Propaganda

For now, the war on Iraq is over. I am willing to admit it went faster and smoother than I expected. Well, it went faster than I thought it would, but I really don't know how "smooth" it was because I don't know what I can believe any more. It seems like we're surrounded by propaganda.

I'm not one of those conspiracy theorists who sees dark corners in every bright room, but I've heard too much "reporting" on this war that doesn't make sense. This morning was the last straw for me.

The Story
  Yesterday, Army Special Forces captured Abul Abbas, the man who organized the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. During that hijacking, American Leon Klinghoffer was shot in the head and thrown overboard. Abbas is also the head of a group called the Palestine Liberation Front, which was helping Saddam deliver payments to the families of suicide bombers. According to the Washington Post article, President Bush mentioned Abbas in a speech last October in Cincinati, "in which he made the case that Iraq posed an immediate threat to U.S. national security." Major General Tommy Franks said at a news briefing that the arrest proves the connection between the Hussein regime and terrorism.

So where's the propaganda in that? There is none. In the 20th century, propaganda was in the message but now, as Marshal McCluen's claim that the media is the message has come true, propaganda is now embedded in the media. You see, now that communication has sped up, the news cycle has shortened. A story that came under a reporter's nose had until the end of the day to be filed, a whole process for copyediting and fact checking--at least 12 hours before it hit the morning papers. Now that we have the Internet and 24-hour news networks, that story is up and out within the hour and is competing for our attention against dozens of other sources. There's no way for an average person to consume that much media--especially with careers and families--so the simple message boils up and stays: U.S. Captures Terrorist Mastermind.

The problem is that stories are almost always much more complicated than can be told in a headline designed to sell newspapers. Here's what gets missed: Abul Abbas was pretty much living in plain site since the highjacking. The U.S. had an indictment against him under seal right after the hijacking but withdrew it that same year. U.S. Navy jets forced down a plane he was in Italy--and the Italian government let him go. The man spent time in the 1990s living in the West Bank and Isreal even granted him Amnesty.