WAR ON IRAK: PROPAGANDA WATCH

Check: CHERYL SEAL REPORTS
As the Bush War escalates, so does the intensity of propaganda cranked out by the corporate media. Voices that counter the onslaught of disinformation are desperately needed. Thus this hastily-constructed "Media MASH UNIT" is dedicated to providing life support to the first casualty of war: TRUTH.

DISINFORMATION BY THE CORPORATE MEDIA IS A WAR CRIME

As the Bush War escalates, so does the intensity and wantonness of the propaganda disseminated by the corporate media. Overnight, it has cross the line from exaggeration, suppression, and calculated spin to outright lies and the total repression of meaningful coverage of dissent. To prevent the truth from being known is to permit opinions to be formed and decisions to be made on false pretexts. These opinions and decisions, in turn, are leading to the promotion of an illegal war and the deaths, dismemberment and permanent scarring of tens of thousands of human beings.

Thereby, I believe that any news outlet or newscaster that knowingly disseminates false information or suppressed true information prior to and during a war - acts we will collectively refer to as disinformation - are guilty of war crimes and crimes, in general, against humanity, and should be held accountable. This regularly updated report will present evidence of these crimes and alerts to the schemes used by the perpetrators.

DISINFORMATION ALERT!!!!
THE 50-50 LIE

This classic disinformation technique is used to inflate the opinion the corporate media wants to promote, while minimizing any dissent against that opinion. To add an even more egregious dimension of cynical fraud to this crime, it is billed by the perpetrators as "unbiased news."

In the 50-50 lie, instead of reporting the actual fact that the number of people moved to take to the streets to protest the war totally overwhelms those willing to protest in favor, the networks or newspapers report that "protests both for and against the war are being staged." Conspicuously absent from such reports is any mention of comparative numbers of protests and protestors involved. The implication is everything, the truth nothing. Here's a classic example: At the height of this week's international protests involving millions, one headline on AOL's mainpage (AOL is the FOX of the Internet), described this historic situation as a "Mixed reaction to war around the world." Mixed reaction? That's like calling Vermont, which has the fewest non-white residents of all the states, a melting pot. This isn't unbiased reporting, this is lying by implication and it is a crime.

The reality is, the number of anti-war protestors outnumbers the number of pro-war protestors by, at the LEAST, about 100,000 to 100. The largest protest the pro-war people have mustered is about 6,000, near Valley Forge in PA. And, it was recently revealed that these protests had been funded by the corporate media giant, CLEAR CHANNEL I.e, they were a rightwing corporate sham and hardly a grassroots movement.

"CHECK IT"