Just as you may always have suspected, a major new study released Oct. 2 shows that corporate network TV news programs played a big role in obfuscating the truth behind President Bush's unjust war against Iraq, in the build-up, the invasion and now the occupation.
Analyzing a series of seven nationwide polls it conducted from this January through September, the Program on International Policy (PIPA) at the University of Maryland concluded that much of the public support for the war was based on "significant misperceptions" fostered by TV news programs. Some 80% of the large survey sample, closely reflecting national preferences, turned to the broadcast media for most of their news; only 19% named print media.
According to the study, titled Misperceptions, The Media And The War, "the frequency of these misperceptions varies significantly according to individuals' primary source of news. Those who primarily watch Fox News are significantly more likely to have misperceptions, while those who primarily listen to NPR or watch PBS are significantly less likely."
[In this connection, USA Today reported Sept. 15, that "CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says, CNN 'was intimidated' by the Bush administration and Fox News, which created 'a climate of fear and self-censorship.' As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administration line in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion."]
The PIPA analysis of public opinion polls found that(1) 48% of the public "incorrectly believed that evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda have been found," (2) 22% believed weapons of mass destruction were actually "found in Iraq," and (3) 25% thought world opinion "favored the U.S. going to war with Iraq." Overall, PIPA continued, "60% had at least one of these three misperceptions."
Such misunderstandings had a great influence on whether a person decided to support or oppose the war, the survey reported. "Among those with none of the misperceptions," PIPA found, "only 23% support the war. Among those with one of these misperceptions, 53% support the war, rising to 78% for those who have two of the misperceptions, and to 86% for those with all three misperceptions."
PIPA, which said that the erroneous conclusions did not stem from the nature of the audience but from the way in which the information was presented, gave the following breakdown of wrong thinking by viewers, listeners or readers of six nationwide TV news programs, one public radio news program and combined print media:
The percentage of TV viewers with one or more of these misperceptions was as follows: FOX, 80%; CBS 71%; ABC, 61%; NBC, 55%; CNN, 55%; PBS, 23%. The rate for listeners to NPR radio news was also 23%. For the general print media, it was 47%. Fox was clearly the worst of the bunch - 45% believed in all three falsehoods.
Republicans, as expected, believed in more of the misperceptions than Democrats. Nearly 70% of Bush supporters, for example, were of the opinion that "the U.S. found clear evidence Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda," a fabrication that was shared by less than half as many Democrats.
The news presented on PBS or NPR is far superior to the generality of commercial broadcasting and we support our local public outlets. But their programming has serious shortcomings as well. While more informative and balanced than grossly biased mass market media coverage, these public news offerings tilt compromisingly close to official Washington's governing pronouncements and are hardly distinguished by a progressive analysis of the key economic, social and political issues of the day.
The U.S. mass media - from TV, newspapers, magazines, and books, to billboards, music , entertainment, and beyond - are essentially dominated by a half-dozen conglomerates with a vested interest in furthering the acquisition of U.S. global hegemony and in extending corporate control and conservative ideology over every facet of American economic and political life. As such, these powerful media corporations which shape the thinking of hundreds of millions of people are hardly about to undermine their own interests and goals by providing seriously objective and probing accounts into the national and international machinations of the U.S. government.