BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

March 24, 2003

Oh, no, not that old saw
: The Scotsman brings out the old argument that all this coverage of war on TV will desensitize us to the violence, will make us view war as just another reality TV show.
Crap.
That is to say that we are all heartless, soulless, brainless lumps of entertainment consumer.
All it takes is one view of the carnage or one interview with the grieving mother of a dead soldier to remind us that this is real reality, this hurts.
I watched Vietnam on TV. It didn't make me into a warmonger. It made me into a pacifist (a condition changed, as I wrote here long ago now, by September 11th because, to twist the old joke, a hawk is nothing but a dove in the foxhole).
You'll hear this argument with numbing frequency:

Dr Jack Boyle, a psychologist, believes such television images will desensitise us to the "real" horrors of violent sudden death.
He said: "Television makes everything a piece of theatre, entertainment. We have a choice today … Wimbledon … FA Cup Final … Gulf war. We accept it as part of life, quite unreal, and this is contributed to with other things.
"For example, we are at war with Iraq and we have correspondents in Baghdad. Imagine a BBC crew in Berlin in 1944: ‘And now over to the Führer to get his view on this Normandy advance.’"

And when you hear it, here is your reply:
Tell me, Doctor, how you are smart enough to tell the difference between reality and entertainment but you think no one else is?
That is the worst of intellectual snobbery. It assumes that the media are boobs and so are those who watch media.
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From Above
: You've seen lots of satellite images of Baghdad and Iraq on TV -- here's the source: DigitalGlobe.com. The images are stunning but what's more stunning is the number of presidential palaces big enough to see from the sky. This is where Iraq's riches went.
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Hollywood Schmollywood
: MTV's Kurt Loder on the Oscars, the lack of antiwar statements, the paranoid belief of stars that they have to shut up (no, we just want them to shut up), and the reaction to Michael Moore:

First of all, how relieved were you not to be subjected to three-and-a-half hours of preening anti-war moral instruction from a parade of Malibu millionaires? Even Barbra Streisand, that lovable, out-of-control diva, limited herself to praising the American tradition of free speech, "even for artists."
(There appears to be a widespread delusion within the celebrity community that somebody has passed a law prohibiting them from declaiming their political opinions at every possible podium. Until the right-wing talk-show harridan Ann Coulter becomes president, this probably won't happen.)...
Moore's spittle-flecked ululations were so over-the-top, that even the Oscar crowd — his natural constituency, you might think — erupted in a storm of boos. This was totally unexpected.

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The real story II
: So Michael Wolff is attacking media coverage of the war (below).
Now Eric Alterman blames the media for the war. In an NY Times interview, he says: "Support for this war is in part a reflection that the media has allowed the Bush administration to get away with misleading the American people."
Meanwhile, though, the audience -- who do matter in this debate -- give media very high marks for war coverage. Says USA Today: "A new CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds media coverage getting good scores so far from the public: 87% say the media are doing a good or excellent job."
So you could say that media are war mad. You could say they are pandering to the White House and public opinion. Or you could say they are doing a good job.
Depends on your side, pro or anti.
: Ken Layne asks whether that was Wolff at the press briefing in Kuwait. It was him. I can't wait for his reports.ragnarok hentai swf

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Oscars Schmoscars, the sequel
: Howard Stern this morning pointed to what's wrong with Hollywood's soul. Howard doesn't like Michael Moore, and certainly disagrees with his stance, but he says that at least Moore had something to say and it was an entertaining moment in the otherwise mournful show. Yet they cut Moore off and then they gave Roman Polanski, child rapist, a standing ovation. ragnarok hentai swf

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The real story
: Michael Wolff, the frequently brilliant media columnist for New York Magazine, is embedded in the press corps in Kuwait. I can't wait to read his columns from there.
Before he left, he looked at prewar coverage and said the press is missing the real story -- the splitting of America into pro and anti.

