Manufacturing Assent
November 13, 2004
Iraq Tells Media to Toe the LineFriday 12 November 2004
(Reuters) Baghdad - Iraq's media regulator warned news organizations Thursday to stick to the government line on the U.S.-led offensive in Fallouja or face legal action.
Invoking a 60-day state of emergency declared by Iraq's interim government ahead of the assault that began Monday, Iraq's Media High Commission said media should distinguish between insurgents and ordinary residents of the Sunni Muslim city.
The commission, set up by the former U.S. governor of Iraq, was intended to be independent of the government and to encourage investment in the media and deter state meddling after decades of strict control under President Saddam Hussein.
The commission statement bore the letterhead of the Iraqi prime minister's office.
It said all media organizations operating in Iraq should "differentiate between the innocent Fallouja residents who are not targeted by military operations and terrorist groups that infiltrated the city and held its people hostage under the pretext of resistance and jihad."
I was watching a news program with some friends the other day when they showed a picture of a Baghdad newsstand. There were literally dozens of newspapers on display, stacked side by side, with a hefty rock on each to keep the desert winds at bay. "Look at all those damn papers they have," someone said. I had read that the popular press was flourishing in parts of Iraq, particularly in Baghdad, and I suddenly realized I couldn't even imagine all the possible viewpoints in those stacks of paper. I wondered how all that information compared to the information we receive in America. The signal to noise ratio over there has got to be a shrill roar. Over here, the major papers dominate and carry pretty much the same stories from essentially the same sources. What's it like to see everything from militant broadsides to religious screeds to blatant government propaganda? Some would argue that's exactly what we see here but I don't think we know how bad we got it.
Most Americans don't even see the warp and woof of information in the hypermedia age. What is a "good story"? Who decides whether to run with a story or kill it? Take it a step farther--which is the better story, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and their accusations, or, how the group got their funding? The group paid to run those ads in a handful of states. Yet a helluva lot of Americans saw them because the networks played them over and over again, nationwide, for free. In Prime Time. Suddenly, swift boat veterans were all the rage, floating in behind the talking heads and squaring off against other swift boat veterans. Their opinions and recollections became the story. Meanwhile, the story behind the ads--the money, the partisan operatives, the transparent political game--was lost in the noise.
No one can tell you what to think. But the media works overtime to tell us what to think about.
This is the path down which Iraq is headed. The Iraq media regulator's statement makes clear how it expects the Iraqi media to behave:
"Differentiate between the innocent Fallouja residents who are not targeted by military operations and terrorist groups that infiltrated the city and held its people hostage under the pretext of resistance and jihad... guide correspondents in Fallouja not to promote unrealistic positions or project nationalist tags on terrorist gangs of criminals and killers... set aside space in your news coverage to make [clear] the position of the Iraqi government, which expresses the aspirations of most Iraqis."
It's time, then, to homogenize the Iraqi media, bring them in line, form a system modeled after the nascent democracy's older, wiser Uncle, the United States of America. Narrow "sanctioned" information to a few, nominally autonomous sources. Make sure the market favors those sources and the tempered, narrow interpretations they offer. Restrict access. Soon that access is mistaken by the public to indidcate respectable and trustworthy journalism.
The Reuters article contintues; "In August, satellite television channel Al Jazeera said it had been asked to close its Baghdad office for one month for backing 'criminals and gangsters' by airing parts of videotapes from groups claiming to have seized or killed foreign hostages.
A month later it said the ban had been extended indefinitely."
Al Jazeera, of course, has long been criticised by Administration officials as, at best, being biased against America and, at worst, fanning the flames of ant-American hatred. By extension, the American-backed government in Baghdad has to apply the same sanction. There's no point in allowing Iraqis to filter the information that's available to them and deciding for themselves what is credible or reliable. That's a job government ministries will now do for them. And if there's any question about the government's intent or resolve the following passage leaves little doubt:
"We hope you comply ... otherwise we regret we will be forced to take all the legal measures to guarantee higher national interests." Retuers reports the statement did not elaborate. One suspects there is no need to elaborate. Before launching his disastrous and inhumane invasion of Iraq, President Bush proclaimed that a free and democratic Iraq would serve as a "shining example" for other nations in the region. Those other nations would do well to take note of exactly what America means by a free press.
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