NBC: WAR IS GOOD-Empathy For Civilians Does Not Fit Into Narrative Of Shock & Awe (John Hockenberry)

[kpete]

Inside NBC News -- it's much worse than you think
by devtob
Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 03:35:25 PM PST

............... NBC is owned by General Electric -- one of the most openly Republican major corporations (remember Jack Welch's interference in the newsroom on behalf of Bush on Election Day 2000) -- and GE has definitely affected what stories were broadcast by NBC's signature hour-long news show, "Dateline."

That's what former "Dateline" correspondent John Hockenberry charges in a remarkable essay in MIT's Technology Review (Hockenberry is now a research fellow at MIT's Media Lab.)

.........................

January/February 2008
"You Don't Understand Our Audience"
What I learned about network television at Dateline NBC.
By John Hockenberry

.........................

(During the "shock and awe" bombardment of Baghdad)

.............................

Our story arranged pictures of people coping with the bombing into a slide show, accompanied by the voice of Melinda Liu, a Newsweek reporter describing, over the phone, the harrowing experience of remaining in Baghdad. The outcome of the invasion was still in doubt. There was fear in the reporter's voice and on the faces of the people in the pictures. The four-minute piece was meant to be the kind of package that would run at the end of an hour of war coverage. Such montages were often used as "enders," to break up the segments of anchors talking live to field reporters at the White House or the Pentagon, or retired generals who were paid to stand on in-studio maps and provide analysis of what was happening.

snip

At the conclusion of the screening, there were a few suggestions for tightening here and clarification there. Finally, an NBC/GE executive responsible for "standards" shook his head and wondered about the tone in the reporter's voice. "Doesn't it seem like she has a point of view here?" he asked.

There was silence in the screening room. It made me want to twitch, until I spoke up. I was on to something but uncertain I wasn't about to be handed my own head. "Point of view? What exactly do you mean by point of view?" I asked. "That war is bad? Is that the point of view that you are detecting here?"

The story never aired.

snip

Perhaps it was never aired because it contradicted the story NBC was telling. At NBC that night, war was, in fact, not bad. My remark actually seemed to have made the point for the "standards" person. Empathy for the civilians did not fit into the narrative of shock and awe.

much much more at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=19845
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/1/154356/3631/350/428842


Keep in mind that John Hockenberry is a Peabody award winner (multiple times, I believe) who NBC News promoted as its weekend anchor, so they cannot discount him as some sort of raving lunatic.

[jeff30997]

1. General Electric = Boycott for me!

:thumbsdown:

[Tom Joad]

2. Everyone should see (and read) War Made Easy, by Norman Solomon

in it he shows examples of nearly all the major media and how they support any war waged by the US. If the talk about battle scenes, they will talk in awe of US technology. Not about blood spilled on the ground. It's not new either. Cronkite was doin' this kind of shit too.

[Postman]

3. Why they hated Al Jazeera.....

Western media would show the missiles taking off,

Al Jazeera would show where they were landing and the aftermath..

[OneBlueSky]

4. isn't GE one of the largest "defense" contractors employed by the U.S. military? . . . n/t

.