Many U.S. media outlets were quick to give us a primer on Islamic terrorism in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination last week, even though actual evidence points the finger far more at our ally in the war on terror, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, than it does at the Taliban or al-Qaida.
Indeed, McClatchy Newspapers recently reported that Bhutto, at the time of her murder, was in possession of evidence that Pakistan’s military intelligence agency was planning to rig the upcoming election (then scheduled for Jan. 8 ) in Musharraf’s favor, supplying, as if it were needed, an obvious motive for getting rid of her.
While there was some good, or at least restrained, reporting by U.S. media as the tragedy unfolded, the main sources of news for most Americans maintain what I can only call a cocked trigger of jingoism, which often goes off before the screams subside and the blood and debris are hosed into the gutter.
“Weird, isn’t it, how swiftly the narrative is laid down for us,” Robert Fisk observed in the U.K’s Independent. Yeah, I’d say so. I’d add: insulting, infuriating, dangerous - this media readiness to act as the propaganda arm of the party in power, to simplify evil as the sole domain of the enemy du jour, to “unite” the country in self-righteousness and hatred of that enemy.
Without such shamelessly bad reporting - perhaps a better term is “pseudo-reporting” - we couldn’t have gone to war with Iraq in 2003 or, for that matter, Spain in 1898. Pseudo-reporting has, alas, a long tradition. It appeals to a docile, uninformed populace and demands the scrutiny of citizens capable of complex thought. Outing such reporting when it fizzles - when too much counter-evidence keeps it from gaining momentum and creating policy - is particularly useful. It’s easier to sharpen our awareness of the forms of deception when the deception is not actively doing harm.
To that end, here’s a quick survey, by no means complete, of some of the forms of pseudo-reporting that were on display the first day or two after Bhutto’s assassination:
A. The quasi-factual assertion in the lead paragraph or headline, aimed at the casual news consumer who plunges only toenail deep into the story, e.g.: “Suspicion swirled around Islamic extremists Thursday as news spread that former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated.” (CNN)
B. The affectation of objectivity, usually achieved by quoting alleged “experts” or anonymous officials, as though they were disinterested in how the news was spun. Such quotes also must be high up in the story so they can establish a context that ensures that blame still adheres to the designated enemy when, later in the story, in further affectation of objectivity, an enemy spokesman is quoted denying any responsibility. “Just 24 hours after the assassination . . . Pakistan’s interior ministry announced what many people had suspected: al-Qaida-linked extremists were responsible for the killing.” (Time Magazine)
C. The subtle dismissal of counter-belief. In the TV studio, this can be accomplished with a timely roll of the anchorperson’s eyeballs. In print, verbal artifice is necessary to imply rashness or emotionality, in blatant contrast to the disinterested expertise cited at the top of the story. “Regardless of who is behind the attack, many Pakistanis will suspect that Musharraf or his security forces played a role in Bhutto’s death . . .” (CNN)
D. Oversimplification and selective reportage, combined with excruciatingly unacknowledged psychological projection. Time, for instance, saw in the enemy’s dearth of previous political assassinations not a reason to look elsewhere for a culprit but “a dramatic and disturbing diversification in al-Qaida’s terrorism playbook . . . (on top of a past record of) creating chaos and panic through large terror strikes that claim large numbers of random victims.”
The analysis certainly makes it clear that these are bad, bad people, and seemingly argues that this fact alone implicates them in the latest outrage. I remind the newsmagazine that no one’s innocent in the war on terror, and quote from a 1996 Defense Department publication called “Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance,” by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade:
“The intent here is to impose a regime of Shock and Awe through delivery of instant, nearly incomprehensible levels of massive destruction directed at influencing society writ large, meaning its leadership and public, rather than targeting directly against military or strategic objectives. . . . The employment of this capability against society and its values, called ‘counter-value’ . . . is massively destructive strikes directly at the public will of the adversary to resist.”
Remember? We did this to Iraq. But so what? We’re good, we mean well, we’d never have allies who kill their opponents. It’s all there in black and white.
