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Headlines : MediaFrontline's Timid Iraq Retrospective
Over two nights, PBS Frontline served up a four-hour retrospective on “Bush’s War” in Iraq, focusing on bureaucratic rivalries and incompetence. But, as former CIA analyst Ray McGovern observes, Frontline averted its eyes from many of the tougher questions.
Typically media outlets are discouraged from carrying content that is critical of their advertisers, but knowing how ®evolutionary GNN is, I know the site administration won’t mind this critical examination of Frontline’s not-so-daring exposé.
[Posted By ShiftShapers]Republished from Consortium News
Frontline’s “Bush’s War” on PBS Monday and Tuesday evening was a nicely put-together rehash of the top players’ trickery that led to the attack on Iraq, together with the power-grabbing, back-stabbing and limitless incompetence of the occupation.
Except for an inside-the-beltway tidbit here and there – for example, about how the pitiable Secretary of State Colin Powell had to suffer so many indignities at the hands of other type-A hard chargers – Frontline added little to the discussion.
Notably missing was any allusion to the unconscionable role of the Fourth Estate as indiscriminate cheerleader for the home team, nor any mention that the invasion was a serious violation of international law. But those omissions, I suppose, should have come as no surprise.
Nor was it a surprise that any viewer hoping for insight into why Cheney and Bush were so eager to attack Iraq was left with very thin gruel.
It was more infotainment, bereft of substantive discussion of the whys and wherefores of what in my view is the most disastrous foreign policy move in our nation’s history.
Despite recent acknowledgements from the likes of Alan Greenspan, Gen. John Abizaid and others that oil and permanent (or, if you prefer, “enduring”) military bases were…
Posted by ShiftShapers
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Posted by anthony on Monday, March 24th 2008
Notably missing was any allusion to the unconscionable role of the Fourth Estate as indiscriminate cheerleader for the home team, nor any mention that the invasion was a serious violation of international law.
yeah that T of A’s is hilarious, ain’t it?
The Frontline was a re-edit basically of their previous episodes.
I think Ray raises a good point about oil – but apart from that I thought it was pretty well done – better no doubt than anything any news network has ever done on the war.
Kristina told me that story about Rather recently. Haven’t investigated it, but it’s distressing.
I’ll look into getting permission to publish this to the front door.
I think Ray raises a good point about oil
Were it not for the oil, most of us wouldn’t know where Baghdad (or Tehran) even is.
Sometimes no Peace
Iraq has 10% of the world’s oil reserves and only .004% of the world’s population is a prime example. Economics has always prevailed over ethics.
As for the direct expense of the war, now exceeding 500 billion, if you work that cost out towards the potential reward of control of a 115 billion barrel crude oil reserve, it is just over $4.00 a barrel.
Worst case estimates now project the total cost of the war in Iraq in excess of of 3 trillion dollars.
$25.00 a barrel.
Given the reduced production costs because of the nature of oil drilling in the region’s geography along with today’s higher value placed on crude oil, that’s still a relative bargain basement price for cornering the Iraqi oil market.
Will “they” now bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran?
Peace,
PBS on Iraq: A Compilation of Deceit: According to Morgan Strong in Consortium News, ‘‘There have been five agonizing years of this war in Iraq. Five terrible years of bewilderment and rage. Commemorating that anniversary, Frontline, the PBS investigative series, allotted four-and-one-half hours over two nights to an in-depth analysis of the war in Iraq and how it came about.’‘