Al-Iraqya, Propaganda and Televison
Published by michael April 7th, 2005 in politics, war
And the TV God watches over me
Opens up my eyes, shows me how to see
All around the world, every night and day on my TV
Teaches how to love, teaches what is real
Tells what life is of, tells me how to feel
All I need to know I can find and see on my TV
— Dana Lyons (Tv god, 1990)
Can you possibly imagine how different our cultural landscape would be without the influence of television? Leave valuable educational, or entertaining yet positive media. Simply look at our society and try and imagine who we would be without the stupifying homogenizing, indoctrinating effects of tv.
The U.S. is waging a war of massive proportions for the minds of the many peoples of the Middle East. For the most part, many independent journalists on the ground suggest that the US is failing to make up for the extremely bad press that perpetrating ultraviolence on civilians in captivity and in their homes has had. Nonetheless we (yes my tax money, I must take partial responsibility) are trying to make it better somehow by selling everyone on consumeristic drivel.
Last week, Diane Warth of Karmalised (who provides frequent and pertinent political updates) posted some pretty scary stuff about Al-Iraqya, the Fox-like sensationalized media outlet we finance to air extended interrogations of alleged terrorists in Iraq. Before their trials of course, and often, they show marks of having been beaten before hand. They then confess to all sorts of homosexual acts, raping women, and many other taboo behaviors. Could these be forced confessions? You decide.
Riverbend of Baghdad Burning wrote a very enlightening review of all that America has to offer the Middle East, Iraq and beyond, via an ever-increasing quantity of quality programming. About Al-Iraqya, River says this, “Iraqis don’t believe it because it’s so obviously produced to support the American definition of the Iraqi, Sunni, Islamic fanatic that it is embarrassing. Couldn’t the PSYOPS people come up with anything more subtle?” Yeah, I was wondering how dumb the show thinks people are. But then again, look at the ratings for a show like COPS which is pretty rough from the very few times I’ve seen it. I think people are drawn to sensationalized content, regardless of how believable it is. The very scary part is that if you listen to a lie often enough, it becomes true.
In another section, River goes on to deconstruct a horribly whitewashed 20/20 interview with US soldier/war criminal from Abu Ghraib Elizabeth Vargus. Rivers writing, while relaying vivid detail of a land under siege, is truly eloquent and unique. I’ll leave you with her lucid reflections upon the state of American Television.
I’ve been enchanted with the shows these last few weeks. The thing that strikes me most is the fact that the news is so… clean. It’s like hospital food. It’s all organized and disinfected. Everything is partitioned and you can feel how it has been doled out carefully with extreme attention to the portions- 2 minutes on women’s rights in Afghanistan, 1 minute on training troops in Iraq and 20 minutes on Terri Schiavo! All the reportages are upbeat and somewhat cheerful, and the anchor person manages to look properly concerned and completely uncaring all at once.
3 Responses to “Al-Iraqya, Propaganda and Televison”
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To add another perspective, I have a classmate from Columbia who was a Marine Reservist; she got redeployed a few months after graduation. A real good egg type, one of those women everyone respects and likes. She’s in the pr section, whatever that’s called. She recently sent out a message to the class list asking for help with an equipment list she was making; off of that her corps would help small Iraqi towns open their own local stations. She also wanted to know if anyone knew of nonprofits that would help or local news stations that might make donations of old equipment. They are trying hard, and not everything is for propaganda’s sake. I wish she didn’t have to be there; I wish all this effort had been directed at Afghanistan three years ago instead of Iraq; but what’s done is done and the fact is they need local media in order to build functioning civil society, and at this point they need our help to do it. So-called pottery barn rule. Al-Iraquiya sounds like a very bad thing, but I do want to point out that there are some good things or at least necessary things being done.
Dear
AnonymousSaheli,I wish you would use a first name or a pseudonym to post without disclosing your true identity
. [editorial afternote: It was my own broken page that had disabled the name/email/URI fields –oops, fixed and edited]
Thanks for your perspective, I have no doubt that there are many good eggs in the military who have their hearts in the right place. My brother’s in the Navy.
Certainly if I got drafted (hypothetically of course, there being no draft) I would want to do something like what she’s doing, helping to rebuild. I did not mean to imply (by omission) that the totality of US action in Iraq as purely negative, but it’s difficult for me to accept the “what’s done is done” argument, since the war continues, and innocents are continuing to be killed with my tax-money for illegitimate political reasons.
I respect and support the people enlisted, but cannot support violence. Thanks for sharing the story about your friend. I would be ideal if the military converted 90% of stationed personnel there to humanitarian work, before a smooth and rapid withdrawl.
Ack! I didn’t mean to be anonymous. That was Saheli talking.
What I meant by What’s Done is Done is — we’ve toppled their infrastructure. We have to finish fixing it before we can leave. And a lot of the innocents being killed now are being killed in the crossfire provided by people who are fighting us for no good reason at all.