[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: Tsunami Disaster Highlights Corporate Media Hypocrisy

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>Tsunami Disaster Highlights Corporate Media Hypocrisy
>By Peter Phillips
>
>The terrible earthquake/tsunami disaster, along coastlines of the 
>Indian Ocean, left tens of thousands dead and many times more people 
>homeless and weakened. Front pages news stories swept the US 
>corporate media -12,000 dead, 40,000, 60,000 and 100,000 made 
>progressive day by day headlines. Twenty-four hour TV news provided 
>minute by minute updates with added photos and live aerial shots of 
>the effected regions. As the days after unfolded, personal stories 
>of survival and loss were added to the overall coverage. Unique 
>stories such as the 20 day old miracle baby found floating on a 
>mattress, and the eight year old who lost both parents and later 
>found by her uncle, were human interest features. Individualized 
>reports from Americans caught in the catastrophe made national news 
>and numbers of Europeans, and North Americans involved were a key 
>part of the continuing story. US embassies set up hotlines for 
>relatives of possible victims to seek information. Quickly added 
>into the corporate media mix was coverage on how the US was 
>responding with relief aid and dollars. In Crawford, Texas President 
>Bush announced that he had formed an international coalition to 
>respond to the massive tsunami disaster.
>
>The US corporate media coverage of the Indian Ocean tsunami 
>disaster, for most Americans, was shocking, and emotional. Empathic 
>Americans, with the knowledge that a terrible natural disaster of 
>huge significant to hundreds of thousands people had occurred, 
>wanted to help in any way they could. Church groups held prayer 
>sessions for the victims, and the Red Cross received an upsurge of 
>donations.
>
>The US corporate media coverage of the tsunami disaster exposes a 
>huge hypocrisy in the US press. Left uncovered this past year was 
>the massive disaster that has befell Iraqi civilians. Over 100,000 
>civilians have died since the beginning of the US invasion and 
>hundreds of thousands more are homeless and weakened. In late 
>October 2004 the British Lancet medical journal published a 
>scientific survey of households in Iraq that calculated over 100,000 
>civilians, mostly women and children, have died from war related 
>causes. The study, formulated and conducted by researchers at the 
>Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University 
>and the College of Medicine at Al Mustansiriya University in 
>Baghdad, involved a complex process of sampling households across 
>Iraq to compare the numbers and causes of deaths before and after 
>the invasion in March 2003. The mortality rate in these families 
>worked out to 5 per 1,000 before the invasion and 12.3 per 1,000 
>after the invasion. Extrapolate the latter figure to the 22 million 
>population of Iraq, and you end up with 100,000 total civilian 
>deaths. The most common cause of death was aerial bombing followed 
>by strokes and heart attacks. Recent civilian deaths in Fallujah 
>would undoubtedly add significantly to the total.
>
>The Iraqi word for disaster is museeba. Surly the lose of life from 
>war in Iraq is as significant a meseeba as the Indian Ocean tsunami, 
>yet where is the US corporate media coverage of thousands of dead 
>and homeless? Where are the live aerial TV shots of the disaster 
>zones and the up-close photos of the victims? Where are the survivor 
>stories - the miracle child who lived thought a building collapsed 
>by US bombs and rescued by neighbors? Where are the government 
>official's press releases of regret and sorrow? Where is the 
>international coalition for relief of civilians in Iraq and the 
>upsurge in donations for Red Cross intervention? Would not 
>Americans, if they knew, be just as caring about Iraqi deaths as 
>they are for the victims of the tsunami?
>
>The US corporate media has published Pentagon statements on civilian 
>deaths in Iraq as unknown and dismissed the Lancet Medical Journal 
>study. It seems US media concerns are for victims of natural 
>disasters, while the man-made disasters, such as the deliberate 
>invasion of another country by the US, are better left unreported.
>
>Peter Phillips is a professor of Sociology at Sonoma State 
>University and director of Project Censored a media research 
>organization.
>
>--
>Peter Phillips Ph.D.
>Sociology Department/Project Censored
>Sonoma State University
>1801 East Cotati Ave.
>Rohnert Park, CA 94928
>707-664-2588
>http://www.projectcensored.org/


-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand
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