Friday, 02 July 2004
Our Pathetic Media
How much has this whole war/trial/Halliburton welfare program cost? $100 billion? $150 billion?
You'd think the least they could do is let us know what's going on, but guess what? You'd be wrong:
American and Iraqi officials did not want any footage shown of Iraqi guards or court personnel, and they asked broadcast and cable news nets to honor this request.
But the situation took an unexpected turn even before the hearing began, when U.S. officials ordered CNN and Al-Jazeera, the pool camera crews, to disconnect their audio equipment. Officials said it was the wish of the Iraqi judge.
Following the hearing, the CNN footage was taken to the convention center, where a CBS News employee transmitted the footage after it was viewed and okayed by two military censors.
As the silent footage of Hussein began to air on U.S. networks around 8:30 a.m. ET, CBS News anchor Dan Rather explained that the tapes had been "taken to another location, edited, and what you're seeing is in effect a censored version" of what happened in court earlier today.
I am neither shocked nor awed by this revelation. Saddam had longstanding ties to prominent US officials throughout the period during which he's being charged with genocide. The last thing the US government wants is to give him an open mike from which he can divulge secrets about Rumsfeld, Cheney, Perle et al.
What I can't believe is that our media is going along with it. I know I should be used to it by now, but man. That's just so weak.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 2, 2004 at 02:56 PM in US News | Permalink
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