Robert Koehler, an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist, is an editor at Tribune Media Services and nationally syndicated writer. You can respond to this column at bkoehler@tribune.com or visit his Web site at commonwonders.com.
© 2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
Did anyone really think that this administration would allow their favored dictator du jour to step down just as they got him out of his military uniform? If Al Qaida didn’t already exist, they would have been invented for stunts just like this.
_”Behold! human beings living in a sort of underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all across the den; they have been here from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them; for the chains are arranged in such a manner as to prevent them from turning round their heads. At a distance above and behind them the light of a fire is blazing, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have before them, over which they show the puppets.
I see, he said.
And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying vessels, which appear over the wall; also figures of men and animals, made of wood and stone and various materials; and some of the prisoners, as you would expect, are talking, and some of them are silent?
This is a strange image, he said, and they are strange prisoners.
Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?
True, he said: how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?
And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would see only the shadows?
Yes, he said.
And if they were able to talk with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?”_ –The Republic of Plato, Book Seven
Rick :
Thank you!
Plato’s Republic was required reading in my 8th grade class. In my opinion one of the best things ever written and should still be required reading at some point for every child, especially prior to or part of a class on Media. But I’m told that public schools no longer teach critical thinking and that the Republic is not required reading. This might explain a few things about the American public. But I’m just an old fogey. WTF do I know?
The Media class I took in college was one of the best classes I had in the years I was there. It included an in-depth look at the psychology of gestures and voice employed by news anchors, choice of words, even the advertising that precedes and follows the news items. If I could I would personally thank the man who taught the class (Ed LaFrance where are you now?) for this one single skill he taught, and in my case, reinforced.
I don’t look to television, radio, newspapers, or magazines for my news any more. It’s almost never a complete picture of the events that take place in our world. It is merely commentary. I find that the wealth of information available on the internet on sites such as CD and others provides me with plenty of material with which to employ the critical thinking skills I was taught. I feel sorry for people who rely on MSM for their ‘news’ and the opinions that get formed through it, and who never had these skills given to them.
Caveat emptor.
The above false flagging of terrorist actions was both a common occurence and successful strategy in Western Europe during the 1970s and 80s.
Various terrorist bombings and successful (Moro) and unsuccessful (Pope Paul) assassination attempts were attributed to Left-wing terrorists.
Today, we now know these were Right-wing terrorist acts done in order to palm them off on the Left.
Gee. To be able to have your cake and eat it, too.
Are you for serious?
Ok, granted I have not made a particular study of pakistani politics. But still…what?
I don’t think it is any secret that Bhutto had been cozying up to Musharaf for months, that finally, after years of tension they had an understanding. Musharaf was all but endorsing her for prime minister even with the term limit and she had cooled her rhetoric. In this particular instance it would seem he had nothing to fear.
What kind of evidence could she have had that someone else cannot simply go get? Was it tattooed on the bit of skull that got blown away? Can we get a source?
Not to mention that there have been some Al Queda claims that they did it and even unconfirmed is still better than random unsourced supposition.
I found a couple interesting articles on this site that I have enjoyed. Stop shooting your credibility in the foot with randomness like this.
I love Robert Koehler, but I tend to agree that Musharraf had no reason to kill Bhutto.
It is my understanding that there was a deal made for them to power share. That way the US would have 2 puppets, instead of one.
Someone pointed out the other day that Musharraf wasn’t a perfect puppet. I’m willing to believe that. But I’m sure he doesn’t want to get Noriegaed or Husseined, so he was willing to go along with the power sharing. Or, at least, that seems plausible.
to togakangaroo and greenerthantou : Did you conveniently misinterpret this critical statement of Robert Koehler?,” Pseudo-reporting has, alas, a long tradition. It appeals to a docile, uninformed populace ”
Maybe this time Pseudo-reporting MSM got it right as you think , accidently or purposely .
Now all you have to do is to go back to Pseudo-reporting by MSM of the ” Sinking of the Maine ” , “The Gulf of Tonkin” and “9/11 Terrorist Attack Justifies Invasion of Iraq ” and prove to truth-discerning Americans that indeed like your Musharraf/Bhutto analyses , MSM got them right.
