Reply #11: I agree entirely [View All]

[Bragi]

What we mostly get in the news are bodycounts, ramp ceremonies, and bellicose statements by political and military spokespeople working for the neocons.

The only significant break from this has been (mostly-negative) coverage of Layton's call to get out of the ridiculous hell hole we are pointlessly warring in by February (and I give him full credit for taking this unambiguous position.)

And the reason he gets covered, of course, is not because his opinions are valid, or that they reflect those of the vast majority of Canadians (which they do). He gets covered simply he is an official party leader, and therefore media have some obligation to cover whatever he has say.

As for a list of who in the media shows pro-war bias, my answer is that other than Eric Margolis and (to some extent) Jeffrey Simpson, I can't think of any Canadian media who have adopted a tone critical of this neocon misadventure. (I'm sure there are a few more, but who are they?)

What I find particularly pathetic is that every body-bag story now comes complete with formulaic quotes from political and military mouthpieces about a) how war is hell, and b) how every new bodybag just goes to strengthen our resolve to send more troops out to die.

Fuck, last night they even had a clip of a DND Chaplain piously spouting this propaganda. I say fuck him and the god he rode in on.

Similarly enraging are those neocons who blather about how we are in Afghanistan to promote the rights of women, and who say this as though they actually cared about the rights of women.

How many times have we heard Canadian media challenge that assertion by noting a) that neocons don't generally seem to be at the forefront of the women's rights movement anywhere, and b) that we got into Afghanistan principally so that US troops could continue to war in Iraq, and look at what's happened to women's rights in Iraq now that the religious fundamentalists there own the streets?

(For an inside glimpse of what's happening to women's rightgs in Iraq, check out the Baghdad Burning blog at http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ )

Personally, I don't think I've ever seen or heard a Canadian media representative make these obvious rejoinders to the constant bleatings from the war party about women's right.

The whole mess gets more outrageous every day. I truly hope Canadians will continue to think on their own and continue to oppose this war, but I gotta wonder how long this can happen under the barrage of pro-war propaganda they are now subjected to.

Given this, I think antiwar activists in Canada need to vocally and visibly start to hammer at the bullshit media coverage we are getting so that those Canadians who hold the majority opinion don't start to think, based on the skewed coverage they see, that they are out of step with their fellow Canadians on this key issue.

Fact is, antiwar Canadians aren't out of step with the majory, we are the majority. It is the Canadian government, and Canadian media, that have abandoned our national values in favour of Bushian neocon crap, and this really needs to be made clear, particularly as this mess worsens (which it will before its over).

What we really need is an equivalant to Media Matters Inc that covers Canadian media, but this may be difficult without a george Soros to finance it.

At minimum though, it would be good if Canadian bloggers made every effort now to dissect and expose the daily misreporting and neocon propaganda that is reflected in our media. Doing this will at least help antiwar Canadians understand that we are not alone, we are the majority opinion in this country.

- B