Pen-Elayne on the Web

Red-Flagging It

This morning's Today Show set off warning bells earlier than I'd expected, as Katie interviewed Richard Butler, the government's answer to the wonderfully eloquent whistleblower Scott Ritter. Something about Butler just raised my hackles, particularly the moment he repeated (unchallenged, naturally) the lies about how his inspectors were thrown out of Iraq. So I checked, and I was right to be suspicious. Pretty much every major paper reported at the time (12/16/98) that Butler himself chose to withdraw his weapons inspectors (in anticipation of US-British bombing) without seeking permission from the UN Security Council that assigned him there; furthermore, "as Butler was drafting his report on Iraqi cooperation, U.S. officials were secretly consulting with him about how to frame his conclusions." Oh, and that spy accusation? The Washington Post reported in 1999 (1/8/99) that "United Nations arms inspectors helped collect eavesdropping intelligence used in American efforts to undermine the Iraqi regime." So, you know, even if Hussein had thrown 'em out for being spies (which he didn't) - well, they were. It's enough to make one's head spin this early in the day.

The other warning bell went off whilst Katie or Matt or Ann (they all kind of run together in my head sometimes, except for the wonderful Al Roker) mentioned Iraqi's "state-owned television." The ever-astute Robin immediately shot back, "Oh, you mean like the BBC?" Or like PBS, for instance? Corporate-owned American media enjoy spinning the myth that people like them are "independent." For obvious reasons, therefore, you'll never see the distinction phrased as between privately-held and publicly-held media - only implications that anything owned by the government of an Official Enemy is de facto evil and suspicious (and the corresponding implication that there's something wrong in general with the idea of public utilities, as the global corporate mentality salivates at the thought of privatizing even more transportation and phone and electric and water companies)...