Nawaz Sharif had better be careful - very careful. There are reports that George Wanker Bush is making noise in his direction. He may be the next one to get his backside blown into the gutter. If this happens, New Jerk Times debutant columnist Bloody Bill Kristol will authoritatively assert that he was offed by Jane Fonda or George Clooney.
Great, so why not use the gulf of tonkin, or any of those others as an example? Why assert something that is indeed very arguable and at the least poorly researched?
Oh and fix your friggin php, its spitting up your mysql code all over the page after I do a post edit.
“I love Robert Koehler, but I tend to agree that Musharraf had no reason to kill Bhutto.”
Nothing is as it seems, especially in a mulsim country.
Why would Musharraf not seal a pact with Bhutto, especialy if he is going to kill her?
They want to share power with no one.
If “pseudo-reporting” were not the norm in the American media, especially in what is supposed to be television reporting, Koehler would be telling us something new here. Most of what passes for news is advertising, often enough, for the reporters themselves. This extends into sports as well, where a high percentage of game coverage is devoted to those calling a game making foolish jokes on camera while the game is heard in the background. The news is no longer about the news, it’s about those hired to present the news.
Thanks to Rick for the passage from Plato’s Republic. It is worth mentioning that Socrates introduces this simile as a parable of our education or want of it. It is also worth noting, in an article on pseudo reporting, that there are two kinds of blindness that afflicts the eyes: one affliction follows the descent into darkness and the other is an affliction of coming out of the darkness into the light.
Would that more American youth would study Plato and many others. This would be a powerful antidote to the bullshit and spin to which they are daily assaulted. And let us not forget that Plato’s Republic is ultimately a conversation about justice, and the lack of it!
is it probable,mr. koeler,that bhutto was killed because of her saying sheik omar murdered osama bin laden ?the inner circle of the elite,are very touchy about having their secrets revealed and the elite members of the inner sanctums,all know the penalty for it.a few years ago,i think i recall former president of france,cherouc,saying his inner intelligence confirmed osama was dead.
Two weeks and they haven’t captured the suicide bomber yet? It’s time to call in the Warren Commission to get to the bottom of this assassination!
i hear a whole lot of scripts being woodenly recited and only trace amounts of actual reporting.psuedo and nonexistent,mostly dribble to stroke the savages.the ancient and time-honored tradition and practice of obscurantism.a half-truth,half-ass job, by the venerable robert koeler.
Our press is comparable to the boy who cried wolf. We can’t believe anything they say anymore. The opposite of what they say is more likely to be the truth.
I have a feeling it was more inside machinations by the powered elite. Have you ever noticed that the really sick creeps in power never get assassinated? Because many of them wiped out thier rivals with assassinations and are the ones who use it to rule. The most viscious have risen to the top.
To understand the results of modern geopolitical machinations it is necessary to understand that globalism changes everything and that broadcast propaganda no longer is a viable tool of that scum which wishes to rule the world. The evil scum which previously thought themselves removed from the front lines of their evil deeds are now going to be the ones facing death and destruction and the masses, which previously were required to be bamboozled, are no longer a computable factor in geopolitical survival.
Attention all students, retirees, workers and slackers. Mark this date on your calendar: July 24, 2008. Because it is 24/7, National Sick-Out Day. Sick of the news? Sick of the lack of real news? Sick of the politicians? Sick of the killers? Sick of the economy? You must be sick enough to stay home on one day: National Sick-Out Day, 24/7.
ake your sick day on Thursday 24/7. That is,Thursday, July 24th, 2008. Because 24/7 = July 24, 2008, National Sick-Out Day. Most of the primaries will have passed. Bush will still be an idiot, outsmarting all t2he brains in Congress, outraging all the blogs, and killing more Americans and more Muslims. Your phones will be monitored. Your protests will be unseen outside the ring of police. Local media will omit your message. National media will ignore your existence. There will be no hint of impeachment. Gas prices will be killing you. You will be losing your house. You will be sick of it all. Why not just call in sick, or if retired or unemployed, practice your moral sick-out. Don’t drive on 24/7. Don’t shop on 24/7. Unplug the TV. Meditate. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or an e-mail to your favorite blogs. Don’t use your phone.
