Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 112

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

Continuing our weekly feature with perhaps one of her greatest love songs? Certainly, at that moment, and perhaps others, her immortal beloved.  Note:  New, expanded, edition of our Beethoven book tied to our film.

Eleven Years Ago: Some Hit Media Hype on Iraq Invasion

On this weekend in 2003, we were just a few days into the invasion of Iraq, which was being roundly hailed and glorified by TV and the press, with questioning voices shut out.  Actually,  the NYT ran a couple of strong pieces that noted this.  Book critic Michiko Kakutani did double duty, with a column noting the cheerleading and all the movie comparisons:  "There is an element of this inability on the part of eyewitnesses to the war, but there is also an element of willful sensationalism and sentimentality on the part of producers who want to keep viewers from switching channels."

And Lucian Truscott IV, the former West Point man, observed:

The Pentagon may have been dragged kicking and screaming into its current embrace of the news media. But it is making the most of it. Planners must have contemplated advances in media technology and decided that if they can't control the press, they may as well use it.

And make no mistake: the news media are being used -- in more ways than they realize. When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld first announced that reporters would be welcome in the trenches, members of the media were suspicious. After all, this was the same Pentagon that kept journalists far from the front lines during the Persian Gulf war.

Yet from reporters inhaling the exhaust of infantry units to bleary-eyed New York anchors spellbound by squads of generals analyzing the data stream, the news media have marched practically in lock step with the military.

Not since the halcyon days of Ronald Reagan has an administration been so adept at managing information and manipulating images. In Iraq, the Bush administration has beaten the press at its own game. It has turned the media into a weapon of war, using the information it provides to harass and intimidate the Iraqi military leadership.

Greg Mitchell's book "So Wrong For So Long," on the media and the Iraq war, was published today in an updated edition and for the first time as an e-book, with preface by Bruce Springsteen.   

Beethoven at Tedx

Yes, it happened when Kerry Candaele, director of the film I co-produced, Following the Ninth, spoke at a Tedx at Purdue U earlier this month.  Here's the proof, below.  In other news:  He'll be speaking at major screening in Wichita on Wednesday, and right now we are both set for a major CBS Morning Show segment in a couple of weeks.  Among the many other screenings are two more that I'll be speaking at:  in Woodstock, N.Y. on April 5 and in Cooperstown, N.Y. on May 18.   Follow this link to catch up with the trailer, the Bill Moyers segment and the NPR "All Things Considered" piece--and our tie-in book.

Fess Up!

Amazing news: there finally seems to be another full  Professor Longhair film in the works--perhaps helped by all the props he got in "Treme."  For now, it doesn't get any better than to be in New Orleans with Allen Toussaint talkin' and playin' Prof Longhair.

Why Conservatives Should Oppose the Death Penalty

I've been posting items and videos about the new CNN series on the death penalty (and prisoners freed from death row), which airs on Sunday nights--two episodes have appeared, with six to come.  Now Alex Gibney, a producer (with Robert Redford) and Susan Sarandon (the narrator) have penned a piece for Salon on why those on the right should...do the right thing...and oppose capital punishment.   (Also see my recent e-book on the death penalty in the USA.)   An excerpt from the Gibney-Sartandon essay:

For the last two decades, each of us has examined the criminal justice system in our own work. And so with the political debate over capital punishment once again intensifying, we came together this past year to explore the human dramas inside this institution – from cases resulting in exonerations to those still in limbo to those involving indisputable guilt. In the process, we discovered disturbing patterns that reveal systemic problems....

Whether Democratic or Republican, legislators can no longer ignore the fatal flaw in the justice system.  At a minimum, we must insist that they find a way to hold prosecutors accountable for misconduct that can – if intentional — amount to premeditated murder. More broadly, we should insist that lawmakers face the most harrowing question from all of our death row stories: if the institution of capital punishment – with consequences so final and irreversible — can never be a perfect instrument of criminal justice, is the institution itself a criminal injustice?

Iraq War? What Iraq War?

