Tonight on Fox, the show "Pulse" looked into various facets of the war. Here is my description and a suggestions to balance what was presented.
The War Show.
Tonight on Fox, the show "Pulse" looked into various facets of the war. Here is my description and a suggestions to balance what was presented.
The tone of the narrating announcer mirrored several of Fox's documentary reality shows; his voice varying in pitch from dramatic effect and suggested emotional reaction. The military involvement of the United States in Iraq was repeatedly referred to as “Operation Iraqi Freedom”
The program was a clip documentary: an hour composition of short clips.
Really a psuedo-documentary, these shows can be engineered, in a way, to produce a specific emotional response. The clips are brief, often soundbites, with no relevant surrounding context.
The show was divided into several segments on specific topics, each with a distinct tone and angle meant to provoke a certain cognitive and emotional response.
Sadam's Sons
An analysis into the cruel and torturous pasts of Saddam's sons whom respectively allegedly raped the women of their suitors (when refused a tryst by the groom(s)) and killed others for entertainment in games of Russian roulette in which the opponent often ended up floating down a river. The behavior of one son became extremely violent, excessive even for the “taste” of Saddam himself, who relegated the son to managing military units.
This segment showed clips of two men harassing people with weapons as well as interviews with the “victims” of the men’ rage.
The response this segment intended to provoke appeared to be disapproval of their actions with an implied association to Saddam Hussein.
Navy Bombing Missions
Billed as a ride inside the cockpit of a coalition airplane, this segment showed a several airplanes of varying roles, from the F-18 on aircraft carrier to B-2 bomb delivery airframes.
The pilots of these aircraft were interviewed and shown with bomb footage from target ranges and Baghdad, Iraq. The pilots were shown proud upon return from the mission, claiming to be the ‘shock’ in “shock & awe”, and commenting on how the most difficult emotional time is that between attack runs and, separately, on flying for five-plus hours each way and upon approach to the target on the first half of the flight ‘not thinking and allowing training to take over’.
The response this segment intended to provoke appeared to be pride in American engineering and technical air skill as well as the pride the pilots, with associated implication to ‘Americans’, in doing their job, following orders, and the effectiveness of their training.
Corrupt Soldier
The 101st Airborne Division of the Army found itself the target of an explosion in the officers’ tent section of Camp Pennsylvania. The explosion killed two and injured 14, many of whom were airlifted to hospital encampments ‘close by’. The attack, initially unknown in origination, was perpetrated by Black muslim engineer.
Footage was shown of the other men in the unit who were attacked including one White commander who took hits of shrapnel to his right arm. The offending soldier’s high school principal and a spiritual leader at a local mosque were interviewed, report the engineer to be docile, civil, and studious. On the footage of the soldier’s arrest, his face was blurred indicating he could not be reached for approval of the footage aired.
The response this segment intended to provoke appeared to be a cautioning to be aware and alert as attacks can come from within as well as outside a grouping of people felt to be trustworthy and focused on the same goal(s). The suggested equation was a well-educated Black Muslim soldier attacking an apparently White officer party while there later were either asleep or unaware.
Marine Dolphins
Dolphins trained by the a specialized section of the Marines tag landmines, helping to ensure the safety of people “the old fashion way”. The dolphins’ evolved sonar and adherence to training complements the mission of swimming through murky water, detecting landmines and marking them for later disarmament.
The footage shown of the dolphins involved demonstrations of their educations and practice bomb-marking runs.
The response this segment intended to provoke appeared to be satisfaction with the American military’s ingenuity and ability to utilize ecology for warfare purposes, reducing the threat to human soldiers.
Hollywood Discreditation
A commentator from the Fox News Channel spoke regarding the cadre of Hollywood celebrities opposed to the war, starting with Michael Moore at the recent Academy Awards gala. The commentator commented Michael Moore had become so extreme, the later had marginalized himself and no longer deserved comment. The commentator spoke about the lack of education and hypocrisy on the side of the celebrities in question.
The footage shown included a clip beginning with a loud cheer arising from the audience and then a switch to another camera and a rough sound mix into booing.
The response this segment intended to provoke appeared to be the recognition of several high-exposure individuals opposed to the war as ignorant extremists out of touch with the reality and gravity of the situation at hand and said recognition implied to be a generalizable consensus.
In the local Fox news program following the broadcast of “Pulse”, a leading story was the George W. Bush and Tony Blair joint press conference in which George W. Bush sternly asserted America would “liberate these people”.