Have a quiet day. Screwed by health costs and insurance? Be sure not to make any medical appointments on 24/7. Make no appointments of any kind. Park the car. Don’t fly planes, take trains or board boats or busses. Stay away from school. Don’t go to the beach or the movies. No flags, banners, posters or demonstrations. Just stay the hell home and do your part. You are sick of it all and want the whole country to know. July 24, 2008. National Sick-Out. Pass it on. If you wait for the media to approve the story content, hell will be frozen over. Cabbage Head
January 3, 2008
“this media readiness to act as the propaganda arm of the party in power,”
The author clearly thinks of the Dems and Rethugs as one party. I doubt there’s any real difference in policy here.
——–
you have to schedule a ‘call-in sick’ day months in advance? Roll over tomorrow, mentally tell the boss to go screw themselves and call in sick!
If we didn’t have ‘pseudo-reporting’, then nothing out of the Bush admin would be taken seriously by the media. After all, they’ve been proven to be liars so many times. If you were a reporter, and the spokesperson for some group had been caught badly lying so many times, would you report the next thing they say uncritically as ‘news’.
Basically, what we have is a ‘media’ that unquestionally prints press releases and government statements.
Ho-hum. News flash for neophytes: the same fascist thugs run both the MSM and the Republican Party. Who murdered Benazir? Our paid stooge, of course. Our tax dollars at work. Sure, in theory, it could have been someone else. But a growing mountain of evidence and just plain common sense point to the most powerful terrorist in Pakistan as the assassin. Do you think Pervy would go to all this trouble to cover up for Al Qaeda or some other extremist group? Haha. BB was challenging him and his martial law rule. Better to whack her just to be on the safe side. Maybe Bush/Cheney were in on it, since US bribes keep flowing. Besides, BB was a woman who couldn’t be trusted to do whatever’s necessary to keep Pakistan under the US heel.
Wouldn’t it be great if reporters got sick of telling half truths and lies that they finally all got together and refused to write anymore fantasies? Together and united, they could break the hold. Can the MSMs afford to fire ALL their reporters for telling the truth?
Sick Out all you want, I still have to pay you if you are my employee. But then they can’t have their time and a half for OT. For people that may have a High School education, I said MAY, $25/hr straight time, then the extra 12.5 per hour, they would never stay home. It’s usually M or F, hangover flu and such. I know how to run my machines so I could care less. If they want to stage a Sick Out it would have to be for alot longer than 24 ‘cos I have been at it since 12 years old and I can keep going.
Our empire makes the news - it doesn’t report it. The United States of Everything uses the media as if it was a history book.
Hoa binh
The media eye is tied onto the bow of the USS Imperialist. It is intended only to see the target in front of it. This is the “American Way”.
Re: Spain had WMD’s in Havana.
The American media’s well-coordinated rush to canonize St. Bhutto in the wake of her killing leads me to suspect that American intelligence had a hand in this matter.
Why? To create leverage over our boy Pervez. As long as he does what we want we’ll scream “Al Quaeda”…when he wanders off script we’ll relax and ponder the possibility that HE may have had something to do with it.
To help blur our cynical motives in goading the greedy, corrupt opportunist Ms. Bhutto into being our patsy, we have our compliant media make her out to be some kind of demi-goddess of democracy.
No doubt our intelligence services were working very closely with Bhutto’s personal security to coordinate her “protection”.
So long, chump!
Bhutto assassination a professional job that included US provided laser technology that is also in use in Iraq (receiving doctor reports NO bullet wounds):
http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1507
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/010208_bhutto_killing.htm
What does one expect? The ‘unvarnished Truth’ from reporters in MSM?