Each second, someone chooses a side and becomes ever-more righteous about it.
It may even be, against all the odds, that after a quarter-century of political somnambulance, people have come alive again—either ominously or hopefully. That a new, passionate opposition is in play (with each side maintaining that the other is really the would-be usurper). That something great and terrible is being born.
If this is true—this sudden, dramatic sundering—then the press has missed this story as it missed almost all stories involving the public heart these past many years.
In part, this is certainly due to the fact that the press is overexcited, too. It has converted itself, willy-nilly, into a wartime press corps. (It’s also a poll-driven press—and the polls say Americans support the war!)
The story is about the war as a fighting-man event, not a political event. It’s 90 percent a Pentagon story. No context, just blow-by-blow. The excitement is about going along, about having access, wearing war clothes, eating war food—a desire, finally, to be part of the scene, to be an “embed,” to hang out in Doha at the $225,000 briefing stage. It’s all spectacle. War is a media thing. Not just a ratings gift but a personal professional plum. Take advantage of it....
We are in an altogether altered, stirred-up, much-too-excited world.

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Uh-oh, quagmire time
: The war isn't a week old and already we're seeing couch generals say it's not going well.
: Reuters: At 100 Hours, Iraq War Is No Re-Run of Gulf Triumph
: Washington Post: U.S. Losses Expose Risks, Raise Doubts About Strategy

Iraqi troops and militias used ruses, ambushes and other guerrilla tactics yesterday that exploited the risks inherent in the fast-moving Pentagon war strategy, inflicting more than a score of American casualties and raising questions about how effective the U.S. approach has been in convincing Iraqi troops and civilians that President Saddam Hussein's removal is inevitable....
"We have drawn them into a swamp, and they will never get out of it," Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf declared in Baghdad.

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Misplaced words
: I wonder whether Katie Couric is losing it. I used to be a fan. But after Elizabeth Smart was rescued, I was appalled that Katie kept pushing people to speculate about whether the girl was sexually assaulted.
This morning, she interviews family of the woman soldier held prisoner in Iraq. Katie says the woman "was" a chef. The woman's relative corrected her: She "is" a chef. That's the kind of thing a pro doesn't mess up.ragnarok hentai swf

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The PR war
: The Guardian says we're losing the PR war.

The Centcom command centre in Qatar, with its hugely expensive press facilities, has also been slow to get its case across. It was not until Saturday that General Tommy Franks got round to speaking to the world's media, with a polished performance that said almost nothing....
The battle for Umm Qasr, the small port near the border with Kuwait has been won and un-won so many times that by now most people have lost count....
Iraqi spokesmen, on the other hand, have been remarkably forthcoming and, if we disregard the usual rhetoric, the factual content of their statements has often been more accurate than that of the invasion forces.

This reporter also tells a different tale about our welcome in liberated towns:

As the invasion forces move closer to Baghdad, it is still an open question as to whether ordinary Iraqis will view them as conquerors or liberators. The omens so far are not particularly good. When they arrived in Safwan last Friday, one Iraqi greeted them by saying: "What took you so long? God help you to become victorious."
Possibly he meant it, though it's not hard to imagine similar words being addressed to anyone who arrived in town with a conspicuous display of weaponry. Two Reuters correspondents, travelling independently of the military, told a different story:
"One group of Iraqi boys on the side of the road smiled and waved as a convoy of British tanks and trucks rolled by. But once it had passed, leaving a trail of dust and grit in its wake, their smiles turned to scowls. 'We don't want them here,' said 17-year-old Fouad, looking angrily up at the plumes of grey smoke rising from Basra. 'Saddam is our leader,' he said defiantly. 'Saddam is good'."

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Sick of the Oscars>
: Then skip past all the Oscar blogging below by clicking here.ragnarok hentai swf

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Oscar Schmoscar 12:00 am
: What a bust it was. Every Oscar ceremony is supposed to have memorably embarrassing moments, when stars nearly pop out of their dresses. Instead, the most embarrassing moment came when words popped out of Michael Moore's mouth, surely making even those who agree with him cringe.
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