I was browsing through some of the week in pictures on some news or media sight when I came across a photograph of three soldiers fully dressed in all their protective gear. Helmets and riffles in hand. The one soldier was lying on the ground with his arms at his side seemingly unconscious or severely injured. While the second soldier is hunched over pulling him by the collar “out of harms way”. This soldier’s lower back was slightly exposed, his shirt was un-tucked due to what could only be the struggle of dragging his fellow comrade’s entire weight across the ground. In the distance… There was a third soldier, his boots dusty from the rubble, his rifle perfectly positioned under his arm, his forehead soaked in sweat, skin bright red from some kind of a struggle and most expressive of all he wore a distressed but in control look on his face as he ran past the other two soldiers courageously towards the conflict and at the same time perfectly facing the camera. A paint by numbers horror war scene wouldn’t you say? A man down, another trying to save him and the third facing the fury of the enemy. I couldn’t bear to imagine the horrific scene that the running soldier was willingly and consciously running towards. As I was about to flip to the next photo I got this itch of curiosity as to where the photo had been taken and by whom. So I’m glancing over the text around the photo when I read a TINY caption that read “an Israeli soldier helps a friend after being injured by a stone thrown by an 8 year old boy”
This image was what allowed me to truely grasp Noam chomsky’s “indoctrination”.
Much like the partial blindfolds placed on a horse so as to control its straying from the middle of the road, I was lead to believe that this poor man had been injured while heroically defending the policies and rights of his people. What a crock of crap that turned out to be. War just like everything else has now become commercial. The news stations sell nothing short of propaganda. They don’t lie but don’t present the whole truth either. They only give you the portion that will naturally lead any rational person to the same conclusions they(those in charge) have arrived at. And that being
This is a necessary evil. This is a legitimate Cause. We are not only fighting for our personal benefits but for those of humanity as a whole.
And so like the partially blind folded horse that they are, people go out and buy bumper stickers that read “support our troops” and go around deeming anything remotely related or similar to their invisible monster as a threat. And because it is this form of media that keeps them “informed” and gives them a false sense of security they return to it time and time again jonesing for more. Information junkies addicted to a drug that eventually will cause nothing more than massive internal hemorrhaging due to misinformation. And so the launch of the English Aljazeera has me giddy with excitement. Their visuals are impeccable and their presentation in English makes them harder to ignore. Why you ask will this media source differ from the rest? How do we guarantee we’re not seeing only a part of the truth. Well the answer is simple. We don’t. But given the circumstances under which this little channel surfaced I’m tempted to think they have no prerogative or agenda. Unlike CNN’s financial dependence on it’s sponsors, who can’t be blamed for perusing their own interests, this channel is owned by one prince with loads of money to spare all with the intention to simply have his people heard. Some ways down the road I suppose It potentially runs the risk of being a personal agenda campaign but as it currently stands… I’m enjoying the alternate stand point, the variety in story coverage and the multi cultural staff.
From the very few stories I’ve seen on it so far It is clear that hiding the ugly is something they don’t want to do.
I imagine it’ll be closed down fairly soon due to some sort of legal mumbo jumbo but in the mean time I think its about time CNN and the BBC got a little run for their money and dealt with some competition.
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