Page 232 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

222 Chapter 9

positions, the refusal to hold soldiers accountable for killing journalists, and
finally, the growing practice among U.S. forces of detaining unilateral journal-
ists without charge in order to thwart critical reporting of potentially embarrass-
ing incidents involving American soldiers.'*
Unilateral reporters are also in danger of being attacked by Islamist and
resistance groups operating throughout Iraq. As security throughout Iraq has
deteriorated under the U.S. occupation, reporters are increasingly fearful for
their lives. Robert Fisk worries about the possibility of being kidnapped as he
travels outside the Green Zone in Iraq to conduct interviews and report stories:
"If I go to see someone in any particular location, I give myself twelve minutes,
because that is how long I reckon it takes a man with a mobile phone to summon
gunmen to the scene in a car. . . the roads are infested with insurgents, check-
points, hooded men and throat cutters. That's what it's like."19 Maggie O'Kane
of the Guardian shares similar experiences: "Since a1 Zarqawi's people started
cutting off heads it is too dangerous for foreigners to go out. . . . We [reporters]
no longer know what is going on but we are pretending we do. Any decent re-
porter knows that reporting from Baghdad now does a disservice to the
The U.S. government's attempts at discouraging independent anti-war re-
porting in Iraq (by promoting embedding and harassing unilateral reporters) is
not surprising considering the strong challenge to U.S. occupation seen from
non-embedded reporters. Christian Parenti, one of the many Americans who
reported independently of U.S. troops in Iraq, painted a pessimistic picture of
Iraqi society under American occupation: "after one year of occupation, Iraq-
the birthplace of civilization-lies in ruins: occupied, violent, corrupt. . . and
stalked by a gathering storm of religious fundamentalism irredentist national-
isms and criminal mayhem."2' Citing an increase in repression against Iraqi
women, Parenti further explained: "Many women and girls stay locked inside
their homes for weeks at a time for fear that they will be assaulted on the street
or because male relatives will not allow them to go out. Increasingly, those who
do venture out wear veils."22 Parenti's portrayal of the situation in Iraq shortly
after the U.S. invasion stood in stark contrast to that of the mainstream media,
which by-and-large portrayed the country, despite "modest" roadblocks, as on
the path towards democracy and prosperity.
Other unilateral reporters have taken issue with mainstream American re-
porting of the war. Aaron Glantz, author of How America Lost Iraq, and reporter
for the Progressive-Left Paczfica radio, claims that the mass media has neglected
reporting on humanitarian crises gripping Iraq. Glantz focuses on the larger pic-
ture of Iraq's dire condition as a result of two U.S. wars that crippled their econ-
omy and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis through sanctions:
"The humanitarian situation in Iraq is a mess and needs to be reported. . . the
long-term prognosis for the future of Iraq is not necessarily rosy. . . the water is
so bad there that there is a possibility of an epidemic of cholera in Baghdad. . .
parents are afraid to send their children to school because the streets are unsafe
even during the day. Many people have been unable to return to work and the
economy is a disaster after 25 years of war and sanction^."^^ Disagreeing with
calls in the American mainstream media for an escalation of the "pacification"