Friday, October 3, 2003

Case study: Double Standards


politics > pot > kettle > black
From the US State Department's "background notes" [scroll down to "Media" section] on Greece:
"The Greek media constitute a very influential institution--usually aggressive, sensationalist, and frequently irresponsible with regard to content. Objectivity as known to the U.S. media on the whole does not exist in the Greek media. Most of the media are owned by businessmen with extensive commercial interests in other sectors of the economy. They use their newspapers, magazines, and radio and TV channels to promote their commercial enterprises as well as to seek political influence. "
A sublime example of selective blindness, this (100% accurate BTW) portrayal of the Greek media landscape shows how difficult it must be for the thoroughly indoctrinated to come to terms with reality.
This USSD note (again, absolutely accurate as far as the description of Greek media ownership is concerned) should be read in the context of a major new study [pdf document] in the US, released in Washington on Thursday, that shows that :
"The more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and its aftermath", with a high correlation, it seems, between cluelessness and watching Fox News.

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