OK, so below I noted the high level of bloodshed in Iraq over the weekend. I think I should highlight part of that story - the fact that one of the dead was an al-Arabiya reporter who was killed while he was on the air. This gets at something that I think not enought people acknowledge. The images of the war that Americans see are often much less jarring than those seen abroad. I mean the networks don't want anyone to toss their Cheetos, or create too much cognitive dissonace between the presentation of the news stories and the ads for Depends that are coming up during the break, and heavens knows they wouldn't want to offend anyone, so we get a cleaned up picture of the war. I finally saw the Michael Moore movie yesterday and was really surprised at how surprised a lot of the audience was at the relatively graphic images. We just aren't exposed to most of them - whereas other populations are. I think this has a lot to do with why different populations view this conflict differently.
And of course that's before we even bring up the possibilty that in this instance the helicopter might have been mowing down a largely peaceful crowd. If that's what happened - well, others are getting a REALLY different look at the American presence in Iraq.
Posted by armand at September 13, 2004 03:09 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs