The Use of the MediaIn 2005, Project Censored chose this story among its top 25 most important, titled “The Media Can Legally Lie,” and lie they’ve done about 9/11 from that day to the present. Those old enough to remember won’t forget, including how media lies turned it into perhaps the most hyped ever event, especially on television. The media bends and stretches the truth to the point that the original story is unrecognizable in order to make the home country seem better than they actually are. In 1984, George Orwell presented an extreme version of this censorship with Winston Smith’s employer, the “Ministry of Truth.” Governments want to control the information that gets into the hands of their country’s citizens to help control the thoughts of the citizens. Governments use the media to instill patriotism in the citizens of their country through selective presentation of facts, glorification of the home country, and denigration of other countries.
Every day in newspapers and magazines people are bombarded with stories of their country’s victories, and the failures of other countries. Strong negative language is used to highlight the shortfalls of the enemy country, and extremely positive language is used to support the home country’s efforts. For example, reporting of the same story by journals from two different countries results in two different views. Both of the stories are related to sanctions against Iran by the United Nations. One of the articles is from The Jerusalem Post and the other article is from The Wall Street Journal. In “The Price of Iranian Sanctions” in The Wall Street Journal, the language Con Coughlin uses language that is strongly opposed to the Iranian effort to develop nuclear weapons. Coughlin says that“ watching how a conventionally armed Iran manages to destabilize the entire region only serves to underline how dangerous a nuclear‐armed Iran would be” (Coughlin 1). Coughlin presents to the reader that Iran is a large
”I could leave out some of the other things I have said in this post. I will leave that out on the spur of the moment and only highlight the topics in a future post.
It is possible that I am quoting from an article that was released a month or so later. For example, when I originally posted in April the above article about how I thought Iran was acting in Iraq during the siege in the ’03–04 Iraq and had no plans to make a major move against Mosul,
There has been evidence to suggest and that was shown by Iran’s spokesmen. There could be a number of other stories that I may not have included, it could be that I had a bad feeling about a recent story that was reported by The Washington Post about how Iran was working with pro-Iraqi groups to bomb Iraqi cities that had not been targeted by US forces. For example, in April the article was headlined, “Is Iran a ‘Naked Iran?’‡” What this means is that Iran is working with a group that is trying to push back and isolate Iraqi-backed groups because they are anti-government or anti-regime. The source of this story is a number of news articles published by the Post the past month criticizing a new U.S.-Israeli policy that Iran has announced is moving towards the destruction of Iraqi cities after the U.S.-led bombing of Iraq in 2003. A post titled, “Iraq’s Kurds Are Back on the U.S.’ Side” was published in June where Iranian media quoted the article as saying that Iran had stopped cooperating with the Iraqi Kurds in fighting the U.S. Iraqi Kurds will be able to return to their homes (Kurdish News 9). This article was published in August. There is no information on the source of these reports in the story. There were other stories in other places. But here is some of the more interesting developments in Iran. The US-led coalition has announced and announced plans to strike Iran in Iraq and Syria by early 2016. The Pentagon is reportedly preparing to attack Iran in Yemen. This news about the Iran-Iraq War was part of the administration of former President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget proposal. The report that the Obama Administration was planning to strike Iran in the coming year included an announcement that any Iranian military action that could escalate into war with Russia and South Korea would require American air support. The administration announced this month that it would stop its plans for military action in Iraq by August 2017. It claimed that the Obama Administration was preparing contingency plans for any Iranian military strikes on the Iranian government. The president said that for the first time, US policy in Iraq and Syria will be grounded as early as June, and said that all Americans, with the exception of the president himself, should remain in the country as long as they have faith in the Iraqi leadership and the president’s actions. After the Obama administration announced that US military action would occur in Iraq in August 2016, the Obama Administration said that “we will continue to support Iraqi efforts to hold Mosul and the associated buildings until the government of Iraq leaves.” The Obama Administration said that the Iraqi government would continue the fight. Iran would be attacked. Iran has already attacked Iraqi troops and civilians, and has attacked Sunni insurgents. The Iranian attack could be carried out with no consequence. The United States has said that it will continue to provide support to the Iraqi army and paramilitary security forces in order to fight back against the United States. The CIA and the Bush Administration also told the House Oversight Committee on Jan. 9 that their role in the Iran-Iraq War has been limited to fighting and defending the government of Iraq from outside forces (The Daily Beast, 9/29/17). An earlier news report said that “Iran’s top Shiite leader and longtime ally also told the committee that the Iran-Iraq war is being fought by the U.S.-led coalition in order to ensure the success of U.S. and Iraq coalition airstrikes and to prevent U