Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq
Edited by David Miller
Pluto Press, 2004
320 pages,
A$38.95 pb, or US$13.97 from <http://www.amazon.com>.
REVIEW BY PAUL DE ROOIJ
The 2003 US war on Iraq was accompanied by one of the largest propaganda campaigns in history — in which the US and British public were subjected to a barrage of misinformation, lies and outright attempts to induce fear. Opposition in Europe and elsewhere to the war was counteracted by a massive propaganda campaign to cow people into silence.
Tell Me Lies, David Miller's very important book, helps us understand what we were subjected to, how this was done, how this has evolved in recent history and what media alternatives are available to counter this trend. A multifaceted examination of this phenomenon, Miller's book is a welcome addition to an expanding literature on this topic.
Tell Me Lies contains a collection of well-chosen articles from a range of knowledgeable writers and activists. These writers comprise eminent journalists (John Pilger, Robert Fisk, Tim Llewellyn), academics (Greg Philo and Miller), media critics (Norman Solomon, Edward Herman, David Edwards, David Cromwell and Noam Chomsky), government propaganda specialists (Nancy Snow), Middle East experts and people working in alternative media. The articles complement each other very well and don't seem to overlap — a risk when so many authors contribute to such a book.
The first few articles by Pilger reflect on recent history, and convey moral outrage about the mass deception. Once Pilger has set the stage, other authors delve into the mechanics and history of propaganda. Snow presents an insider's account of the US "public diplomacy" machinery; another article provides a similar account of the British propaganda operations.
In their articles considering the historical context of how propaganda campaigns have evolved in recent wars, Philip Knightley and Des Freedman demonstrate that government propaganda machines increasingly control the flow of information. The corporate media and Western governments learnt from their mistakes in the Vietnam War, in which Western journalists had considerable leeway. Since then, the tendency has been to severely restrict access to war zones and to expunge all images that convey the ghastly aspects of war. In the US-Iraq propaganda campaign, you can discern more control, for longer periods, and over a wider range of media coverage — even MTV had an embedded journalist during the war!!
The articles by Herman and Greg Philo and M. Gilmour are the most valuable contributions to the book. Herman demolishes the propaganda claims of the run-up to the war, and clarifies the pattern of propaganda. Philo and Gilmour's article examines university students' knowledge of history — an evaluation obtained by studying focus groups. It is disturbing to find that only 8% of British students interviewed knew the origin of the Palestinian refugee problem, and only 5% of them knew what a "gulag" was.
The study implied that television is not providing the general population with basic contextual information. Propaganda campaigns are effective because they target a population with poor general knowledge of political issues. Because they don't have key contextual information, most people don't realize they are being manipulated. One disturbing implication of these findings is that propagandists may seek to keep this general level of knowledge very low so that media deceptions will be effective.
Mark Curtis certainly found a nugget on the British defence ministry web site: "Increasing emotional attachment to the outside world, fuelled by immediate and graphic media coverage, and a public desire to see the UK act as a force for good, is likely to lead to public support, and possibly public demand, for operations prompted by humanitarian concerns."
Hence, public attitudes must be shaped so that military activities aren't constrained. The more disturbing aspects dealt with in the book are indications that mass deception campaigns can also be used to subvert democratic societies. If the will of the people can be manipulated to make wars possible, then other aspects of a democracy can be subverted as well.
In an interview, Fisk explains his philosophy of journalism — and provides further proof of his courage in covering events in the Middle East. If only more journalists would take their duty to inform the public more seriously, and show some more backbone, our media would be more exciting — and propagandists' opportunities to deceive their target populations would be hampered. Fisk says that the journalist is a moral eunuch, only seeking to present what people say without interpretation or opinion.
The answer to the mass media deception campaigns is not to switch off the TV or turn to light entertainment. For the implications of inaction are far too stark — wars, the misery of millions of people, and the dismantling of democracy. The only alternative is to confront propaganda and seek out alternative information.
As an important case study of a huge propaganda campaign, Tell Me Lies provides the framework needed to understand what we were subjected to and how it was done. This is essential knowledge to counter the insidious phenomenon that is becoming entrenched in our societies.
[Paul de Rooij is a Dutch economist, mathematician, activist and writer living in London. This review first appeared the website of the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs <http://www.wrmea.com/archives/June_2004/0406088.html>.]
From Green Left Weekly, June 23, 2004.
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