As you may have noticed--or rather, not noticed--few in the media paid any attention to this week's 11th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which had, oh, a few consequences.   This seemed especially odd, and revealing, since U.S. vets are still dying from their wounds and brain injuries and committing suicide in still growing numbers--not to mention the continuing toll in Iraq (more bombings killing dozens seemingly to mark the anniversary).  Last year on the 10th anniversary there was a good deal of coverage, which I guess was to be expected for a year than end in zero.  But still:  almost no coverage or probing or re-capping this year at all?  Perhaps the media is rightly still humbled by their performance in the run-up to the war, which helped make it possible...inevitable.

Well, I've posted about 15 items and pieces here in the past week (see below) and a few others at The Nation.  And it's never too late to catch up with how the war happened and proceeded, and the media failtures, via my book, So Wrong for So Long .

11 Years Ago: When MTV Banned the B-52s

I'd forgotten about this but surely we must mark this date, 11 years ago, when MTV, less than a week into the U.S.-Brit invasion of Iraq, banned the playing of any music videos with "war" lyrics or images--and the entire catalog of the B-52s.  Neil Strauss reported at the time for the NYT:  "Though images of war are dominating television screens, one channel is not having it. The day after the war in Iraq started, a memo was distributed through the offices of MTV Europe by its broadcast standards department. In the memo, Mark Sunderland, one of the department's managers, recommends that music videos depicting ''war, soldiers, war planes, bombs, missiles, riots and social unrest, executions'' and ''other obviously sensitive material' not be shown on MTV in Britain and elsewhere in Europe until further notice.

The memo cites explicit examples. These include videos that relate directly to the war in Iraq, like ''Boom!'' by System of a Down; videos with bombs exploding, like Billy Idol's ''Hot in the City''; videos with war scenes, like Radiohead's ''Lucky''; and even Aerosmith's ''Don't Want to Miss a Thing,'' which has scenes from the action movie ''Armageddon.''

Taking further cautionary measures, the memo goes on to advise against showing videos in which lyrics, song titles or even band names allude to war, bombs or other ''sensitive words.'' It mentions the songs ''B.O.B (Bombs Over Baghdad)'' by Outkast; ''You, Me and World War Three'' by Gavin Friday; and anything by the B-52's.

''I guess MTV doesn't have a research department, because from Day 1 we've said in interviews that our name is a slang term for the bouffant hairdo Kate and Cindy used to wear -- nothing to do with bombers, '' said Fred Schneider of the B-52's, referring to fellow band members. Oddly, the memo also mentions ''Invasion'' by Radiohead, although a spokesman for the band said he was unaware of any song by the group with that title.

Greg Mitchell's book "So Wrong For So Long," on the media and the Iraq war, was published today in an updated edition and for the first time as an e-book, with preface by Bruce Springsteen.   

The Soldier Who Killed Herself After Refusing to Take Part in Torture

The blood on the hands of Bush, Cheney and so many others (including certain members of the media) in the Iraq war, which began 11 years ago this week,  comes not just from soldiers and civilians killed in action but the many, many soldier suicides, in the war zone and back at home.  Recent reports find high levels remain, even with no U.S. fighting in Iraq and declining combat in Afghanistan.   For years I wrote about the suicides almost every week (when no one else was doing this).

But one of the most most wrenching stories concerned Spc. Alyssa Peterson, 27.  She was one of the first female soldiers to die in that conflict.  It was an unusually tough loss for U.S. forces there, as she was one of the few Arabic-speaking interrogators. She had been killed by a bullet from a rifle.  A daily occurrence for U.S. soldiers in Iraq then, but in this case the rifle was her own.

She had committed suicide after refusing to take part in torture. Naturally, a cover-up followed.

I was the first national reporter to write about her case, after a local radio newsman uncovered it.  I've updated it since and wherever I write about it the articles draw wide readership and comments.   Here's my most recent piece, from The Nation four years ago.  She was also featured in my new e-book on the war, So Wrong for So Long.

For First Full Day of Spring

Here is the great Martha Argerich featured in  Beethoven's "Spring" sonata's first movement and all of the ethereal 2nd.  Almost his most beautiful piece.

Thursday Night Music Pick

Fine writer and guitarist Bruce Cockburn, from one of the best albums of the 1990s, Charity of  Night, here's "Strange Waters."  Everything is bullshit/ except the open hand.