Coming Soon to a Media Outlet Near You
In the scope of things, the choreographed "rescue" of Pfc. Jessica Lynch is a trivial matter. So what if the Pentagon wanted to make the most out of a bad situation, and create some good press back home during a time when the Iraqi invasion was stumbling? Why should we care that the corporate media took the bait that the Pentagon threw it, without critically reviewing the story, or questioning the circumstances under which the footage was shot and edited? It was a relatively small lie told for good reasons, more a fib really, just a made-up story for the benefit of the trusting masses. All in all, it shouldn't bother us much - especially since there are much bigger deceits lurking in the Bush administration.
Why should the case of Jessica Lynch be an issue at all? This is just the sort of propaganda we should expect from an administration that will say anything to manufacture consent and get what they want. I say it's just the tip of a very large iceberg, and there is hope that this story could focus the public's attention on the larger lies coming out of the Bush White House.
Many questions still linger: Where was the so-called liberal media when this happened? Why did it take the BBC to bring this story to our attention?
We may yet get the protagonist's side of the story, as there is currently a feeding frenzy among the networks to get the Jessica Lynch interview. To help land this huge post-war interview, Katie Couric sent Lynch " a bundle of patriotic books," while Diane Sawyer gave her "a locket with a photograph of Lynch's family home in Palestine, W.Va." CBS outdid them both.
"Attached you will find the outlines of a proposal that includes ideas from CBS News, CBS Entertainment, MTV networks and Simon & Schuster publishers," Betsy West, a CBS News senior vice president, wrote to Lynch's military representatives.
So much for the division between journalism and entertainment. If making a spectacle out of a spectacle means getting to the truth of the Jessica Lynch story, I'm all for it.
