NEWSWEEK meets 21st Century war: Thatâs the subject of Austin Bayâs latest
column.
It was classic âmedia gotcha,â using the âVietnam and Watergateâ storyline of âUnited States bad, Third World goodâ â but the phony story led to riots, deaths and an embarrassing retraction.
Iâm referring, of course, to Newsweekâs âKoran flushingâ story, which ran in the magazineâs May 1 edition.
The sin of greed creeps into every scandal, and it lurks behind this tragic incident. Newsweek wants âmarket share,â and hot stories grab readers.
But profit generated by a frantic âme firstâ quest isnât the only motive. The âVietnam-Watergateâ press template is also involved. âVietnam-Watergateâ is a tired and phony game, but for three decades itâs been the spine of the New York-Washington-Los Angeles media axis. Its rules are simple and cynical. Presume the U.S. government is lying â particularly when the president is a Republican. Presume the worst about the U.S. military â even when the president is a Democrat. Add multicultural icing â allegations by âThird World victimsâ are given revered status, while U.S. statements are met with arrogant contempt. (Yes, itâs the myth of the Noble Savage recast.)
Wake up. Thereâs a war going on â a global war. American lives and liberty are at stake, but Newsweek and its clan are still trying to âGet Nixon.â
Newsweekâs editors havenât entered the 21st century. Anti-American propagandists â and that includes Al Qaeda â have used Gitmo and Abu Ghraib as emotional/political weapons. Responsible reporting must take that into account. News organizations will ultimately lose credibility if they fail to factor the Al Qaeda propaganda angle in their reports on Gitmo and Abu Ghraib.
Yes, this makes for a more complicated story, but we are engaged in an intricate, complex war on an intricate, complex planet.
Thereâs also an odd but apt comparison between Newsweekâs fiasco and the Pentagonâs initially slow response to Abu Ghraib. When evaluating Abu Ghraib allegations, Don Rumsfeld was operating with a 1970sâ âpaper information template.â To Rumsfeld, âpicturesâ of Pfc. England with a dog leash meant snapshots on paper marked âKodak.â Rumsfeld didnât realize his young troops shoot digital photos that in 10 seconds âgo globalâ on the Internet.
I suspect Newsweekâs bosses were operating on a âpaper template,â the legacy of their own formative era, where their âprint productâ reached readers via the postman. In this âtemplate,â a press allegation remains largely âlocal,â or U.S.-bound, and if itâs wrong itâs easily retracted (or covered up). Despite calling itself a âglobal news organization,â this âKoran flushingâ article was clearly aimed at the U.S. domestic audience.
However, there is no âover thereâ in our world, not anymore. We live in a world where everyone is â in terms of information â next door.
Rumsfeld and Newsweek were both handling volatile allegations with a restricted view of the audience (a 1970s, U.S.-oriented template) and a poor appreciation of the allegationsâ impact.
We have enemies looking for âoperational opportunitiesâ on a global scale. Al Qaeda has sympathizers who are cued to react to Western news reports that âinsult Islam.â The âfifth-columnistâ throws the first stone. If he can get a couple of bored teenage boys to throw a second and third stone, heâs done his job. Al Qaeda gets another âthe Muslim street is angryâ story and perhaps a bloodbath.
Is this a fanciful scenario? Indian military analyst Bahukutumbi Raman claimed the Afghan riot riots in the wake of the Newsweek phony story were incited by âwell-organized agents of the Hizb ut-Tahrir terror gang.â
Welcome, Newsweek, to the 21st century â and 21st century war.
