Iraq War and its Aftermath Sanitized by Shallow Corporate Media Coverage

Interview with Robert Jensen, professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, conducted by Scott Harris

As American and British forces consolidated their control over Iraq, U.S. corporate media continued to bring the war into our living rooms. News anchors and journalists in the field were exuberant in reporting the fall of Iraq's dictator. Stage-managed images of several dozen Iraqi citizens helping Marines to tear down a statue of Saddam Hussein and waving American flags handed to them by soldiers, were broadcast repeatedly. But some critics contend that American media has sanitized their coverage of the Iraq war and provided their audience with uncritical accounts of the White House chosen spin of the day.

American media seemed to consciously avoid much reporting on the horrifying scenes of the thousands of Iraqi civilians who flooded hospitals after being injured in the Bush administration's "shock and awe" bombing campaign, where more than 14,000 bombs were dropped on a city of 5 million. Neither did U.S. citizens see many harsh images of the hundreds of dead and rotting corpses of Iraqi civilians and soldiers killed in an illegal war condemned by a majority around the world.

Coverage of a U.S. tank attack on a Baghdad hotel packed with international journalists, killing three reporters, was also limited and downplayed. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Robert Jensen, professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and author of the book, "Writing Dissent," who takes a critical look at how the U.S. media has reported the Bush administration's war on Iraq.

For independent reporting on the Iraq War visit the No War Collective Web site at www.nowarcollective.com

Related articles:

"How We Lost the Victory," By Ted Rall, AlterNet, April 16, 2003 War on Iraq, Alternet.org's collection of articles and analysis on the war.

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