Stories from 2002-01-07

"When the Pentagon can suppress satellite images of the war, CNN staffers can be warned not to discuss Afghan war casualties, and supposedly unbiased news broadcasters, such as CBS's Dan Rather, say things like 'Wherever [Bush] wants me to line up, just tell me where,' it seems clear that we are being fed shadows and not the truth." [more]

"Pentagon officials sought today to deflate any lingering optimism that Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar might be captured soon and said they would stop speculating about their whereabouts." [more]

"So should the media highlight, not play down, this government's attack on civil liberties—the mass detentions, secret evidence, increased surveillance, suspension of attorney-client privilege, the encouragements to spy, the warnings not to disagree, the censored images, sequestered public papers, unexpected visits from the Secret Service and so on. And so should the media not parrot what the Pentagon says about the current war, because such prettified accounts make us complacent and preserve us in our fatal ignorance of what people really think of us—and why—beyond our borders" [more]