Weapons of Mass Obfuscation

Sorry, but there won't be a column this month.

See, I am, apparently, a member of the left-wing media, and I must be silenced. To let evil America haters such as I am have a public forum is simply wrong, and we should question the patriotism of any organization or publication which would give voice to someone like me.

Turn on just about any station on the AM band of your radio these days, and that's the sort of talk that you'll hear. Turn your tv to Fox "News," and there it is again. There's no other conclusion. Anyone who doesn't march in lockstep with the Bush War Machine needs to shut up. And if they won't shut up, then they should expect to get shouted down. This is pretty much the level of discourse these days.

Is anybody else starting to get a little scared here?

I think I can see the ghost of Joe McCarthy chuckling to himself over there in the corner as he shakes his head in admiration. Boy, these guys REALLY know how to wrap themselves in the flag!

And manipulate the media. They are simply spectacular at media manipulation. The most important thing that they understand is that a vast number of Americans have the attention span of fruit flies. As long as they keep moving from one subject to another every few days, they know people will stay with them.

Weapons Of Mass Destruction. The Big "W." (Hmm... It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world indeed!) Back before the war, the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld team assured us that they were there. They had to be there. We knew they were there. Hell, we even SOLD a lot of that stuff to them, that's how we knew. Hans Blix, the head of the UN inspection team, said that well, maybe they were there, but finding them would take time. Furious and impatient, the Bush Administration told weapons inspectors that they'd better get out, or else they might find themselves in the middle of a firefight.

Now, with the war over, there are yet to be any WMD found as of this writing, and wonder of wonders, now Donald Rumsfeld is telling us that "these things take time." Well, no shit, Sherlock. What about all those satellite photos Colin Powell was showing off at the UN? Wasn't that the "smoking gun?" Weren't these things supposed to be easy to find, like plucking figs? But if any members of the press try to point this out, they're being disloyal.

I believe that you'll find out more about the mercurial Mr. Rumsfeld in this month's Closet Philosophy, and I certainly don't want to steal the thunder of my Dear Friend Rusty Pipes. But I can't NOT comment on his take on the looting in Baghdad, when he appeared on Meet the Press. He did one of the things he does best of all, and that's obfuscate. He said that reports of looting were exaggerated. He was seeing the same footage of the same people stealing the same vases. Then, he cracked his "joke," which I'm sure caused hoots and hollers in redneck bars all over the land. "I didn't think there were that many vases in all of Iraq," he cackled. All that was missing was a couple of cold Budweisers, a slap on the back, and prefacing the remark with "Hellfire, Clem" to complete the picture.

As I pointed out last month -- THIS IS THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION. This part of the world has more history than a dozen USA's. Rumsfeld isn't an ignorant man, and he knew his remark wasn't true. He only said it because it helps to dehumanize the people over there just a little bit more. That way we can feel no remorse about having an irrational hatred for them.

It goes on and on, and there are too many instances to cite them all. But one just has to be mentioned, because it is by far the most egregious, and it points out a much bigger problem.

I'm sure that, even if you've tried to steer clear of war coverage, you still couldn't help but see the video of the statue of Saddam Hussein being torn down by the hordes of happy, dancing Iraqis. Did you know that it was a staged media event, and nothing more? As I was watching the video I was suspicious, and my suspicions were confirmed a few days later when I saw the picture.

The picture I'm referring to is the one you weren't shown on tv. To the best of my knowledge, it has only been shown on the internet. It is a wide shot of the square where the "spontaneous celebration" took place, and it tells you an awful lot. (Ed. Note: See www.informationclearinghouse.info.)

The place where the statue was is a large elliptical space, maybe 50 yards long or more. The statue was at one end of the ellipse. The wide shot shows a small knot of people, no more than a few hundred. The rest of the ellipse is empty, devoid of people. Stationed at regular intervals around the space are US tanks. Turns out that some Iraqis sympathetic to the Bush war were brought in for the express purpose of dancing on the head of Hussein. Anyone else, particularly anyone with a differing opinion, was kept out of the picture.

Which brings me to how I got suspicious of the whole thing in the first place, and it also lets me get in a little inside info on tv for you, which I always like to try to fit in.

As I watched, I could tell that the camera covering the event was zoomed all the way in. I could tell this because of the "long lens jiggle." As you've probably noticed if you have a home camcorder, your camera work becomes less and less steady the more you zoom in on something. Why? Because as you zoom in, you're focusing in on a smaller and smaller area, and even the slightest movement of the camera is seen. This camera was jiggling all over the place. In addition, I was positive that the shot we were seeing was a robotic camera. Robotic cameras are almost always operated using a joystick, and that makes it very difficult to make the camera moves appear fluid, especially when zoomed in this tight. And this camera was jerking all over the place, so I'm pretty sure that the camera was being operated remotely. After all, a human camera operator might just look up from the viewfinder, see the empty space and think, "Hey, this might be a story, too!"

But to the best of my knowledge, that wide view of the Hussein statue falling hasn't made its way to television. A truly left-wing media would have been quick to point this out. Hell, even a fair and unbiased media would have pointed it out! But, like the smattering of folks who booed Michael Moore at the Oscars, the media is so afraid of being saddled with the vile, "left-wing" brand, they just didn't mention it. Brokaw, Rather, Jennings, et al. know that as long as they keep waving the flag and don't make any waves, no one will have to accuse them of being liberals.

And of course the vast multitudes of the right-wing contingent of the left-wing media want to frame the discussion on their terms, even if they keep changing the terms. Consider:

At a teach-in at Columbia University, a professor giving a talk inanely voices his private hope that urban fighting in Baghdad produces "a million Mogadishus." This is a vile thought, and one that I hope someday that man comes to regret for more than just the embarrassment it brought upon him. Immediately though, Fox "News" and probably 99% of talk radio is burning up over this. "This is how the liberals really feel!" the right-wing members of the left-wing media crow.

Right about the same time, another thing takes place right here in my hometown of Cincinnati. (Cincinnati, by the way, is a town that needs more bad national press like a Vegas showgirl needs more rhinestones.) A group of maybe fifty or so people is on a freeway overpass showing anti-war signs to the drivers below. One of them is a Vietnam veteran, another a paraplegic. A truck driver, infuriated by what he sees, drives his rig up on the sidewalk, causing the protesters to scatter for fear of their lives.

Now in my opinion, both the Columbia professor and the truck driver ought to be reviled by one and all. The actions of both of them are beyond the pale. Yet a Cincinnati radio station put the truck driver on the air, called him a hero. Now the fire-breathing hawks on the right may claim that all liberals think like the professor, but I don't know a single person who thinks like that. And though the truck driver's actions are reprehensible, I don't consider him to be typical of the thinking of right-wingers. But I do know an awful lot of people who think like he does.

Is anybody starting to get a little scared here yet?

The editors of Cosmik have set up a way that all of us who write regularly for the magazine can communicate among ourselves using e-mail. A couple who write for us usually close their messages with some quote having to do with the quest for a peaceful world. I'm grateful to them for doing this; they've often given me a glimmer of hope when my spirits have been ebbing. Lately they've been using a quote from Gandhi: "When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it...always."

A hopeful and timely thought indeed. Let's just hope that, by the time all the lying, deceitfulness and destruction of this Administration is finally stopped, they haven't damaged things beyond repair.

That's why there's no column this month.

(C) 2003 - Karl Cable