BILL MOYERS: When American forces went after the terrorist bases in Afghanistan, network and cable news reported the civilian casualtiesÂ…the patriot police came knocking.
WALTER ISAACSON: We'd put it on the air and by nature of a 24 hour TV network, it was replaying over and over again. So, you would get phone calls. You would get advertisers. You would get the Administration.
BILL MOYERS: You said pressure from advertisers?
WALTER ISAACSON: Not direct pressure from advertisers, but big people in corporations were calling up and saying, 'You're being anti-American here.'
BILL MOYERS: So Isaacson sent his staff a memo, leaked to THE WASHINGTON POST: 'It seems perverse' he said, 'to focus too much on the casualties or hardship in Afghanistan,"
REPORTER: There's a body up here.
BILL MOYERS: And he ordered his reporters and anchors to balance the images of civilian devastation with reminders of September 11th.
Reporters have a lot to answer for in their duplicity in selling this war, but so do the American people. We allowed ourselves to be cowed by the pressure to show solidarity in fighting this invisible enemy. But we had a responsibility to not let our country do bad things in our name and we ignored that responsibility out of fear for our own safety, which is why George Bush was re-elected and allowed to continue his illegal activities in the White House and around the world.
Shame on the media, but also, shame on us.
Some of us were standing in protest every Wednesday after work prior to the Iraq war. And receiving a lot of abuse from passersby. Some of us could see what a duplicitious weasel George W. Bush was and still is. Some of us never voted for him.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately there weren't enough of some of us to matter.
I agree. We are killing people, and not talking about it. Morally, very low. And people join the army for the benefits.
ReplyDelete