Media, Liberal Pols Charged with Painting One-Sided Picture of Iraqi War
by Chad Groening and Jody Brown
May 18, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Washington, DC-based media watchdog organization says it is clear that the mainstream media is more concerned with getting George W. Bush out of office than it is in helping the war effort. And one conservative icon pins that same label on many of the politicians in the nation's capital.The Media Research Center says the incessant coverage of the Abu Ghraib prison-abuse scandal has had a direct effect on public opinion about the war. Spokesman Tim Graham says viewers cannot help but come up with negative feelings about the war in Iraq when they do not see pictures of atrocities committed by the other side.
"You create a very distorted picture so that when the American people are asked in a poll -- which [atrocity] is worse, or whether the war was worth it -- how can they evaluate whether the war is worth it without really considering what kind of enemy we're fighting?" he asks.
By way of example, the MRC director of media analysis notes that the American viewing and reading public did not see much coverage of last year's discovery of the graves of thousands of Iraqis who had been murdered under Saddam Hussein's regime. The result?
"You get a very one-sided picture, a false picture of moral equivalence, with only the American offenses amplified -- then you're surprised at the polling numbers for the war aren't good? That's the intention!" he says.
Graham maintains the media is trying to make the Iraqi conflict into another Vietnam. "They are trying to create a Vietnam quagmire conclusion where we withdraw without really making any substantial gains," he says. "That way they can de-legitimize the war itself by saying it was ultimately for nothing. Well, they were aggressively working to make sure it was for nothing."
Graham insists the goals of the liberal media are to "destroy morale, destroy the war effort, and ultimately destroy the re-election chances of President Bush."
Patriotism on Capitol Hill -- a Pipe Dream?
Gary Bauer of American Values agrees with Graham's assessment, saying it has been clear for some time that "many radical leftists" in America want the U.S. to do down to defeat in Iraq -- and George W. Bush to be voted out of the Oval Office.
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Gary Bauer |
In light of the Abu Ghraib scandal, Bauer wonders what Americans would see if the politicians in Washington, DC, were putting the country first."Instead of trying to exploit it for political gain, senators of both parties would be closing ranks and praising the quick efforts under way to punish those who broke the rules," he suggests. "We would see senators reminding the world of the incredibly decent and honorable things our soldiers are doing every day to help Iraqis, while fighting a war at the same time."
But that is not happening, he notes, resulting in what he describes as a "poisonous" atmosphere for America and its troops on the front lines. "Every development in Iraq is being used to attack the Commander-in-Chief," he observes.
Such attitudes on the nation's own shores, according to Bauer, make it more likely that American troops waging the battle in Iraq will experience what he calls "a strategic disaster."
