media lies exposed

[xmasdale]

Media Workers Against the3 War have sent us this:

From toppling Saddam to PR for Prince Harry

It happened 5 years ago this week - the toppling of the statue of Saddam in Baghdad on April 10, 2003.

This was an iconic image. Researchers at Cardiff University have shown it was the single most memorable image of the invasion for audiences in Britain before Abu Ghraib:
http://tinyurl.com/52r4o2

On BBC1 that day the event was described as "momentous", "breathtaking", "utterly overwhelming". On ITV News it was "astounding", "extraordinary". Channel 4 News called it "ecstatic". Sky News said it was both "amazing" and "fantastic":
http://tinyurl.com/6rxmre

Yet just two days after it happened, Robert Fisk called it "the most staged photo-opportunity since Iwo Jima".
http://tinyurl.com/6j22u5

Reuters photos show the square was empty save for the US Marines, the press, and a handful of Iraqis:
http://tinyurl.com/9aqy

Video of the statue being destroyed was broadcast around the world as proof of massive support for the invasion. Yet this YouTube video clip shows the reality:
http://tinyurl.com/6bz2ed

Five years on, we have to say: the media have not changed in the way they lap up propaganda from the military and the government.

The collusion of senior media editors in the blackout on Prince Harry in Helmand last month gave the military a propaganda coup on the scale of Firdos Square:
http://tinyurl.com/6kcs7n