Steady decline: Discussion of media performance at Doha, Qatar during Iraq war
'[Questions] posed by European and Arab journalists tended to be more pointed and probing than those from the Americans... One US network correspondent told me that she was worried that, if she pushed too hard at the briefings, she would no longer be called on... After watching the British reports, I found the American ones jarring. In my hotel, MSNBC always seemed to be on, and I was shocked by its mawkishness and breathless boosterism... I was sadly reminded of the network's [CNN] steady decline in recent years... CNN International, the edition broadcast to the world at large, ... was far more serious and informed than the American version. The difference was not accidental.'

Polls show that most Americans believe Saddam was involved in 9/11. This has been hailed as a stunning success of the propaganda system. But at the same time as this the US media has been undergoing a relentless dumbing down in order to continue to function effectively as propaganda. A breaking point might soon be reached... the lethal perception will inexorably spread that US corporate media is propaganda that should be compared to Goebbels or Pravda but not taken at face value.

Steady decline: Discussion of media performance at Doha, Qatar during Iraq war
'[Questions] posed by European and Arab journalists tended to be more pointed and probing than those from the Americans... One US network correspondent told me that she was worried that, if she pushed too hard at the briefings, she would no longer be called on... After watching the British reports, I found the American ones jarring. In my hotel, MSNBC always seemed to be on, and I was shocked by its mawkishness and breathless boosterism... I was sadly reminded of the network's [CNN] steady decline in recent years... CNN International, the edition broadcast to the world at large, ... was far more serious and informed than the American version. The difference was not accidental.'

Polls show that most Americans believe Saddam was involved in 9/11. This has been hailed as a stunning success of the propaganda system. But at the same time as this the US media has been undergoing a relentless dumbing down in order to continue to function effectively as propaganda. A breaking point might soon be reached... the lethal perception will inexorably spread that US corporate media is propaganda that should be compared to Goebbels or Pravda but not taken at face value.