Hell, just Google: “tuberculosis cia plot genocide”, and see what YOU can find about that, WHO vaccination-programs in-general, the denials that HIV>AIDS (but that our ‘cures’ cause AIDS/death — other than in those ‘hungry’/”PEM”-or-with-Tuberculosis), and all SORTS of other-Links that’ll ‘curl anyone’s hair’…
Why mercury in vaccines — hell, why do you think? Better, Why are kids in the 3rd-world who’re never-transfused and have healthy-parents getting HIV (after getting free-shots for things like Tetanus), then AIDS — but, only-if-treated for HIV (or only-if otherwise protein-starved or if one of the 1/3-of-world with Tuberculosis)?
[I know ‘why’, but “I ain’t tellin’…”]
The MSM-here ’suks’…
What do you more ‘mainstream folks’ think of this-crap/these-links [Moderating]? I’ve not seen a
bit-of-it on any of my usual news-sites or here…?
Is this ‘right-wingnut’-BS(?), left(?), or are we ALL just sinking into BS?!!
Sh*t — I haven’t had ‘unprotected sex’ outside of marriage for
DECADES…and if AIDS is a farce, SOMEBODY is gonna PAY for THAT!
[christ-on-crutches!]
Of the four examples Koehler terms psuedo-reporting in his article, I found the last two most intriguing. Let me also suggest a fifth psuedo-reporting technique to add to the list: analysis of news events by attributing causality to the personality traits of individuals, rather than to the machinations bigger, collective entities.
Speculating that Musharraf was behind the Bhutto assassination is like brooding over whether LBJ whacked John Kennedy. Similarly, blaming Bush/Cheney and the CIA’s black ops boys just because of their prior similar acts criminal history makes it plausible doesn’t make it real. It also diverts attention from larger things that are looming there, right in the corner of the room for all to see.
For over 20 years, the Pakistani intelligence service known as ISI has been riddled from top to bottom with jihadist religious fanatics. The ISI worked hand in glove with the Carter and Reagan era CIA/DIA spooks to fund, train and supply the mujadaheen clandestine war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, including the world renown brave freedom fighter Osama bin Laden.
After the Russkies withdrew (and the US money was abruptly cut off), the ISI created, armed, and backed the Taliban as Pakistan’s favored Pashtun faction in the ensuing Afghan civil war, replacing the lost CIA funding with donations from the Saudis. For an exhaustive history of the ISI’s intrigues, and how this back story frustrated all of Clinton’s repeated, persistent efforts to kill or capture Osama bin Laden while he was operating out of Afghanistan with Taliban protection, see Steven Coll’s fine book Ghost Wars.
Less than a week before the 9/11 attacks, the US-backed head of the Afghan warlord northern alliance (General Masood) was assassinated. Was the dirty deed done by al Queda, the Taliban, a rival warlord, a traitor from within, or the ISI? Many would say these are distinctions without much difference.
Then, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan while investigating possible ISI enabling or the terrorist hijackers. Again, was it al Queda, the ISI, or just a bunch of local anti-Semetic, anti-western thugs?
The only thing clear is that blaming the Pearl atrocity on Osama’s Middle East network was a very convenient explanation for all the governmental entities concerned, false flag operation or not, rogue or officially sanctioned murder or not.
Officially sanctioned murder - now there’s the real rub.
Ever since the days of Allen Dulles, officially sanctioned hits, and rogue hits, have taken place from time to time all over the globe, often with ostensible CIA sponsorship, but always with deniability (no matter how implausible) until a decade or two have passed. Sometimes the CIA has been guilty as sin. Some other times, it’s been a bum rap, orchestrated by killers who knew the public would leap to blame the usual Yankee suspects.
Benazir Bhutto is the latest in a long line of public and quasi-public figures who’ve been eliminated with extreme prejudice under highly suspicious circumstances (as the euphemism goes). The powers-that-be and the mainstream media invariably blame it quickly upon the proverbial lone, deranged gunman acting all alone, or upon a fringe group of religious or political nongovernmental nut cakes that are just too far out to deal with.
Case closed.
