Some of you may have read recently (source, source, source, source, source, source, source) that the United States broke international law on Sunday by violating the sovereignty of a UN member nation (Syria) without the necessary UN sanction and without the appropriate legal and moral criteria necessary to justify such an attack without UN sanction.
As an exercise, I decided to look at how the mainstream U.S. media covered the incident. For the purposes of this exercise, I took mainstream media to consist of: CNN, FOX News, LA Times, Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, NY Times¹ and Time Magazine.
At approximately 4pm this afternoon, I conducted a google news search on the issue and filtered out all U.S. mainstream publications who had written on the issue of the U.S.’s illegal raid into Syria. The following pieces were generated by Google and the results of what they are saying to the American populace is frightening.²
US forces staged attack in Syria, US official says |
CNN – 53 minutes ago |
AP journalist sees bodies of seven men at funerals Monday Four helicopters crossed Iraq border, two landed, witness tells AP WASHINGTON (CNN) — The US … |
US Official: Syrian Strike Killed Al Qaeda Target |
FOXNews – 2 hours ago |
AP A US strike on a network of foreign fighters in Syria killed its main target — an Al Qaeda coordinator who was wanted for sending foreign fighters, … |
SYRIA: What’s behind US raid? |
Los Angeles Times, CA – 19 hours ago |
US forces on Sunday afternoon apparently crossed the Iraqi border to launch a commando raid in a Syrian town that left at least eight people dead. … |
US Helicopter Raid Kills 8 Inside Syria |
Washington Post, United States – 8 hours ago |
By Ellen Knickmeyer and Ernesto Londoño CAIRO, Oct. 27 — A US helicopter raid into Syria on Sunday killed eight people, prompting a sharp condemnation from … |
Syria Accuses US Of Attack Near Iraqi Border |
NPR – 21 hours ago |
by Corey Flintoff NPR.org, October 26, 2008 · There are conflicting reports over an alleged US military strike in Syria near the Iraqi border. … |
Syria accuses US in deadly helicopter attack |
CNN – 22 hours ago |
(CNN) — The US military said it is investigating claims from Syria that US helicopters based in Iraq killed eight people and wounded another Sunday in an … |
News roundup: Global stocks down; US attacks target inside Syria |
USA Today – 7 hours ago |
Stocks are down around the world, with Japan’s Nikkei index falling to its lowest level since 1982. “Investors are bracing for another volatile week, … |
What’s Behind the US Military Raid on Syria? |
TIME – 2 hours ago |
By Nicholas Blanford / Beirut Monday, Oct. 27, 2008 Sunday’s surprise raid by helicopter-borne US troops in eastern Syria raises at least three key … |
8 reportedly killed in US raid inside Syria |
Los Angeles Times, CA – 23 hours ago |
Syrian news sources say the attack also wounded 14 people near the Iraqi border. US military representatives do not deny the raid. … |
Some Key Distortions:
- Of the nine unique pieces put forth by the U.S. mainstream media, 8 of the 9 fail to mention that there were several reports of children being killed by the U.S. attack. The only piece to mention the alleged killing of children was FOX News and they mentioned it only to discredit such claims.
- Of the nine unique pieces, 3 questioned whether the raid even took place (usually describing the incident as “Syrian claims”).
- Of the nine pieces, not one mentions the illegality of the raid (although one does mention one quoted source’s opinion that the raid could be a violation of U.S.-Iraqi bilateral agreements).
- Of the nine pieces, only three highlight the legitimate grievances of the Syrian government.
- Yet, every single one of the nine pieces mention “foreign fighters” or attacks against Iraq as legitimate justification for crossing border and launching an attack on Syrian civilians.
Below is a graphical representation of the distortion of the event by the mainstream U.S. media.³
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Notes:
¹ Google News Search did not generate any pieces at 4pm for the New York Times.
² The titles of some of the listed articles have changed since the data was scraped from Google News. The hyperlinks generated by Google News and listed above are unchanged as are the article headlines. Any change in article headlines between what is listed above and what is linked to is a result of the publication in question changing the title sometime between 4pm and 9:35pm EDT.
³ While the articles themselves were scraped from Google News at 4pm, the analysis of the content of each article did not take place until 9pm EDT and thus the analysis above does take into account any changes in text which may have occurred between 4pm and 9:35pm EDT.
It should also be noted here that this post was originally going to be about the distortion of the Syrian incident as seen by the North American mainstream media rather than merely the American media. However, at 4pm EDT Google News failed to generate any mainstream Canadian news publications that filed their own reports on the invasion (i.e. did not just buy a wire service report).
3 statistics about the 2008 election you’ll never see in the media
Published 18 October, 2008 2008 Canadian Election , Canadian Politics , Canadian Politics (domestic) , current events , Elections , Green Party , Harper , Liberal Party , mainstream media , Media , NDP , News, Commentary & Op/Ed , politics , Progressive , Resistance 5 CommentsAs such, the triumph of the Harper Conservatives over the ‘progressive’ forces in this country has been a common theme explored ad nausium by the mainstream media.
This notion is both interesting and straightforward. Indeed the only problem with this post-election theme is that it’s completely unsupported by the facts.
If anything, this election should be noted as being exemplary of exactly the opposite.
This election, if nothing else, was a stentorian vindication of the long-term trend witnessed in Canada since the 1974 general election AWAY from liberalism and conservatism and toward progressivism.
A while back, I pointed out the long-term trend in Canadian popular support away from the neo-liberal/neo-conservative, ultra-capitalist parties (of which, I took to include Liberals, the Conservatives, PCs, Alliance, Reform Party, Social Credit, Ralliement créditiste, Confederation of Regions, and other small third parties) and toward the more moderate and/or progressive capitalist parties (which I took to include the NDP, Bloc, Greens, Communist Party, CAP, CPC-ML and other small third parties). I am pleased to say that not only has this trend continued, but that it has also continued in every region of the country without exception.
In 2008, in every region of Canada without exception — West, Ontario, Québec, Atlantic & North — the combined ultra-capitalist parties (Liberal and Conservative) decreased in popular support. Meanwhile, in every region of Canada, the combined more moderate or progressive parties increased their popular level of support.
The public’s appetite for laissez faire capitalism and vicious cuts to social spending as instituted by the Conservatives of today and the Liberals of yesteryear is clearly declining. The only question is, how much longer can these two warring factions of the capitalist class continue to operate as separate parties before they are forced to ‘unite the right’ once again amidst the rising tide of public opinion against their policies.
And that is something that the mainstream capitalist media or their conservative apologists just won’t let you contemplate.