As publisher of i On Global Trends, I often cite articles published by IRNA, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency. I know many will be thinking it would be outrageously biased against the West and Israel. Fair comment - it often is.But can't that same concept of bias be said about Western media?
It's interesting that those who scoff at news agencies such as IRNA, who often publish straight down the middle international news, are usually those who are the first to defend Western media organizations, based on a perception that we in the West are the good guys - even if we do get other countries involved in wars they didn't want and didn't start. That self-righteous and incorrect perception is nurtured by Western media, to whip it's readers into a frenzied, action demanding mob.
Do you remember the Kuwaiti incubator scam that helped gain support for Operation Desert Storm? That deception involved PR company Hill & Knowlton deciding that the best way to get the public to respond to going to war, was to give the public an emotional heart string puller - mistreatment of infants.That's why a 15 year old girl, weeping her poor little heart out, described how she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers taking babies out of incubators and leaving them on the cold floor to die.What she didn't say, and which was later revealed, was that she had no connection with the hospital, was a member of the Kuwaiti royal family and her dad, the Kuwait Ambassador to the US.
Years after, Brent Scowcroft, who was national security advisor at the time of the scam said it was,"useful in mobilizing public opinion" Not only that, for several Congressmen it was the main factor in voting for the Gulf War.
Say what you like about Iran, but it wasn't Iranian bombs or missiles that bought democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan by burning their cities and shooting up wedding parties. It was us - the good guys, led by the gun slinging Sherriff Bush and his eager Deputy Lap Dawg,Tony Blair. They were able to do so with the support of Western media stirring up a target audience of those who believe informed news should be like TV dinners. Ready in a few minutes and don't worry about looking too closely at the contents.
Because we are the good guys, we can even brag about our exploits and use of torture. Water boarding? "Well now aint that a hoot, and a helluva way to get information from those sons-of-bitches even the innocent ones" We can even write a book about it and become even richer on the deaths of the innocent. There are a lot of people doing that lately.
The smugness of Western media, who tout their shoddy goods under the misleading packaging of a free, unfettered press, is unjustified. They may like to sit at their keyboards singing, "The Good Guys Song" * but in fact it is they who pay the piano man, who choose what they sing.
Just as they do in those countries, the Western media are so quick to condemn.
Wherever you may be - be safe
Copyright Mike Hitchen Online, Lane Cove, NSW, Australia. All rights reserved
Copyright Mike Hitchen Online, Lane Cove, NSW, Australia. All rights reserved