Donald Rumsfeld, later in the program, said America would assure the oilwells, mentioned in previous press segments as “the wealth of the Iraqi people”, were not ignited by a retreating Iraqi army.
Subsequently, a combination taped/live report from Los Angeles International Airport described and showed the National Guard in place to protect the citizens. A “heavily armed” “platoon” of National Guard troops were in place, distributed asymmetrically between the terminals and the outskirts surrounding the airport. The outskirts are within the limits of residential areas including Westchester, Inglewood, Playa Del Rey, and El Segundo.
Following the news broadcast, “The Simpsons” contained a segment of hostilities with France and involved the France launching a nuclear weapon at the United States.
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Commentary
The two-hours of the programming communicated the following to me:
1) Saddam Hussiens sons are wicked men delighting in torture and killing and sit in charge of significant portions of the Iraqi military. The following conclusion appeared to be that Saddam Hussien is equally as vile and disgusting. Major opponents of the sons were members of the Iraqi National Congress, wealthy former Ba’the businessmen
2) The aircraft of the American military are precision weapons with lethal capability and a global range. The pilots do not think for themselves, rather follow orders and are delighted when they return and their orders have been fulfilled. The difficult portion of their wartime tenures involve the moments they have to consider and contemplate their actions and possibly the results.
3) The threats come from both outside as well as within. In fitting with much of the racial profile present in American prison population, a black lower-class individual attacked his white upper-class managers. In fitting with the spiritual beliefs of the ‘masterminds’ of the World Trade Center attacks, this Muslim turned on his country. He was said to be confused or ‘snapped under the pressure”.
4) The Marine division of the military is saving the lives of American soldiers using dolphins. The dolphins follow their training precisely and are ‘trainable animals’.
5) The level of dissent against the war and the man in the office of President among wealthy people with significant spheres of influence has reached unacceptable levels and it is suggested these individuals be marginalized and ignored.
6) The American military is committed to delivering unrequested liberation to the people of Iraq through violent means.
7) The American military is committed to preventing the Iraqi people from destroying their own wealth.
8) Heavily armed military units are protecting LAX, a civilian transportation hub, and roam the borders of the surrounding suburbs with their heavy armament.
I would add the following to balance the assertions made without changing their meaning:
1) If the focus of the lens is on the sons of national leaders, details of George W. Bush and his associations with criminals such as Kenneth Lay, Henry Kissinger, and Richard Cheney should be illustrated as well as the former’s inability to run business ventures and multiple incidents with illegal levels of legal substances and usage of wholly illegal substances. Regarding the illegal activities of the regime, the 2000 presidential election results and the subsequent illegal lack of investigation in possible impropriety.
2) The footage available of the results of these bombing campaigns, including wounded civilians, destroyed civilian utilities, and the results of the depleted uranium used in the bombs. Also a model of the environmental impact using all data available of these incendiary munitions followed by a cost analysis factored by the units of munitions utilized.
3) A montage of footage of George W. Bush and his administration repeatedly invoking their Christian beliefs though such associations are clearly forbidden in the founding document of the United States [seperation of Church and State]. Further, regarding attacks from within, tabulations of the amount of money lost in layoffs and the current state and quantity of lower-class Americans compared to the current profits of the oil and defense industries.
4) Regarding the dolphins, I would simply repeat the footage of the American pilot speaking of his reliance on his training before the footage of the handler relating the dolphins ability to absorb training as ‘trainable animals’.
5) Beginning with the internet attacks on al-jazeera and reporting the untracabilty of those attacks and then moving on to a comparison of the footage from American embedded reporters and Al-Jazeera reports in Baghdad. Next showing the police brutality nationwide against peace protestors before moving on to an analysis of German utilization of the then-new ability to broadcast slanted propaganda over television during World War II.
6) Leaving the existing footage of George W. Bush ensuring America will bring violent freedom to Iraq, subsequently the video would switch to Jordan while the voiceover of an NPR report playing, describing expatriated Iraqi’s paying hundreds of dollars to cab back to Baghdad and defend their homeland.
7) Leaving the existing footage of Donald Rumseld ensuring America will prevent the Iraqi people from igniting their own wealth, subsequently video would show the documentation relating to the contracts of rebuilding Iraq, specifically the contracts for oil development and documentation suggesting subsidizing the war costs with money made from the sale of oil rights. Further, documentation of the investments in these oil fields Germany, France, and Russia have already made.
8) Following the announcement of National Guard troops at Los Angeles International Airport, footage of other countries with Marshall law would be shown along with a compounded list of freedoms restricted as the terror risk warning is elevated.