Every day we hear about scores of " insurgents" being killed in Afgan istan , Iraq , Palastin etc. Today the socalled insurgents attcked and set fire to an american ammo depot in their base. ( ABC , Reuters I think ) Why not much of a news here?? I hear the explosions are rocking even miles away. ???
2006-10-11 01:15:31 · 6 answers · asked by jaco 3 in News & Events ➔ Current Events
And when planes go down it is technical . what was this fire about then??
2006-10-11 01:16:55 · update #1
The media has to do what the government orders, by and large. So, from a political point of view, when the government is right wing we hear a lot about "insurgents" who, if the news was not right wing biased, would be called "freedom fighters' since they are local people fighting patriotically against an invading foreign power. And our troops have to go to a foreign country and be killed in order to make the President look good, even though the whole of Iraq is not worth the life of a single brave American soldier.
The news basically follow the government line - if the President says that 40,000 have died in the Iraq war, then that's what the media report, even though the only scientific study of the casualties reports a figure of 600, 000 dead.
A few newspapers, like the NY Times, have enough money and power to defy the government and try to present facts about the world, but most newspapers are too small to research the news, they just read whatever comes over the wire service feed. And TV and Radio media are totally under the control of the government who can revoke their licenses if they say anything too objectionable. Fortunately there is the internet, so you can get a lot of different viewpoints -- they are all heavily biased but you can try to pick out the ones you trust and read behind the lines to find the real facts.
2006-10-11 01:30:55 · answer #1 · answered by matt 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Freedom of the press (i.e. the right for the media to fairly give out the news to everyone) is not absolute. In fact, during times of war, such as this war on terrorism, the American media is prohibited from giving out too much information to the public. Proof of this can be seen when you compare with certain news channels from other countries, such as RAI (from Italy) and SUR (from Spain).
The reason that the US media channels do not show everything is because of what happened in the Vietnam War. That war was televised and the corpses of the soldiers were shown on TV--which was a big mistake to do because that made the war really unpopular. Although the war on terror isn't seen as popular either, but it could become more unpopular if the public knows more about what's really going on with the American troops and their bases in the Middle East. So as long as the American public only hears good news and as long as attention is being diverted from the Middle East, then the war will go on with little resistance.
2006-10-11 08:32:36 · answer #2 · answered by Tony Walls 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't see why you say that there is something unfair in the news in regard to all this. It seems to me that you are complaining that there is not enough information for you in these reports. But these conflicts have been going on a long time, and the news reports assume that most people know the story already. And if insurgents blew up a US ammo dump, what is news it that they blew up the ammo dump - we already know how come there are US troops in Iraq, that there are insurgents, that there is sectarian violence besides, and on and on. If the news did not describe the scene in enough detail for you, well you get what you get - maybe also news organizations did not get all the details themselves...
2006-10-11 08:31:10 · answer #3 · answered by sonyack 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The media is usually politically aligned - mostly to the Dem's and lib's. They only tell you what they want you to hear. Example - when was the last time you read anything good going on in Iraq, likes schools openning, hospitals openning, etc. Have you ever noticed a headline that catches your interest, but when you read it it doesn't really talk much about what's in the headline? It'll mention it, but then changes course to what they really wanted you to know. You'll see something like "Schools back open in Iraq". Seven schools reopened today in Baghdad. Meanwhile, insurgents killed 2 US Marines today in a suicide car bombing..."
It's all spin - escpecially the N.Y.Times.
2006-10-11 08:23:22 · answer #4 · answered by Jim C 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The news tries to sensationalize stories. But I think people become numb to it because we are so used to hearing and see it so often now.
2006-10-11 08:24:27 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
coz news is media and media is the most rapid directional weapon known for now. certain Ppl. are directing this weapon to their preys.
media is the most biased weapon on earth...
2006-10-11 08:24:06 · answer #6 · answered by pitgigi 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