ABC and NBC News Are No Different...

[Mark Heide]

than news organizations run like the former Soviet Union's Pravda. I say this because, they have decided to censor the war news for you. On Sunday, Aljazeera News had re-broadcast the Iraqi News broadcast of the five American POWs and seven dead solders throughout their network. If you went to their website on Sunday, at aljazeera.net, you would have seen in the afternoon on the front page a picture of one of the American POWs on the front page (the young guy with the glasses). One of the POWs named Hudson was seen by his mother in New Mexico on the Philipino channel. Well, eventually the news traveled fast that she had saw her son.

The point of this story is when I watched ABC's World News program Peter Jennings stated that there were other news organizations broadcasting this tape, but the president of ABC News said not to do it. So, I flipped to NBC and Tom Brokov said that the US administration requested them not to show it. The point I'm making here is that ABC did not report the fact that the US administration either asked them or told them not to broadcast it. Anyway, NBC called up Hudson's mother on the phone and showed an except from Aljazeera News of Hudson while he was interviewing her. Tom Brokov said that he only was going to show Hudson and not anyone else.

The point here is that if Hudson's mother never saw the news on another station, no one in this country would have heard about it, because the major news media has decided that they have to follow government orders and have to show us only what they want to show us.

Today, both ABC and NBC showed all five POWs, but still refuse to show dead American solders.

If you want the real news in this country, I suggest going to alternate sources, and forget about the most popular American news channels because they don't tell all the news.

Quit watching ABC and NBC. Demand they tell it like it is!

Good Luck

Mark

[Glenn]

Mark,

You can't be serious. I don't even know how to respond. I only hope that you never lose a family member and then find out about it by seeing a picutre of their dead body all over TV. They did tell it like it is. They just didn't show pictures of the troops before their families were notified. And they didn't show picutres of dead/mutilated bodies that Iraq was using as propaganda. It is called class, not censorship.

[adios]

As Glenn stated they reported the news but didn't show the videos. I suppose that the Iraqis blatent violation of the Geneva Convention in putting it on TV and the fact that it's obviously something Iraq was doing for propaganda purposes would also be good reasons not to run the videos. Also those networks don't live in vacum Mark. They're well aware that if people really want to see them they can.

[MMMMMM]

Mark Heide wrote:

"ABC and NBC News Are No Different than news organizations run like the former Soviet Union's Pravda. I say this because, they have decided to censor the war news for you."

Now take the following statements:

Losing $1,000 at poker and losing $100 at poker are no different. I say this because they are both losses at poker.

See if you can identify the subtle hidden flaw in the above argument.

[BruceZ]

They weren't shown for a good reason; the families weren't notified yet. FOXNews showed the bodies without showing the faces. They also keep showing Iraqi TVs war updates given by the Iraqi minister of (dis)information, which is about 180 degrees opposite from the news we hear the rest of the time. So if you really weren't sure whether the US reporting or the Iraqi reporting were more accurate, you would have both there to choose from. You can't get much more "fair and balanced" than that.

I'm starting to see a pattern with some of the left commentary. Our media is no different from Iraq's because it..., Bush is no different from Hitler because he..., the US is no different from Ghengis Kahn because it... [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[MMMMMM]

So this pattern of thought really breaks down to: things which show "some similarity" are considered to be therefore "no different"...interesting pattern...how do I get those little graemlins into the text here?;-)

[BruceZ]

Just click the gremlin from the one's down below where it says "Instant Graemlins". 896 posts and you don't know how to do that? [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/ooo.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img]

[Chris Alger]

Isolated cases of failing to show particularly grisly images are one thing. However, if the pattern from the Gulf War holds, the networks will be guilty of systematically failing to televise images that show the actual effects of the war on human beings. This is not an issue of taste but quasi-official censorship for transparent political reasons. Contrast the way this war is portrayed with 9/11, when the networks endlessly broadcast images of unprecedented violence to show how America had become a victim. In this war, since the US is the aggressor and much of the public opposes the government, the networks must be wary to "inflame" an already sensitive public opinion. If they do, they'll be accused, with some justification, of throwing a monkey wrench in the government's war machine, something that can only be tolerated up to a point.

Very few Americans, for example, know that the best estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths caused by the Gulf War and it's immediate aftermath (which excludes the effects of sanctions) approach 200,000. For one of many articles available about media self-censorship regarding Iraq, see
http://216.239.53.100/custom?q=cache...7&ie=UTF-8

[Martin Aigner]

1) You guys don´t really think that the coverage to be seen in the USA is no propaganda. Sure it is, as it would be in any other country in the world, too. That´s obvious. The mass media play a huge roll in this war. If the government doesn´t have the backup of the poeple, they can´t win, no matter whether they defeat Iraq or not.

2) I have seen parts of the pictures on TV. As I´ve read in todays newspaper they did broadcast only a small fraction of what was filmed, in Austria. I´afraid, there is a reason, why. Anyway, even the scared look in the face of the soldier is brutal enough. But he´s not the only man in the Iraq with this look on his face.

3) Geneva Convention: Well, don´t you think that Saddam can use a pretty easy apology for not using the Geneva Convention? Isn´t it just what the USA/Bush does with all the prisoners in Cuba?

Let´s pray for all the poor souls over there. No matter which side they are fighting for or (and these are the most) are not fighting for

Martin Aigner

[MMMMMM]

It never works for me when I do that;-)