By John Pilger
11/25/05 "ICH" -- -- The Indian writer Vandana Shiva has called for an "insurrection of subjugated knowledge." The insurrection is well under way. In trying to make sense of a dangerous world, millions of people are turning away from the traditional sources of news and information and to the World Wide Web, convinced that mainstream journalism is the voice of rampant power. The great scandal of Iraq has accelerated this. In the United States, several senior broadcasters have confessed that had they challenged and exposed the lies told about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, instead of amplifying and justifying them, the invasion might not have happened.
Such honesty has yet to cross the Atlantic. Since it was founded in 1922, the BBC has served to protect every British establishment during war and civil unrest. "We" never traduce and never commit great crimes. So the omission of shocking events in Iraq – the destruction of cities, the slaughter of innocent people, and the farce of a puppet government – is routinely applied. A study by the Cardiff School of Journalism found that 90 per cent of the BBC's references to Saddam Hussein's WMD suggested he possessed them and that "spin from the British and U.S. governments was successful in framing the coverage." The same "spin" has ensured, until now, that the use of banned weapons by the Americans and British in Iraq has been suppressed as news.
An admission by the U.S. State Department on Nov. 10 that its forces had used white phosphorus in Fallujah followed "rumors on the Internet," according to the BBC's Newsnight. There were no rumors. There was first-class investigative work that ought to shame well-paid journalists.
Full Article here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11134.htm
11/25/05 "ICH" -- -- The Indian writer Vandana Shiva has called for an "insurrection of subjugated knowledge." The insurrection is well under way. In trying to make sense of a dangerous world, millions of people are turning away from the traditional sources of news and information and to the World Wide Web, convinced that mainstream journalism is the voice of rampant power. The great scandal of Iraq has accelerated this. In the United States, several senior broadcasters have confessed that had they challenged and exposed the lies told about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, instead of amplifying and justifying them, the invasion might not have happened.
Such honesty has yet to cross the Atlantic. Since it was founded in 1922, the BBC has served to protect every British establishment during war and civil unrest. "We" never traduce and never commit great crimes. So the omission of shocking events in Iraq – the destruction of cities, the slaughter of innocent people, and the farce of a puppet government – is routinely applied. A study by the Cardiff School of Journalism found that 90 per cent of the BBC's references to Saddam Hussein's WMD suggested he possessed them and that "spin from the British and U.S. governments was successful in framing the coverage." The same "spin" has ensured, until now, that the use of banned weapons by the Americans and British in Iraq has been suppressed as news.
An admission by the U.S. State Department on Nov. 10 that its forces had used white phosphorus in Fallujah followed "rumors on the Internet," according to the BBC's Newsnight. There were no rumors. There was first-class investigative work that ought to shame well-paid journalists.
Full Article here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11134.htm
Comments
gosh this is weird. i used to be an international relations freak. i had strong views about the war in iraq and the neo-con hawks that fly over the white house. i support the palestinian cause and felt an owerwhelming sense of sadness when edward saiid, the prominent thinker and part time professor at nyu or columbia, died. i often sit up in the middle of the night reading 'shame' by salman rushdie and wondering if any pakistan military regime can stand the test of time. i worry at the beuracracy and hypocracy around me in the world right now from kosovo to rwanda burundi. i read stiglitz views on economics and understood that maybe there can be a better way to merge eco and international relations and politics and somehow reach a compromise to fight terrorism, poverty, etc. i poured out wonderful theories on international terrorism, i talked about mans hunger for power and how it lead to the concept of the nation state almost being wiped out last century. i talked bout unfair trade beeing the bane of society and i talked bout how somehow india and china could lead the way in a starbucks dominated world with sensible economics...
i poured it all in the jnu international relations entrance test. even included hobbes theories, machiavelli and morgenthau, the father of realism...
i got rejected by jnu
i no longer feel the need to read ne thing more bout ir...for me...
the indian educational system has passed its verdict..
i am doing my ma in eco from bom univ and plan to do a phd in trade from the us...
shaila
shaila_morrison@hotmail.com