By Jerome Hoffman
Why do 42 percent of Americans believe Saddam Hussein was
involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks?
Could it have something to do with government lies? Repeated
allegation and innuendo ““ though completely unfounded ““
have obviously been effective. So effective that few laughed when
George Bush said it would be “suicidal” for the United
States not to attack Iraq ““ one more starved, bombed and
impoverished country poised to annihilate a helpless America. Few
noticed when Tony Blair tried to pass off plagiarized sections of a
graduate student’s thesis as “intelligence.”
These hardly compare, however, to the charade about weapons of
mass destruction. Colin Powell grandly displayed pictures of boxes
and trucks ““ proof of WMD. Remarkably, the same weapons that
couldn’t hide from our satellite planes were oh-so-cunningly
able to hide from us in person. What a devious enemy ““ that
which refuses to use such weapons, even in defense against an
overwhelming attack, instead spiriting the evidence away at the
last minute just to make it seem we were lying.
Not nearly as important, but more remarkable for sheer chutzpah,
was the tale of Jennifer Lynch’s heroic rescue from a cruel
Iraqi military, replete with unethical doctors who refused to care
for her battle wounds. The BBC documented that Lynch was actually
injured in a road accident (not a heroic skirmish) and that Iraqi
doctors apparently transfused her using their own blood, even while
they had no blood to give to more gravely wounded Iraqi
civilians.
When the doctors tried to return her to the U.S. military, their
ambulance was attacked, creating great risk to the very heroine of
our story. Why was the ambulance attacked ““ ostensibly
because the “rescue” had to be filmed, as it was later
that night by military producers, directors and cameramen, using
dummy bullets and soldiers screaming “Go, go!” to
provide a more realistic, Hollywood-style ambiance for this
dangerous sham.
Government lies are not new, of course (think Gulf of Tonkin,
Watergate, Reagan-era “disinformation,” etc.). What is
now more pronounced than ever is the willingness of the popular
media to play along.
Perhaps this has to do with the extraordinary concentration of
media ownership in the hands of giant corporations, all generous
“donors” to politicians throughout government.
Perhaps it has to do with journalists “embedded”
with soldiers, while they purport to tell us the truth about war.
Ashleigh Banfield, an NBC reporter in Iraq, said “what we got
“¦ was a glorious, wonderful picture that had a lot of people
watching and a lot of advertisers excited about cable news. But it
wasn’t journalism. “¦ It was like Game Boy. … We
couldn’t see where the bullets landed. Nobody could see the
horrors.”
She also said, “Free speech is a wonderful thing;
it’s what we fight for, but the minute it’s unpalatable
we fight against it” ““ eerily prophetic in her own
case, since she was chastised by her bosses for making these
statements, not on the air, but in a university speech. Those
same bosses didn’t protest when one of her
“colleagues,” Michael Savage, called her a slut and an
accomplice to the murder of Jewish children ““ on the air
““ when she reported how the United States is viewed (and
hated) in much of the Arab world. (Savage is best known for his
reflections about “turd world immigrants” and
“ghetto slime” (his term for children killed by gun
violence), which NBC called “passionate and smart
““ analysis with an edge.”)
So perhaps it has to do with suppression of whatever minimal
dissent exists in the popular media. A producer of a CBS
documentary about the rise of Hitler was fired, for suggesting
(prophetically, again) “what better time than now” to
understand the danger that follows when millions of people are
silent in the face of evil, out of fear of personal consequences
from speaking up.
Recently, the New York Times has endured enormous ridicule
because one of its reporters made up some of his stories. But who
challenges the Times (and its mass media brethren) for complicity
with so many larger and more important lies? It’s a bit like
thinking an illicit sexual act is the most impeachable offense of
any president.
Nazi leader Herman Goering once said, “People can always
be brought to the bidding of the leaders. … All you have to do is
tell them they’re being attacked and denounce the pacifists
for a lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It
works the same way in any country.”
We therefore thank the Daily Bruin for publishing series of
articles on this topic and allowing students to hear different
voices and to think for themselves. This, in spite of all the lies
and distortions, attempts to silence dissent and massive collateral
damage at home, is reason to remain hopeful.