Wednesday TOONs - All That Baggage

[Kid Berwyn]

7. One Network above all others

The Iraq War, the Murdoch War and media culpability

By John Menadue
Support Pearls and Irritations, Mar 10, 2021

News Corp media has been most at fault. No wonder Robert Manne called it the ‘Murdoch War’.

There is probably no more obvious example of how News Corp works than the way it supported George Bush’s invasion of Iraq, assisted by Australia. The war was illegal, unprovoked and unnecessary. Before the invasion, during it and in the years since, neither News Corp nor any other mainstream media in Australia has ever confessed to error, its unprofessionalism.

Media organisations such as the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Economist have all apologised for their mistaken assessments and their encouragement of the invasion of Iraq, and its terrible consequences, particularly for the Iraqi people, the region and even the lives of the invaders. We are less safe in Australia because our troops are still over there.

Of the 175 Murdoch papers worldwide all but one, the Hobart Mercury, supported the war. But the Mercury was soon brought into line. Murdoch editors and opinion writers are great mind readers

Just consider what News Corp told us about the Iraq war – and it is best to start at the top with Rupert Murdoch. He said in 2003:

“We can’t back down now where you hand over the whole of the Middle East to Saddam. … I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly. … The greatest thing to come of this to the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $US20 a barrel for oil.’ (Bulletin, 12 February 2003).

He added a few weeks later:

‘We worry about what people think about us too much in this country, [the US]. We have an inferiority complex it seems. I think what’s important is that the world respects us … The US troops would soon be welcomed as liberators.’ (Associated Press, 3 April 2003)

When things fell into chaos, Murdoch said:

‘Australia had no choice but to see the job through. The situation in Iraq has been misrepresented. … There’s tremendous progress in Iraq. All the kids are back at school, 10% more than when Saddam Hussein was there. There’s 100% more fresh water. … Most of Iraq is doing extremely well.’ (ABC radio Sydney, 7 April 2004)

In an editorial The Australian mocked the critics of the war whom it described as ‘the coalition of the whining’. It added:

“Never underestimate the power of ideology and myth – in this case anti-Americanism – to trump reality.”

Heaping scorn on its critics, such as the Labor Party, the foreign editor of The Australian, Greg Sheridan said that ‘George W Bush was really a modern Winston Churchill’ (The Australian, 15 August 2002).

Continues…

https://johnmenadue.com/the-iraq-war-the-murdoch-war-and-media-culpability/