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| Two Different Wars |
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| sunset |
| 04/08/03 at 23:55:36 |
| Two Different Wars Gerald Butt (Al-Hayat) 2003/04/09 Changing channels between al-Jazeera television and America's Fox News you might be watching completely different wars. Al-Jazeera takes viewers to Baghdad and other Iraqi cities and shows the war as it is experienced at the grass roots - the terror and gruesome results of being on the receiving end of sustained missile attacks and heavy bombing. It shows the conflict from the perspective of people who have to endure it. Fox, on the other hand, keeps the horror of war at arm's length, sanitizing atrocities and presenting the conflict as the Bush administration is trying to portray it - for the benefit of the Iraqi people. To watch Fox for any half-hour period since the start of the war has been to witness a slick production that was designed for a painless, high-tech conflict. As the campaign slowed down after the swift progress of the opening days, the Fox presenters have had to work hard to maintain the air of optimism. Anything else, is considered unpatriotic. Fox was particularly appalled when some of the leading American newspapers pointed to the first signs of irritation on the part of the military at what they regarded as inadequate planning by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "I know you are shocked, stunned and amazed - as I have been," a presenter told viewers, "that this kind of sniping should appear at this time. There are some people out there who just can't wait to point out that things are going wrong." Fox is much happier analyzing tactics and discussing the awesome capability of America's weaponry, than looking too closely at what happens when the weapons are used. Much of the channel's attention, for example, has been on the deployment of the war's first so-called digital division of American ground troops equipped with computers in their tanks. This enables the combat units to be linked together through a computer network and turns them into what Fox called "a combat force disproportionate to their size." But the Fox presenters have also taken pleasure in showing viewers some of the older military hardware being used to bombard Iraq, with footage of giant B52 bombers taking off from a British airfield. "Look at that nineteen-fifties technology - it's still a wonderful aircraft that is playing a very important role in this war and can deliver hundreds of tons of bombs in a day," said a correspondent. When it comes to coverage of the war on the ground in Iraq, Fox correspondents embedded with the forces have been presenting the campaign almost as an aid operation with military back-up. Referring to the prospect of street-by-street fighting in Basra, one studio presenter said "the purpose is to free the city up to allow the distribution of aid. The British have made one food drop already and are beginning to build bridges with the local community." Al-Jazeera, at this time, was showing footage of widespread destruction from coalition bombing, leaving Basra without water or electricity. Children were shown with amputated limbs lying on blood-soaked hospital beds. As for the heavy loss of life sustained during missile strikes that hit crowded markets in Baghdad, Fox's automatic reaction was to echo the U.S. administration's view that the explosions could have been caused by the Iraqis themselves. Fox's mission is also to denigrate the Iraqi leadership at every opportunity. While no weapons of mass destruction have been found, the channel has spent time analysing the few missiles that Iraq has used so far. Correspondent William La Jeunesse in Kuwait city describe` a seersucker surface-to-ship missile fired at a shopping mall, identifying it as a version of the Chinese silkworm. "It was packed full of explosives," he said, "but luckily only two people were hurt and they were minor injuries." The studio presenter asked whether this was one of the missiles that Saddam Hussein was not supposed to have. No, replied the correspondent. As much as Fox and other U.S. channels focus on the past atrocities committed by the regime in Baghdad, they also enjoy scrutinizing the character of Saddam himself ("a man who married his own cousin and killed his own son-in-law") and his immediate family. His son, Odai, for example, was singled out on one occasion - not for the brutality with which he is normally associated, but for "writing anti-American editorials in state papers." Above all, Fox personnel are required to be as one hundred per cent loyal to the war aims as they are to the American flag. When al-Jazeera showed the bodies of American servicemen and U.S. prisoners of war in Iraqi hands, the station's defense correspondent, live on air in Washington, could barely contain his anger. While al-Jazeera interviews senior U.S. officials as much as it does Iraqi ones, Fox can not accommodate the Arab point of view - whether government or public. And there is never talk of "American forces" in action in Iraq; it is always "our forces." The war is shown, as a matter of course, to be proceeding according to plan - giving American viewers an impression that is, at best, misleading. Even when setbacks cannot be hidden, Fox puts on a brave face. "Although we may not fully understand General Franks' military plan at the moment," a correspondent said as the progress towards Baghdad came to a halt, "as time goes on, we are going to see Centcom's scheme for manoeuvre unfold." No matter how events unfold in the coming days, the likelihood is that al-Jazeera and Fox will continue to view the conflict through completely different lenses. While the former will keep up its 24-hour coverage, as seen from the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere, the latter will concentrate on America's ultimate goal, while playing down the human suffering involved in reaching it. By doing so it risks presenting war as just another form of entertainment. In the words of retired Colonel Bob McGuiness, one of the many military analysts hired by Fox, "our news coverage gives a real sense of what it's like to be there - this is better than anything you would see on a video game, it's unique." |
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