Robert Fisk on Iraq, Palestine and the Failure
of the U.S. Corporate Media to Challenge Authority

From Democracy Now:

AMY GOODMAN: Robert Fisk is our guest, war correspondent for more than 30 years. Your response, once again, to the issue of the planting of stories?

ROBERT FISK: Well, I'm surprised the military have to plant stories, because I find that an awful lot of my colleagues are quite happy to go along with stories planted or otherwise. You’ve only got to see the number of times on the front page of the New York Times or the L.A. Times or the Washington Post when the phrase “American officials say” appears, particularly the L.A. Times. I can give an example of that, in which a whole story is repeatedly sourced, after 2003, when we know there weren’t any weapons of mass destruction, when we know the press was misled totally in the United States and went along with the war party.

Still we see everything being sourced and re-sourced back to American officials, as if the U.S. administration is the center of world truth. I’ll give you an example. I was actually doing the book tour in Los Angeles, picked up my morning L.A. Times. Here’s a story about Zarqawi, who may or may not exist, of course. “U.S. authorities say,” “U.S. officials said,” “Said one Justice Department counterterrorism official,” “U.S. authorities say,” “officials said,” “U.S. officials said.” It turns to page B-10. It gets worse and worse. Look. “Several U.S. officials said,” “those officials said,” “U.S. officials confirmed” -- stop me when you want -- “American officials complained,” “U.S. officials stressed,” “U.S. authorities believe,” “Said one U.S. senior intelligence official,” “U.S. officials said,” “Jordanian officials said” -- Amy, see, there’s a slight difference here -- “Several U.S. officials said,” “U.S. officials said,” “U.S. officials say,” “say U.S. officials,” “U.S. officials said,” “The American officials said,” “One U.S. counterterrorism official said.” Welcome to American journalism today in Iraq. This is what’s wrong.

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And the key to that spiel is Fisk's opening observation: "...a whole story is repeatedly sourced, after 2003, when we know there weren’t any weapons of mass destruction, when we know the press was misled totally in the United States..." In other words, the press should know better. They should know better because it is now completely obvious that the White House and Pentagon cannot be trusted. Nonetheless, the US government continues to be the major source for most mainstream news reports on the Middle East. All of this leads to an achingly obvious conclusion. Most Americans have absolutely no idea what's actually happening over there. What we think we know is the US government's preferred narrative. And by "narrative," I mean "story." All that most Americans know about what's happening in Iraq and the occupied territories in Palestine is just a story. Yeah, we know it's bad; that's something that evades the government's ability to whitewash. But we have no idea how bad it really is. And let me tell you, it's much worse than you might possibly imagine.

Go check out the interview. Robert Fisk, a longtime British correspondent in the Middle East, is probably the best English speaking reporter on the beat. He is most definitely not "embedded" and practices journalism the old fashioned way: he hits the streets, badgers people in a position to know, digs up dirt. God, I love him. If he worked for an American paper, he'd have been sacked long ago. Fortunately for us, he works for a real paper, the Independent. Anyway, his reporting and commentary are always enlightening. Good stuff.

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