From the Desk of the Editor

From the Desk of the Editor
June 2003

What seemed like only a few years ago, I was watching the TV coverage leading up to the first Gulf War. That was probably the first time in my life when I was watching experts on the major news networks talk about facts and statistics that I knew to be untrue.

It was shocking to see these "experts" on TV deliberately misleading millions of viewers. What's worse is that even after many were proven wrong we never saw the networks issue a correction - a problem which still persists today.

Here's just one example: we have all heard countless times that Iraq had the 4th largest Army in the world, right? Well see the actual numbers for yourself:

Rank Country Active Duty

1 China           2,470,000

2 India           1,303,000

3 N. Korea           1,082,000

4 S. Korea              683,000

5 Iran              520,000

6 Turkey              495,000

7 U.S.              471,700

8 Iraq              429,000

Source: The International Institute for Strategic Studies publication entitled, The Military Balance.

Furthermore, in terms of annual defense spending, Iraq ranks 14th in the world. Claiming that Iraq had a million man army is about as responsible as saying that Iraq is just days away from attacking the U.S. with Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Perhaps the biggest difference in combating misinformation between the first Gulf War and the second is that we no longer have to go to the library to do research - now we have the Internet.

However, even media sources on the web can engage in deception. As you can see from the picture above, misinformation is still prevalent today; especially when it relates to Israel.

Unprecedented Scandals
In the fall of 2002, soon after the billion-dollar corporate scandals were exposed (i.e. Enron, Tyco, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom, etc.) it was reported that the stock market lost $4 trillion in value since Bush took office. Moreover, many of these companies had close connections to the Bush Administration (see graphic).

Soon thereafter the major news networks started to focus only on Iraq. After watching non-stop news reports about how scared we should all be of a two-bit dictator of a third world country, I started to feel disconnected from the picture being painted on TV. I almost felt like I was Neo and I was just unplugged from the Matrix.

Wag the Dog
Remember this popular movie starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman? It is based on the premise that the American public's attention can be diverted away from domestic problems by focusing overseas. More specifically, by scaring the public into a war by talking about an imminent threat from nuclear terrorists in a far-away land who are coming to get us. The best part is that it doesn't even need to be true in order to work.

What's Next?
As the major media companies in the U.S. continue to consolidate into an oligopoly it will create even fewer sources of information for the American public.

As such, I highly recommend reading multiple news sources in order to combat the misinformation prevalent on the Middle East. At a minimum I would suggest reading Google News (news.google.com) because it combines information from 4,500 sources everyday.

In this current time, when the perceived success of one war seems to only encourage further military action, it is important for the American public to always question the real objectives of our elected leaders. "Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory." - John Kenneth Galbraith.

Respectfully,

Also in this Issue:
Why Do They Hate Us?

"New" Far Right Policy

Second-Class Citizens

Home Demolition

Full List of Articles