[A-List] Iraq: US media pimps & whores

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Shrewd Fox wins points with North
AARON HICKLIN
The Herald, 4 April 2003

OLIVER North, poster boy for American patriots, is back on the front line.
Having switched his uniform for a reporter's microphone, it is only natural
to find the disgraced former marine, who took the rap for the Iran-Contra
scandal, reporting for Rupert Murdoch's flag-waving Fox News.

Fox has been shrewd. North is the perfect face for a station that appears to
take its pitch from Donald Rumsfeld's daily briefings.

Although the station recently launched a massive advertising campaign, under
the slogan, Fair and Balanced, it has become the darling of the Bush
administration with its overtly nationalist tone. Each news bulletin runs
with a US flag in the left-hand corner of the screen, and reports are often
little more than buoyant rallying cries for "Operation Iraqi Freedom".

North's reports have been a predictable mix of the gung-ho and the glib.

Last week, he described the bombing of Iraq as "the Baghdad urban renewal
project".

On Monday night, he said: "General (Tommy) Franks should be commended -
that's a US Marine saying that about an Army general."

So far, at least, Fox's tactics appear to be paying off. The channel's
ratings have surged since the start of the war, easily surpassing those of
CNN. Nor is Fox above taunting its critics.

When anti-war demonstrators gathered outside its Manhattan headquarters, the
station replaced the news crawls that run around the outside of the building
with jibes: "How do you keep a war protester in suspense? Ignore them." And
"War protester auditions here today ... Thanks for coming."

David Horowitz, another Fox pundit, dismissed anti-war protesters on air as
"so-called communists (who) hate America and ... want us to lose the war on
terror".

When Peter Arnett, NBC's Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent, gave an
interview to state-controlled Iraqi television last week, criticising
America's war strategy, Fox wasted no time in trashing its competitor.

In promotional advertisements aired on the channel, an image of Arnett is
accompanied by a voice-over which says: "He spoke out against America's
armed forces. He said America's war against terrorism had failed.

"He even vilified America's leadership. And he worked for NBC.

"Ask yourself - is this America's News Channel? We report, you decide. Fox
News Channel. Real journalism, fair and balanced."

It has not all gone swimmingly for Fox, however. Geraldo Rivera, former
night show host, was ordered to leave the field after the Pentagon
complained that he had compromised the military by sketching maps in the
sand showing the position of the unit with which he was "embedded"