Al Ja-Propaganda
By Frank Salvato (12/26/03)
I didn’t know whether to scurry to my terrorism shelter or wave the white flag but I knew we were in trouble. I knew it when I heard that Al Jazeera, the voice of the Arab world, had broadcast an audiotape by Osama bin Laden’s compatriot and al Qaeda’s number-two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, which said that al Qaeda forces had the US on the run. He declared that US forces were “on the run in Afghanistan and elsewhere. He even suggested that we were on the run in our own homeland. All I could think to myself was, “What should we do?!”
Of course I say that in jest (I thought I would point that out for all of the anti-war protesters who were gearing up to say ‘I told you so’ – you can sit down now).
One has to believe, with the continued broadcasts of ridiculous propaganda such as what was broadcast on that tape, that Al Jazeera would have a credibility problem. But they don’t. They are well respected in the Arab world and quite frankly that is a big part of the problem.
Al Jazeera continues to spout nonsense throughout the Arab world. They talk of the atrocities that the US forces are inflicting on the Iraqi people and the hardships they have imposed on the people of Afghanistan. During the Gulf War and then again during operation Iraqi Freedom they told tall tales of how valiantly the Iraqi Army fought when we all knew from the real time information of the embedded reporters that they literally threw their weapons to the ground and ran with their arms up in the air almost embracing our troops as we advanced from the furthest regions of Iraq to Baghdad in 21 days. Simply put, they are not telling the truth. Al Jazeera is the New York Times and the LA Times combined in the Arab world.
So, what do we do? Well, we don’t run to the terrorism shelter. Again, you can stand down anti-war people, geez.
What needs to happen is for our media giants to join the fight for freedom in the Arab world. To this day they haven’t done a thing but provide fodder for Al Jazeera and Al Arabia (Al Arabia, from what I understand, is the National Enquirer to Al Jazeera’s NY & LA Times) with negative comments about what is going on. Almost nightly, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and the transplant on ABC (no offense to Canadians – I really do like you all) spew negativity forth on our airwaves. Don’t they think that the muckity-mucks over at Al Jazeera and Al Arabia tune in? As the troops do things like setup schools and hospitals, establish local governments so that one day their leaders can all come together to form that long awaited Iraqi national government, Rather and the nay-sayers spin negativity for the sake of ratings and a liberally tainted political agenda and it is hurting the troops. It is lying to the people of the Arab world. No wonder they think we are “infidels,” they see us working against ourselves from the inside.
It is time that the mainstream alphabet media gets on the ball. During World War II the media worked with the troops in the field. They helped the efforts and, because of that, freedom rang across Europe and the South Pacific. In Vietnam they started to move away from working with the effort and started embracing the roll of “moral conscience”, which isn’t bad but they forgot to report the good stuff too. They forgot to be well rounded in their reporting and they replaced reporting the whole story with reporting what gets headlines. As you can see, Vietnam didn’t turn out like World War II where the media effort was concerned.
The mainstream media is making the same mistake now with the effort in Iraq and Afghanistan. They continually report that a soldier was killed giving the impression that we are stuck in a “quagmire” when the truth of the matter is most of the people, a very large majority of them, appreciate what we are doing there. They appreciate the schools that are open and the hospitals that are functioning. They appreciate that the power grid is producing more power than it ever has before. They understand that rebuilding a nation raped by a tyrannical leader takes time and effort, their time and their effort as well as ours. This appreciation is lost on the anti-war crowd and people who blindly take Al Jazeera as the end-all-be-all truth. The appreciation is lost because our media, the best in the world, is more amoured with the almighty rating and paper sale than in helping to make the world a better place.
So, while Al Jazeera stands with the Arab world, trusted and trustworthy whether the reports are right or wrong, our media continues to paint a picture of doom when things are going much better than reported. With ethical reporting like our mainstream media provides it is no wonder the anti-war crowd and the naysayers believe we are embedded in a “quagmire.” Better head to those terror shelters anti-war people…BOO!
(Printer friendly version) Email: Frank Salvato
