The American government relies on a mutually beneficial understanding with the media to create a culture of fear. This fear gains popular support from the American population to justify using force to propagate an economic and imperialistic system that benefits the privileged elite in America. Threats to the country, such as Communism or Terrorism, are blown out of proportion by the media who serve the American government in justifying military action in the Middle East and other areas important to maintaining the US economy and international hegemony over global politics, while attempting to maintain that they promote only liberty and equality.
There has been a long history of co-operation between the government and the media due primarily to their mutual dependency: the media compete for "information scoops" and are dependant on government personnel to provide them; in turn the government officials competing for electoral support depend on the media for publicity. The media is not judged based on how fair and objective their reporting is but rather on ratings and commercial value. There is indeed a " thin line between entertainment and war" in that the first creates the conditions for the second. Americans depend on the media for objective reporting on the Middle East conflict when it is in the media’s best interests to use fear and war to generate a large audience (unless reporting on the event might jeopardize potential commercial client interests). Furthermore, Propaganda is "an integral part of technological society" and infuses every part of our lives in a "secretive" and "totalitarian" way that we are generally unconscious of. (Larson, 270) "Everything is infused with some element of a propagandistic message designed to promote uniformity of action and behaviour" (Larson, 274). In America ten years ago, there were about 30 independent news-reporting sources. Today due to amalgamations and mergers of the largest media conglomerates (for example AOL/Time? Warner) there are only ten. As George Orwell put it, the control of the press is held by "wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics" (Chomsky, Perspectives on Power, 68). In America these topics are national interest, and economic imperialism. For example, the media was free to report on atrocities carried out by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia because their interests (ideological hatred of "Western Consumerism") directly opposed those of America. However, the atrocities carried out by General Suharto’s Indonesian government against the people of East Timor, that rivaled the Holocaust in terms of the scale of violence in comparison to the population, were barely acknowledged in the American Press because of extensive trade treaties and oil interests the U.S. enjoyed out of the rich oil fields of the East Timor gap (Chomsky, Perspectives...63). The "totalitarian" power of the media in technological societies was tragically visible in the Balkans during the 1990’s, where a decade of "ethno-kitsch" music and talk shows encouraged by the Croatian and Serbian Presidents wore down the Yugoslavian culture into civil war and "ethnic cleansing". (Larson, 155) David Suzuki has commented that war is the very best thing for an economy, starting with the media who enjoy huge boosts in ratings (Suzuki) The American government and the media both work to serve the interests of the rich and elite and the news the American people get is consequently skewed.
The media uses its power over the population to generate a state of fear and hatred so as to maintain popular support in the fight against Communism and Terrorism. Since September 11th media mogul Sony has developed video games that involve the players taking the role of U.S. soldiers carrying out covert operations against Iraq, (www.playstation.com) such games, as well as many similar web sites designed to promote hate and desensitized killing of America’s "enemies", are reminiscent of Orwell’s "2 minutes hate" in 1984. The media attempts to make Americans believe that its "enemies" hate their very way of life to instill them with a greater sense that Americans are fundamentally different from those America wishes to carry out military action against. Headlines such as "Soviet spies want to steal your children" appeared in many American newspapers during the Cold War. (Feifer, 48) In actuality the US was under very little danger from the Soviet Union, which was not even listed under the Department of Defense’s 3 greatest global threats (which did include the Middle East conflict and the increasing move towards land reform in South America). (Chomsky, Perspectives…125) The media told Americans that the September 11th attack was caused by hatred of the ideals of "freedom, tolerance, prosperity…universal suffrage." (Chomsky, 9/11, 26) However, those responsible for the attacks describe their rationale quite differently, stating that they are "fighting a Holy War against the corrupt, repressive, and ‘un-Islamist’ regimes of the region." (Chomsky, 9/11, 32) American’s are fed war with entertainment, which along with a strategy of making American’s perceive the differences between American culture and that of those who they feel are a threat, reveal a desire to make Americans more fearful and unable to see any possibility of reconciliation that does not involve violence.
The American government encourages the fear and hatred generated by the media to justify the paramilitary force used against any force that threatens the economic paradigm America forces on the rest of the world to sustain itself all the while maintaining their stance that they are fighting for "freedom [and] tolerance". (Chomsky, 9/11, 26). America touts itself as the greatest warrior in the War on Terrorism when, in actuality, America is one of the world’s leading terrorist supporting nation. To raise money for the Contras in the early 1980’s the CIA sold weapons to Iran (a terrorist state) against whom they later fought in 1987 in support of Iraq’s current government which they now consider totalitarian and terrorist in nature. Their support of the Contras in Nicaragua, who brutally tried to intimidate the population, (Escott, 873) fits America’s own congressional definition of the word "terrorism" perfectly. (United States Code Congressional and Administrative News) The left leaning Sandanista government threatened the free market exploitation of central America for natural resources, while this atrocity was passed off by Congress as necessary to the development of freedom in a totalitarian, "communist" run state (Escott, 875) The World Court found America guilty of international terrorism and ordered substantial reparations to be paid to Nicaragua which the US has still refused to do. (Chomsky, 9/11, 25) The American government would have us believe that it was the ideal freedom that was under attack on September 11th when in actuality it was in response to continuous military action in the Middle East.
America used the threat of Communism and Terrorism along with their false "humanitarian concerns" to justify continuous military action in the oil rich Middle East. They justified funding Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist attacks against Russia, whom US general Brzezinski claims to have covertly incited to invade Afghanistan in 1979 costing Russia large amounts of soldiers and money after falling into the "Afghan trap." (Chomsky, 9/11, 40). The terrorists originally funded by America put a brutal regime in power in an important strategic area. Osama Bin Laden then became angry over America’s military backing of a Christian government against Syrians and Muslims in Lebanon in 1982 (Adbusters, 18) and their subsequent involvement in the Gulf War in 1990, (http://www.sondra.net/concerns/sept11.htm) which was carried out against Saddam’s brutal regime that America originally funded and put into power during their war with Iran. (Chomsky, 9/11, 35) America is now using the War on Terror to justify a war on the same country whose original military invasion caused the resentment that caused September 11th, while attempting to maintain wide eyed surprise over the backlash from the East.
America’s government and media are both concerned primarily with their own economic interests which motivate them to carry out brutal oppression when geopolitics threaten American business interests. The media depends on fear to generate ratings and consequently greater commercial revenues. Despite America’s stance that it is on the side of freedom and democracy it has carried out military campaigns against legitimate governments and it is the continuous violent campaigns in the Middle East that caused September 11th. The very idea that America considers itself the leader of the "Free World" while it supports violence comparable to the atrocities of the Holocaust in East Timor is hypocritical, amoral and in definite need of review.
Bibliography
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