[Marxism] Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News?

[Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx]

_http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3318_ 
(http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3318)   

Action Alert

Why Are Winter Soldiers Not  News?

3/19/08

Dozens of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars  gathered in Silver 
Spring, Maryland last weekend for the Winter Soldier: Iraq  and Afghanistan 
hearings (3/13/08-3/16/08), where they offered harrowing  testimony about 
atrocities 
they had witnessed or participated in directly. The  BBC predicted that the 
event, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, "could  be dominating the 
headlines around the world this week" (3/7/08). The hearings  were covered as 
far 
afield as the U.K. (Guardian, 3/17/08), Australia  (Australian Broadcasting 
Corporation, 3/14/08), Croatia (Javno, 3/16/08), and  Iran (Press TV, 3/14/08). 
Yet there has been an almost complete media blackout  on this historic news 
event in the U.S. corporate media.

Despite being  noted in the New York Times' Paris-based International Herald 
Tribune (3/13/08),  Winter Soldier has yet to be mentioned in the New York 
Times itself. No major  U.S. newspaper has covered the hearings except as a 
story 
of local interest; the  few stories major U.S. newspapers have published on 
the event have focused on  the participation of local vets (Boston Globe, 
3/16/08; Boston Herald, 3/16/08;  Newsday, 3/16/08, Buffalo News, 3/16/08).

The Washington Post, too,  published their account in the metro section 
(3/15/08). In contrast, the paper  published an article about pro-war 
demonstrators 
protesting the Winter Soldier  hearings in the A section (3/16/08), despite 
the fact that they were, according  to the Post, "small in number."

None of the major broadcast TV networks  (ABC, NBC, CBS) have mentioned the 
hearings in their newscasts. PBS has been  silent as well.

But for a couple of exceptions (Time, 3/15/08; NPR,  3/16/08), the hearings 
have been virtually ignored by all but the independent  media (Democracy Now!, 
3/14/08; 3/17-18/08; In These Times, 3/17/08; Alternet,  3/14/08) and military 
publications (Stars and Stripes, 3/15/08 and the four  Military Times 
newsweeklies, 3/15/08, 3/17/08), in a pattern reminiscent of the  near complete 
corporate media blackout on the first Winter Soldier hearings.  FAIR founder 
Jeff 
Cohen (Huffington Post, 3/16/08) traces the beginning of his  career as a media 
critic back to his experience of watching as "one of the rare  mainstream 
camera crews showed up at Winter Soldier... and then abruptly packed  up to 
leave 
in the middle of particularly gripping testimony."

While the  testimony of soldiers who had served multiple tours of duty was 
broadcast on  Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now!, Free Speech TV, and the Real 
News 
network, the  major broadcast networks and PBS instead devoted airtime to the 
pro-war  assessments of Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain, both 
of whom  have only made brief visits to Iraq (NBC Nightly News, ABC World 
News, CBS  Evening News, PBS NewsHour, all 3/17/08).

Given the common media rhetoric  of "supporting the troops" (FAIR Action 
Alert, 3/26/03), to ignore these same  troops when they speak out about the 
horrors of the war is unconscionable. On  the fifth anniversary of the Iraq 
War, it 
is particularly important that the  media reverse this silence, and include 
the voices of the vets who are speaking  out about their experiences in Iraq 
and 
Afghanistan in national news  coverage.

ACTION:
Contact the broadcast networks and ask them why they  decided to ignore the 
Winter Soldiers hearings while carrying the less-informed  observations on Iraq 
of John McCain and Dick Cheney.

CONTACT:

ABC  World News
Web form:  
http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346&cat=World%20News%20with%20Charles%20Gibson
Phone:  212-456-7777

CBS Evening News
Email: evening@xxxxxxxxxxx
Phone:  212-975-3691

NBC Nightly News
Email: nightly@xxxxxxx
Phone:  212-664-4971 


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