The Real Power of American Media
The real power the American media was shown over the past week. Newsweek magazine published a story in it's May 9th edition about behaviour at Guantanamo Bay. In this report, the authors of the story, Michael Isikoff and John Barry, recounted an event that a "knowledgeable government source" had given them. Because of this report, numerous people throughout the Muslim world have lost their lives, while hundreds of others were hurt, in direct correlation to this article. This yet proves once more how much power American media has.
The report in question claimed that the Muslim holy book, the Quaran, had been defiled in attempts to get Gitmo prisoners to talk. The report outlines a particular instance in which the book was flushed down the toilet in front of Muslims in an attempt to get them to talk. This story helped fuel Muslim retaliation throughout the world as angry Muslim's demanded retribution for the desecration of their holy book. At least 16 were dead in Afghanistan, while scores of others were hurt.
And to make matters worse, it seems the story was a fabrication of the truth. The nearest anyone has been able to come to the report is one in which a Muslim himself tore pages from within the Quaran and flushed them trying to disrupt the flow of the toilet. So how did an act of a Muslim flushing pages turn into military interrogators flushing the entire book?
The truth is the American media cannot wait to find any shred of information to tear down not only the War in Iraq but the President himself. The media will resort to outright lies and fabrications to make their way to the conclusion they so desire. Well this time the price was too high. This time innocent people were killed. This time, the collateral damage to try and bring down the Bush administration was one that could have been avoided. The red letters in Newsweek never held as much symbolism as they do today.
By: Craig McGowan (The US Republican)
one of the contributors of the National Exam
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