian leaders “very rational people” who appear to have been swayed by international sanctions to stop nuclear efforts. Gantz’s comments contrast with the view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly referred to Iran as an existential threat.
To convince the American public that attacking Iran is just, the news media, U.S and Israeli leadership have made the false claim that Iranian President Ahmadinejad said Israel should be “Wiped off the map.”
A top Israeli official has acknowledged that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never said that Iran seeks to “wipe Israel off the face of the map.”
The falsely translated statement has been widely attributed to Ahmadinejad and used repeatedly by U.S. and Israeli government officials to back military action and sanctions against Iran. But speaking to Teymoor Nabili of the network Al Jazeera, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor admitted Ahmadinejad had been misquoted.
Were Ernie “G.I. Joe” Pyle alive today, perhaps he would have questioned Colin Powell’s claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or the vice president’s unfounded claim that Saddam was connected to the Al Qaeda. He may today be asking people why we are still in Afghanistan in the longest war of our history or why we have the need to continue sanctions against Iran.
Consolidation of the media into six mega-corporations like Rupert Murdoch’s give ideologues like him the opportunity to go unchecked in convincing the public to accept news that is either false, unverified or aimed at their own political ideologies.
God bless you Pyle, thank you for your service. May you rest in peace along with the hundreds of courageous journalists shot and killed in an effort to report the truth so all of us at home could reach our own, independent conclusions about war.
Patrick Eisenhart, Commander, U.S. Coast Guard (ret), Augusta.
Commander: It seems that, Rupert Murdoch notwithstanding, the news is getting out–otherwise how would you be able to inform us all about what we supposedly are not hearing? Every statement you made in this editorial, I have heard repeatedly in the news media. This leads me to the conclusion that what really bothers you is not that people are not being informed, but that they do not come to the same conclusions you do.
You see, it is so bothersome when people get to express their own opinions based on their interpretation of the facts presented to them, because people just don’t always agree. Perhaps you would feel better if we could suppress all those news outlets that allow people to express opinions and draw conclusions that differ from yours. Then we could all agree with you. Hmmm…probably not.
Time for agreatwandini grammar check: subject/verb agreement-
“I think few would argue good investigative journalism on network TV or the major newspapers are dead or seriously compromised by the ideologies of the monopolistic owners who control them — Rupert Murdoch being a prime example.”
This is a common slip-up but the sentence should read: I think few would argue good investigative journalism on network TV or the major newspapers IS dead…
it is the journalism that is dead
Thanks for putting it so well, O Greatwan: I can only add that there are independent reporters ‘with the troops’ in Ernie Pyle style, who ‘publish’ on the Internet and rely on contributions to keep going. Michael Yon is the only one I can remember at the moment, the coffee not having yet kicked in.
Oh, and it ought to be mentioned that belief in Iraq’s having WMD was nearly universal at the time, just as Commander Eisenhart’s revisionism is nearly universal now in some circles. Still, as the great Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once observed, “Everyone… is entitled to his own facts.”
There is always been, and probably always will, be a, “drumbeat to war!”
I remember the article about the USS Maine, where the Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, wrote that he would love to see the USS Maine used in battle against the Spanish. Later, when docked in Cuba, apparently, the new technology of electric light bulbs burning in the coal bin set off a spark and an explosion, which was put to good ideological use by getting Americans to invade and conquer Puerto Rico and the Philippines (somehow, Cuba got it’s independence in this process). And guess who got elected Vive President (promoted to President after serving in the Spanish American War in Cuba?…LOL).
I got sucked in to the Vietnam War because there was a secret code embedded in my forehead, which only the draft board could read, which said, “Cannon Fodder!” LOL
Homo Sapiens, the most dangerous mammal on the planet, has invented weapons to replace the teeth and nails nature gave it, and it’s need to destroy and dominate other human beings is the basis for these, “Wars of Conquest.” The United States of America is a nation built on Wars of Conquest, started by the Spanish, British, Dutch, Swedes, Russians and French about 400 years ago, and this nation was almost divided in to two nations over the issue of who could own slaves, and who would be the slaves.
As for me, I value any period of peace, because you can be sure it won’t last long. Roger Stavitz in Danforth, Maine.,
I really enjoyed your dead – on – target comments interwoven into your piece praising that great reporter Ernie Pyle.
Murdoch, the crown prince of yellow journalism, is currently treading water before a Parliamentary investigation on tapping private phones. The probe into Murdoch’s murky operations are expected to be rekindled on this side of the Atlantic, too.