Hedges

s-t-t at juno.com s-t-t at juno.com
Wed Feb 26 12:27:09 PST 2003


Hedges in Editor & Publisher:
> Hedges sounds decidedly skeptical about the value of the one-week
> training sessions the military has been running for journalists.
> "That's a Boy Scout Jamboree -- you can't train people in a week,"
> he states flatly. "They initiate you into their little fraternity, but
the
> real purpose is to bond, to feel part of a unit, and to get the
military
> good press."

That's astute. Sometimes during war left media critics fixate (I've been guilty of this myself) on ways the corporations that own the media profit from military contracts to the exclusion of simple, even timeless propaganda techniques. Such as during the First World War, when war correspondents were made officers in the American Expiditionary Force. The aim was to treat them as officers (to dine with them, wear the same uniforms, etc.) to get them to think like officers.

On a similar note, Frontline last week ran a piece on the plans behind the war (pre-emption, Wolfowitz, etc.). One of the journalist was talking about Dubya's relations with his dad, and the narrator mentioned how they refer to each other as 41 and 43. The journalist (from Newsweek, I think) spoke in those very terms of Dubya and dad, appropriating the internal lingo of the White House, like he was one of them. Some of these journalists have convinced themselves they're part of the team...

-- Shane

________________________________________________________________ Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list