While the Iraqi government continued its large-scale military assault in
Basra, the NPR reporter’s voice from Iraq was unequivocal on the morning of
March 27: "There is no doubt that this operation needed to happen."Such flat-out statements, uttered with journalistic tones and without
attribution, are routine for the U.S. media establishment. In the "War Made
Easy" documentary film, I put it this way: "If you’re pro-war, you’re
objective. But if you’re anti-war, you’re biased. And often, a news anchor
will get no flak at all for making statements that are supportive of a war
and wouldn’t dream of making a statement that’s against a war."
So it goes at NPR News, where -- on "Morning Edition" as well as the evening
program "All Things Considered" -- the sense and sensibilities tend to be
neatly aligned with the outlooks of official Washington. The critical
aspects of reporting largely amount to complaints about policy shortcomings
that are tactical; the underlying and shared assumptions are imperial.
Washington’s prerogatives are evident when the media window on the world is
tinted red-white-and-blue.
Earlier in the week -- a few days into the sixth year of the Iraq war --
"All Things Considered" aired a discussion with a familiar guest."To talk about the state of the war and how the U.S. military changes
tactics to deal with it," said longtime anchor Robert Siegel, "we turn now
to retired Gen. Robert Scales, who’s talked with us many times over the
course of the conflict."
This is the sort of introduction that elevates a guest to truly expert
status -- conveying to the listeners that expertise and wisdom, not just
opinions, are being sought.
Siegel asked about the progression of assaults on U.S. troops over the
years: "How have the attacks and the countermeasures to them evolved?"
Naturally, Gen. Scales responded with the language of a military man. "The
enemy has built ever-larger explosives," he said. "They’ve found clever ways
to hide their IEDs, their roadside bombs, and even more diabolical means for
detonating these devices."
We’d expect a retired American general to speak in such categorical terms --
referring to "the enemy" and declaring in a matter-of-fact tone that attacks
on U.S. troops became even more "diabolical." But what about an American
journalist?
Well, if the American journalist is careful to function with independence
instead of deference to the Pentagon, then the journalist’s assumptions will
sound different than the outlooks of a high-ranking U.S. military officer.
In this case, an independent reporter might even be willing to ask a pointed
question along these lines: You just used the word "diabolical" to describe
attacks on the U.S. military by Iraqis, but would that ever be an
appropriate adjective to use to describe attacks on Iraqis by the U.S.
military?
In sharp contrast, what happened during the "All Things Considered"
discussion on March 24 was a conversation of shared sensibilities. The
retired U.S. Army general discussed the war effort in terms notably similar
to those of the ostensibly independent journalist -- who, along the way,
made the phrase "the enemy" his own in a followup question.
It wouldn’t be fair to judge an entire news program on the basis of a couple
of segments. But I’m a frequent listener to "All Things Considered" and
"Morning Edition." Such cozy proximity of world views, blanketing the war
maker and the war reporter, is symptomatic of what ails NPR’s war
coverage -- especially from Washington.
Of course there are exceptions. Occasional news reports stray from the
narrow baseline. But the essence of the propaganda function is repetition,
and the exceptional does not undermine that function.
To add insult to injury, NPR calls itself public radio. It’s supposed to be
willing to go where commercial networks fear to tread. But overall, when it
comes to politics and war, the range of perspectives on National Public
Radio isn’t any wider than what we encounter on the avowedly commercial
networks.
