Independent
Media Center
http://www.chicago.indymedia.org:8081
CNN
USING 1991 FOOTAGE
of celebrating Palestinians to manipulate you
Summary
one set of images called my attention: the Palestinians celebrating the
bombing, out on the streets, eating some cake and making funny faces for the
camera. Well, THOSE IMAGES WERE SHOT BACK IN 1991!!! Those are images of
Palestinians celebrating the invasion of Kuwait!
CNN
USING 1991 FOOTAGE of celebrating Palestinians to manipulate you (english) by
Marcio
I'd like to add some ideas from here, down south.
There's an important point in the power of press, specifically the power of CNN.
All around the world we are subjected to 3 or 4 huge news distributors, and one
of them - as you well know - is CNN. Very well, I guess all of you have been
seeing (just as I've been) images from this company. In particular, one set of
images called my attention: the Palestinians celebrating the bombing, out on
the streets, eating some cake and making funny faces for the camera.
Well, THOSE IMAGES WERE SHOT BACK IN 1991!!! Those are images of Palestinians
celebrating the invasion of Kuwait! It's simply unacceptable that a super-power
of communications as CNN uses images , which do not correspond to the reality
in talking about so serious an issue.
A teacher of mine, here in Brazil, has videotapes recorded in 1991, with
the very same images; he's been sending emails to CNN, Globo (the major TV
network in Brazil) and newspapers, denouncing what I myself classify as a crime
against the public opinion. If anyone of you has access to this kind of files,
search for it. In the meanwhile, I'll try to 'put my hands' on a copy of this
tape.
But now, think for a moment about the impact of such images. Your people is
hurt, emotionally fragile, and this kind broadcast have very high possibility
of causing waves of anger and rage against Palestinians.
It's simply irresponsible to show images such as those. Finally, I'd like to
say that we all regret and condemn all that has happened in the last days; but
Nikos has a point here. I really don't want to be misunderstood here, but the
truth is that US government had shown no respect for other countries in the
last decades. In the 60s and
70s they had helped lots of military coups throughout the world (including
Brazil in 64). Later, with Reagan and Bush Father, the Washington Consensus
have been demolishing the bases of our economies, making us more and more
dependant (and, many of us, preoccupied with this situation).
Your current president quickly made things worse: Kioto Protocol, Star Wars,
Colombia Plan, the exchange of rain forest for pieces of external debt, the
abandonment of the position of third party in negotiations between IRA and
England, and between Palestinians and Israel. All those mistakes in US external
politics made your country more hatred than before, and, of course, more
vulnerable.