Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 17:44:37 -0500 From: Eric Fawcett <•••@••.•••> Subject: Order new IAC book: War, Lies and Videotape To [remove]add your address to this list, email: •••@••.••• with no message in the text and Subject: [unsubscribe]subscribe sfpcan. Messages posted on http://scienceforpeace.sa.utoronto.ca/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXCITING, NEW, INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER BOOK THAT RIPS THE MASS MEDIA "War, Lies & Videotape: How media monopoly stifles truth" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ exposes the true character of the media today. Order a copy now with your credit card on www.leftbooks.com. Have you ever wondered whether the news you hear is true? Who makes the news and how? How do mega-mergers and the consolidation of media outlets affect what you see on the evening news? This is a superb new work by some of your favorite fighters for justice and media critics. Read new works by Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General; Michael Parenti, author; Nawal El Saadawi, Novelist & Journalist; Ben Bagdikian, former editor of the Washington Post; Sara Flounders & Brian Becker, Co-Directors of the IAC; Diana Johnstone, former European Editor of In These Times; Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former President of Haiti; Scott Armstrong, Co-Author of The Brethren; and others on the very nature of the news we see and read. HOW TO ORDER: "War, Lies & Videotape: How media monopoly stifles truth" is 280 pages, fully indexed, for US$15.95. You can either order it now, on-line, with your credit card at www.leftbooks.com for 15% off or you can send a check to the International Action Center for US$15.95 plus US$4 shipping. This book is now in stock. Buy it for a friend; use it in a discussion group, or as a textbook. Help circulate the truth about the corporate control of the media. And help to support the International Action Center as it continues uncompromising leadership against U.S. interventions and militarism. QUOTATIONS FROM THE TEXT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RAMSEY CLARK ON MEDIA MANIPULATION OF FOREIGN POLICY: "The means of communication are controlled by a handful of interests. Ninety percent of all television fare comes from six or seven companies. A General Electric or Rupert Murdoch can marginalize a Socrates. A cup of hemlock might seem to so the same, but the fact of Socrates' existence and authenticity abides. "This is not an easy time to be a thinker. When the media marginalizes a Socrates of our time, if there will be one, where will the memory of his word abide? "Our (the U.S. Government's) ability to manipulate and admit without alarming the public is overwhelming. There was a review in the New York Times last week of the new book called "To Win a War" by Richard Holbrooke. It's written in the first person, telling how he did it. He didn't title his narrative "To Establish a Peace." And in his tale he reveals the horrors of ethnic cleansing. But pride overcomes discretion, and he writes, boastfully according to a review, of how, even as Washington was condemning the Croatian purge of more than a quarter million Serbs from the Krajina, he was in Zagreb making sure that the Croatians did exactly that, identifying the cities to be purged, the deaths and the massive forced emigration. "The power of the Media to demonize is perhaps its most dangerous and vicious power." MICHAEL PARENTI ON MEDIA EVASION: "We often think of the news media as sensationalist and intrusive. In fact, the press' basic modus operandi is evasive rather than invasive. More important that sensationalist hype is the artful avoidance. "The news media's daily performance is not a failure but a skillfully evasive success. Their job is not to inform but to disinform, not to advance democratic discourse but to mute it. The media gives every appearance of being vigorously concerned about events of the day, saying so much, meaning so little, offering so many calories and so few nutrients. When we understand this, we move from a liberal complaint about the press' sloppy performance to a radical analysis of how the media serve the ruling circles with much craft and craftiness." NAWAL EL SAADAWI ON NEO-COLONIALISM AND MEDIA'S DARK AGE: "Two phrases in an African-Jamaican song summarize the media's dark age in which we live: Raise the chains off the body. Put the chains on the mind. "This is one of the functions of the media. To give you the illusion that you are free to choose what you like from the free market, that you are free to elect your representative in Congress or Parliament. But in media's dark age how can anyone be free? "Never before in history has there been such domination of people's minds by the mass media. Never before in history has thee been such a concentration and centralization of media, capital, and of military power in the hands of so few people. All the countries that form the group of seven (in the North) control almost all the technological, economic, media, information and military power." SARA FLOUNDERS ON THE ACHILLES HEEL OF MEDIA POWER: LOSS OF CREDIBILITY: "The more absolutely controlled and homogenized news and information becomes the more it lacks credibility--and the more vulnerable it is to the truth. A generation ago in the U.S. the average person accepted or believed what governmental officials said and what they heard on the news. "Now the distrust of the media goes even deeper than the alienation from government. Today the average person knows that the politicians lie. They lie about their personal lives and sexual affairs, of course. They lie about taxes and finances and they lie about reasons for going to war. This distrust is reflected first in apathy and alienation. "Consider the response on issues of U.S. military action. Historically, war is one issue where every strata and class in society is aroused, apprehensive and has an opinion… Wild claims of self-defense or demonizing an opponent are hardly new tactics in the annals of war. Great wars of conquest and plunder have always been masked by noble appeals. "During the 40 days of bombings when more than 110,000 aerial sorties were flown against Iraq, under a 24-hour-a-day media barrage calling on the public to 'support our troops,' approval ratings of President Bush and the war reached 80%. But the support was shallow and short-lived. Six months later this approval rating for President Bush had plummeted to 30%. It takes greater hype and in heavier doses to achieve even temporary support." International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email: •••@••.••• http://www.iacenter.org phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889
