Surviving Capitalism (Not) : New Study Examines Media Coverage of Iranian Nuclear Program

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, May 4, 2013

New Study Examines Media Coverage of Iranian Nuclear Program

Click here to access article by Nima Shirazi from Muftah.

Drawing direct parallels to the irresponsible, inadequate, inaccurate and dangerously ideological media malpractice during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the CISSM report concludes that press coverage on the Iranian nuclear program has been – and continues to be – similarly distorted and dishonest, confusing, and contradictory.

What is really surprising about this study is that it was allowed to be published at all even in an obscure journal.

The author misses the real significance of the study which is that there is no longer any kind of independent media of any scale in the US. The concentration of the media into a few hands wedded to the military-financial-industrial complex essentially means that major media have become merely a public relations department of the Pentagon.