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Al Jazeera (English)
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Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

Bloggers spearhead offscreen opposition: The net has given free rein to opinion not expressed in mainstream media coverage of the Gulf conflict, says John Naughton

osbserver.co.uk - A friend of mine has just returned from a week in New York, during which time she encountered nobody who was in favour of the war. Nobody. One day, her attempts to get across town by cab were blocked by an anti-war demonstration involving 300,000 people.

Did this remarkable event - in a nation which, remember, is officially at war - receive serious coverage on CNN? Do I need to ask?

One could watch the US television networks around the clock for a week and not realise the extent of public opposition and disquiet about Dubya's military adventure. Instead, viewers are fed a constant diet of football-type commentary about the campaign, complete with panels of experts and pundit-babble about 'results' and 'outcomes' and 'regime meltdown'.

It's the same for US radio, dominated as it is by neo-Fascist 'talk jocks' mouthing hysterical, semi-racist, kick-ass jingoism. A visiting Martian who only had access to the US broadcast media might be forgiven for thinking that the Bush regime had perfected the art of mind-control.

Why is the unease and disaffection of the American public so invisible? The answer is that it's only invisible if you're looking for it in the mainstream media. It's there all right - but it's on the net. One detects it, for example, in the way Americans have taken to seeking news from foreign news sources - chief among them, if the server logs are accurate, the Guardian and BBC websites.

But visiting news sites is essentially a passive activity. Even more interesting is the astonishing proliferation of public discussion enabled by web-logging software. Until 9/11, this was pretty much a minority activity, but the terrorist attacks triggered an explosion of online expression channelled into net diaries of all descriptions.

posted by West 8:53 AM