Page 111 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

Railing Iraqi Resistance:
"Insurgency," Militias, and the

Unfolding Civil War

If there was ever a question about the mainstream media's displeasure with
Iraq's resistance to occupation, it was put it to rest after the March 31, 2004 at-
tack on four American contractors in Falluja. In this attack, the contractors were
burned to death in their SUV, as a local mob dragged their dead bodies through
the town, and hung them from a bridge over the Euphrates River for onlookers
to see. At the forefront of the reporting fiasco, the New York Times printed a
picture of the charred and dismembered contractors on its April 1 front cover,
followed by a close-up on page A12 of one of the burned bodies, surrounded by
over a dozen Iraqis.' The American media was often quick to imply that the con-
tractors were humanitarian actors who had little to nothing to do with question-
able activities in Iraq, and who had unjustly come under attack from fanatical
anti-American forces. The Sun Francisco Chronicle reported that the contractors
were taking part in "food deliveries around Falluja," while the New York Times
described their presence as part of the effort to provide "security for food deliv-
ery in the Falluja area."2 Mainstream media sources went one step further by
claiming that the contractors were civilians, as the Sun Francisco Chronicle,
Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and New York Times
collectively repeated this claim over 80 times in the first few days following the
atta~k.~
Despite the portrayal of the contractors as "innocent victims," Progressive-
Left media sources presented contractors working throughout the country, not as
civilians, but armed mercenaries, employed by private security companies as-
sisting U.S. armed forces in Iraq. These critics pointed to the fact that many con-
tractors wore dog tags to reinforce their military-style rankings as conferred
upon them by security firms such as Blackwater Security Consulting. The por-
trayal of the contractors as civilians is one of the many examples of the gulf be-
tween the American Progressive-Left and mass media's perceptions of the