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Page Not FoundWe need to be united in the fight against fascism and repression.
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Page Not FoundWe need to be united in the fight against fascism and repression.
In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
War is peace. Now we know.
It's only going to get worse.
The Metaphysical Club
U.N. diplomats give Bush a blank check.
Next Stop, Southeast Asia?
The United States may have a new target.
Nation building vs. globalization.
Anthrax is bad, but smallpox is worse — much worse.
At the Gates of Power.
I cannot find the glory in this day.
Patriots and scoundrels.
Appall-o-Meter
Israel's Labor Party is silenced as violence erupts.
Bush administration hawks want to deploy "mini-nukes" against Osama bin Laden.
Under cover of war, the Bush administration pushes for fast track.
Freddy Falls
Green takes the runoff amid charges of race-baiting and miscounted votes.
Crude Justice
Ecuadorian Indians fight Texaco with U.S. tort law.
Punitive Measures
Suffering in solitary confinement.
ART: William Kentridge's animated politics.
Gun Crazy
BOOKS: The story of Arming America.
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October 26, 2001
Patriots and Scoundrels
It has been hard, these past few weeks, not to feel helpless, depressed, fearful
and, most of all, erased. Ari Fleischer warned Americans to “watch what
they say,” but in case some failed to obey this edict, many in the media
ensured that views deviating even slightly from those of Donald Rumsfeld were
censored, condemned or both. Who needs Fleischer when you have Thomas Friedman
or Jonathan Alter—who would have rather circumscribed careers without the
First Amendment—telling Americans, especially young Americans, to shut
up and pledge allegiance? From The Economist’s “Treason of the Intellectuals,”
to Tim Russert’s show on CNBC where Friedman expressed his deep disappointment
with college students who questioned administration policy, to Alter’s
semi-hysterical smear “Blame America at Your Peril” in Newsweek
(not to mention Michael Kelly’s already infamous assertions in the Washington
Post that pacifists are “objectively pro-terrorist,” “evil”
and “liars”), some journalists are taking up Fleischer’s banner
and launching a nice little ideological jihad of their own. As Alter,
a serial ’60s-basher put it, the left (of his imagination) is “unforgivably
out to lunch” and “knee-deep in ignorant and dangerous appeasement.”
What we need to do is shut up because “it’s kill or be killed.” All of these attacks begin, as smears usually do, by utterly distorting what
many on the left have been saying. Maybe I’m on the wrong listserves, but
I have heard no one justifying the September 11 attacks or expressing sympathy
for the Taliban, as The Economist and Alter suggest. And even though
both articles condemn left-wing “appeasement” (so they can liken us
to Nazi sympathizers), who on the left has been urging that we “appease”
bin Laden? Instead, many have argued that the attacks were a reprehensible criminal act,
and that whoever was responsible should indeed be hunted down and brought to
justice. We see this as a hideous crime, but we don’t see war as the solution.
In fact, many of us fear that the current policy of bombing what little remains
of Afghanistan and its benighted people (especially its women!) will, in addition
to killing innocent civilians, do little to end international terrorism and,
indeed, make matters much worse. Why might those of us so “out to lunch” think that? Well, for starters,
Bush the First’s jolly little war in the region made the material existence
of millions of Iraqis, especially children, much worse without hurting Saddam
Hussein one bit. Alter says that after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center,
we “tried turning the other cheek” and it didn’t work. If U.S.
policies in the Middle East have been “turning the other cheek,” I’d
hate to see what belligerence is. Maybe Alter, patriot that he is, is perfectly
happy to associate himself with government policies that have helped kill more
than 500,000 Iraqi kids since 1990, but I, patriot that I am, am not. I think
our country can and should do better, and I think that liberals and progressives
have a right to say so. The Economist says “there is a worrying confusion between (legitimate)
explanations and (unwarranted) justification of last month’s terror.”
Maybe at The Economist, but not in the pieces I’ve been reading.
Many left-liberals question the sanctions in Iraq, our country’s ongoing
support of the autocratic and repressive Saudi regime, and the use of American
weapons to kill Palestinians. But it is a viscous slander to assert that “the
left” feels the attacks were “deserved.” Andrew Sullivan went
so far as to suggest that we are a pro-terrorist “Fifth Column.” I
would think those who seek to silence other views, stifle dissent and condemn
peace proposals are serving the forces behind this brand of terrorism much better
than we ever could, especially since they actually have mass circulation media
outlets as podiums. Alter, Kelly and others might look to the example of CNN’s intrepid Christiane
Amanpour. In addition to her gutsy reporting from the front, Amanpour hosted
a CNN special on October 13 titled “An In-Depth Look at Islam.” She
powerfully reminded viewers that the American and Arab media present almost
diametrically opposed views of the region. Until recently, Americans barely
saw anything at all except telegraphic coverage of the escalating conflict between
Israelis and Palestinians. The Arab press and the Al-Jazeera network, however,
repeatedly show their viewers the children in Iraq suffering from the sanctions,
Israel’s use of American weapons and even critics of the Saudi regime. Americans need to know how their government’s policies are being represented
in the rest of the world, and they need informed public debate about those policies.
The lesson is simple: We don’t need less information and commentary, we
need more. You would think that journalists and commentators, of all people,
would be the first to insist upon this principle. Susan J. Douglas is a professor of communication studies at the University
of Michigan whose new column will appear regularly. She is the author of Where
the Girls Are: Growing up Female with the Mass Media and, most recently,
Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination. Douglas is currently
working on an examination of how motherhood has been portrayed in the mass media
from the late ’60s to the present. |
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In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