No need to talk about the elephant still sitting in the corner of the room.
Bill from Saginaw
“Let me also suggest a fifth pseudo-reporting technique to add to the list: analysis of news events by attributing causality to the personality traits of individuals, rather than to the machinations bigger, collective entities.”
You got-it, Bill [Michigander’s are all so-Wise!]…
Another good-example: Blaming just the poor&blacks/etc. for NOLA again-’winning’ Murder-Capitol — rather than a police-dept thinking ‘NHI’ [a “NoHumansInvolved” judgment-call] during all their ‘hard-work’, or blaming ‘gangland-greed/drugs’ as Pandemic-there (regardless CIA-fingerprints on all-Drugs from an Afghanistan now run by an ex-oil-consultant/PNAC-signer) instead of the economic-pressures/Depression brought to bear upon the now made-even-more-poor remnants of a once-’Big-Easy’-Culture — that was far ‘kinder/gentler’ when it featured and included lower-income but multi-Generational black-Owners of those-Homes/Parrishes most-targeted/coveted for decades by big-Developers (Homes which just ‘happened’ to be close to where the Force-5 levies simply ‘gave away’ so-suddenly, after a Force-3 hurricane had already-passed — and harmlessly).
And LBJ didn’t ‘whack JFK’ (as most probably-know). JFK whacked JFK.
[If he hadn’t nixed ‘Operation Northwoods’ to ‘get’ Castro, he wouldn’t have been cooperating with the secret CIA-plot for an ‘attempted-assassination’ on himself as excuse to War with Cuba. Many ‘insiders’ know that only one SS-agent prevented that ‘attempt’ (for which Bush-41, then with CIA/Miami, was ‘responsible’ with two-others) from taking-place in Chi-town, near JDR’s UofChi — instead of that ‘hasty-change’ to Dallas/Book-building…]
NOTE: The above does NOT ‘prove’ that GHWB had ANYTHING to do with that assassination (of a guy who once slept-with then dumped Barbara), so NOBODY better quote me about ANY SUCH THING! Marvin Bush quitting as Security for the WTC on Sept. 10, 2001, sitting on board of the company re-insuring Silverstein’s WTC for billions-extra just months-before, or similarly on the board of the only Mid-East flight-school in the ME, in Egypt, where Atta-trained (BEFORE he received that 100k from the US-approved head of ISI, who later was talking to Mr. Army on the morning of 9/11 in DC, while Mr. Bin Laden chatted with GHWB at a DC Carlisle meeting) — all that was also ‘coincidental’. [Just like Neil’s ex-roommate shooting Reagan when daddy was VP…]
I ain’t one of those damn Conspiracy-Theorists, I subscribe to Specter’s (one of those waiting for Bhutto, btw) ‘one/magic bullet’-Theory, and agree with the then Head of CIA when he said of the Warren-Commission Report “Don’t worry, American’s don’t read…” — which goes-double for the official 9/11 Report…which I believe EVERY word-of, as should you-all.
There’s a lot of talk about fake news on the comedy channel, but my local paper, The Hartford Courant featured fake news about Pakistan on the front page. The headline, “Polls May Avenge Bhutto,” was fake because it didn’t refer to anything factual, but to an uncertainty. Is it a rumor, a guess, an opinion? Is there any information in this headline at all?
The lead paragraph was even less informative. “The party of . . . Benazir Bhutto could triumph at the polls . . . (a)nd the ruling party of President Pervez Musharraf . . . might suffer an irreparable loss.” Could? Might? When did bald prognostications become news?
It turns out that the article was actually about the ascension of Bhutto’s teenaged son to the position of leadership of her party, which seems to be the political property of the Bhutto family. But you wouldn’t know that from the headline or lead, neither of which contains a single fact.
Some would say that the editorial decisions made here reflect a general deterioration of journalistic standards, but I suspect a deliberate intent to manipulate opinion. This headline and lead were pure “hype,” intended to make readers believe something that isn’t factual. I call that disinformation, and the nation’s editors should resolve to quit it in 2008.