Monday, February 27, 2006

How long must the American media walk in Josef Goebbels footsteps? by Mary MacElveen

There are times when an lesser-known journalist such as myself, who is part of a foreign press corp in VHeadline.com, feels a sense of satisfaction when we scoop the American media reporting certain stories.

You may ask how we scooped the American media and I will tell you ... in an article that ran (February 24) Ted Koppel in 'NYT': Iraq for US Is 'About the Oil' ... I had written of this very fact back on July 14, 2005: Message to US president George W. Bush: Don't mess with Venezuela.
Koppel's cited: "likened the situation to H.L. Mencken's statement that when someone says something is "not about the money" it is indeed "about the money."
Meaning the profits that will be made selling this oil.

In his New York Time's piece, Ted Koppel also writes: "the construction of American military bases inside Iraq, bases that can be maintained long after the bulk of our military forces are ultimately withdrawn, will serve to replace the bases that the United States has lost in Saudi Arabia."
  • I seem to remember including this fact previously in another piece here on VHeadline.com.

Yet, only now. the American media is reporting this ... or rather, allowing it to be reported.

Perhaps they see the trouble Bush is in lately as their carte blanche to finally start doing their job and to report the facts with objectivity.

In the London Line: Iraq: The carve-up begins it states: "Executives from BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Halliburton (Dick Cheney's old firm) are expected to congregate at the Paddington Hilton for a two-day chinwag with top-level officials from Iraq's oil ministry." This investigative article was published on June 23, 2005.

What I truly find appalling is: "This is a networking opportunity for UK businesses involved in Iraqi oil," explained Dr Hussain Rabia, managing director of the consultancy Entrac Petroleum Ltd. "We have the moral support of the UK government ... they're bringing the guys over from Iraq, offering them visas. We expect all the big oil companies to be there."
I find it reprehensible that those who still support this war, can do so knowing these facts ... that lives were simply tossed aside. What morality are they speaking of? There is no morality found in this war in Iraq.
Shell spokesman Simon Buerk stated "We aspire to establish a long-term presence in Iraq!"

So, you will see clearly that this war is NOT about freedom or liberty, as Bush has claimed in the past. It is about, greed pure and simple. It is about stealing another country's natural resources in his quest for global domination.

This is exactly what President Hugo Chavez has been sounding the alarm about when he calls our (USA) government "imperialist" and often refers to Bush as "Mr. Danger."

Where has the American media been as he sounded the alarm.

Then again, I read a disgusting piece of information on a political list: "February 23 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto featured onscreen captions that read: 'Upside' To Civil War? and All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?"

What Fox News has clearly done is to say that it is okay to further disrupt Iraq, let an all out civil war happen and let many more die at our hands. The foreign media has been reporting this for some time and it is only now that the American media is getting up to speed? Unbelievable!

It is no wonder why Gore Vidal states we live in a "United States of Amnesia" ... we do not have a real press in the USA telling Americans the truth instead of reporting propaganda.
  • I was hoping that, after Katrina, things would be different ... during that disaster, the American media took their gloves off ... but, that soon passed by and it's back to the same.

While I have the utmost respect for Koppel, perhaps the American media should have allowed him to do his job as a journalist. But, no, we have a media that repeats the Bush propaganda package over and over and over again.

It was Hitler's propagandist Joseph Goebbels who said: “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly -- it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."

Just ask yourselves this: How many times has the American media been guilty of walking in Goebbels footsteps?

Mary MacElveen
mary@vheadline.com

http://www.vheadline.com/MacElveen