Telling it like it isn't-By Robert Fisk

[kpete]

2005: SUMMARY JUDGMENT
Telling it like it isn't

American television, meanwhile, continues to present war as a bloodless sandpit in which the horrors of conflict — the mutilated bodies of the victims of aerial bombing, torn apart in the desert by wild dogs — are kept off the screen. Editors in New York and London make sure that viewers' "sensitivities" don't suffer, that we don't indulge in the "pornography" of death (which is exactly what war is) or "dishonor" the dead whom we have just killed.

Our prudish video coverage makes war easier to support, and journalists long ago became complicit with governments in making conflict and death more acceptable to viewers. Television journalism has thus become a lethal adjunct to war.

Back in the old days, we used to believe — did we not? — that journalists should "tell it how it is." Read the great journalism of World War II and you'll see what I mean. The Ed Murrows and Richard Dimblebys, the Howard K. Smiths and Alan Moorheads didn't mince their words or change their descriptions or run mealy-mouthed from the truth because listeners or readers didn't want to know or preferred a different version.

So let's call a colony a colony, let's call occupation what it is, let's call a wall a wall. And maybe express the reality of war by showing that it represents not, primarily, victory or defeat, but the total failure of the human spirit.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-fisk27dec27,0,6099761.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
via:http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/

[Solly Mack]

1. Gotta agree

Protect people from the reality of war and you lie to the people. People that are comfortable with that lie would follow the their government off a cliff - and believe it was good for them.

[catnhatnh]

2. Once you've seen one human....

...hit by something dropped from the sky, your perspective will change...

[Larkspur]

3. Can't tell the Truth at this time of year because the "folks" gotta lot of

Holiday shopping to do to keep the economy roaring or at least the stock market roaring for CEO stock option packages. My Goshen! If people had to look at the real results of war, they may put away their credit cards and urge an overthrow of the incompetent and immoral leaders we have. </sarcasm>

[wiggs]

4. "Total failure of the human spirit..".says it all. nt

[teryang]

5. A few pictures could literally destroy the myth of war

War and the soldiers ethic must be presented in a mythological heroic and romantic light. Otherwise, people can't be enticed.

A couple of award winning photographs destroyed the appeal of the Vietnam war. The naked napalmed Vietnamese child and the viet cong prisoner publicly and summarily shot in the head disheartened millions.

[petgoat]

12. Not to mention this one:

Every kid in America had to know we were on the wrong side.

[teryang]

16. Yes, a very troubling picture

With a huge impact.

[Ksec]

6. Exactly! We need a new Murrow . We get fluff and corporate whores

Its obvious we wont be getting a leader with real courage who speaks the truth anytime soon so lets hope we can at least get someone in the news department who aint afraid to call a spade a spade.

We had a glimpse of what one looked like when John Murtha showed Dems what courage was supposed to look like. They all ran like roaches from the light.

[petgoat]

13. We need to support the new Murrows we've got:

Brad Friedman of http//www.bradblog.com Joseph Cannon of http://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com
Mark Crispin Miller, Bob Fitrakis of http://www.freepress.org/index2.php
Dahr Jamail of http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/

[Peace Patriot]

7. The human spirit has not completely failed when there is a Robert Fisk...

...among us.

My profound thanks to Mr. Fisk for his war reporting on Iraq.

[Tom Joad]

8. Robert Fisk is a courageous truth-teller.

Tells the truth about US occupation in the Middle East and what is happening in Palestine.
Very rare, indeed.

[Terran1212]

9. Read his new book "The great war for civilisation"

I'm reading it and loving every word

[mom cat]

10. He is sure not one to mince words.

[Gregorian]

11. Where is the compassion.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. With little imagination, one can see how it would be to have one's life disrupted and destroyed by invading militaries.


Chomsky mentions how the corporations do not want us to know what they do in our name.



After thinking about these things, I have concluded that corporations need secrecy. Trade secrets. Ommissions and exaggerations in advertisement. No one knows what is really in Coca-cola. On the other hand, democracy is founded on openness. Free communication. Sharing of ideas and needs.


Our aggressions are not a matter of survival. They are an extension of corporations. And as such, they have been shrouded in secrecy. Let the light of truth and freedom shine upon the lies.

[Karenina]

14. Kick!

:kick:

[malaise]

15. Fisk is one of the honest journalists

on this planet.

Kick

[bloom]

17. Kick...