Category: Media Beat column

This is the time of year when media campaigns for the latest digital products are apt to go into overdrive. Schools are back in session, and the holiday sales blitz is getting underway. For the latest computerized gizmos, that means an escalating media drive — revving up news coverage, PR hype and advertisements. Often it’s…

The USA’s mass media constantly tell us how Americans see the "war on terror." But the same outlets rarely tell us much about how the rest of the world sees it. Five years after 9/11, the gap between perceptions is enormous. Countless polls confirm the overall chasm. Yet, day to day, the media messages that…

This month began with 140,000 American troops in Iraq — 13,000 more than in late July. Almost 30 months have passed since Time magazine’s mid-April 2004 cover story, “No Easy Options,” reported that “foreign policy luminaries from both parties say a precipitous U.S. withdrawal would cripple American credibility, doom reform in the Arab world and…

When Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, invited President Bush to engage in a “direct television debate” a few days ago, the White House predictably responded by calling the offer “a diversion.” But even though this debate will never happen, it’s worth contemplating. Both presidents are propaganda junkies — or, more precisely, propaganda pushers — so any…

Nearly five years into the "war on terror," it’s still at the core of American media and politics.     Yeah, I’ve seen the recent polls showing a drop in public support for President Bush’s "war on terror" claims. And I’ve read a spate of commentaries this month celebrating Bush’s current lack of political traction…