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Politics, activism and timely social issues
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Normalizing the Unthinkable
Normalizing the Unthinkable: John Pilger, Robert Fisk, Charlie Glass, and Seymour Hersh on the failure of the world's pressJohn Pilger addressed the audience next by challenging the very idea that America and its allies are at war. "We are not at war. Instead, American and British troops are fighting insurrections in countries where our invasions have caused mayhem and grief...but you wouldn't know it. Where are the pictures of these atrocities?"
Pilger referred to the first wars he covered, Vietnam and Cambodia, and compared the role of journalists then to today. "The invasion of Vietnam was deliberate and calculated--as were policies and strategies that bordered on genocide and were designed to force millions of people to abandon their homes. Experimental weapons were used against civilians. All of this was rarely news. The unspoken task of the reporter in Vietnam, as it was in Korea, was to normalize the unthinkable. And that has not changed."
Pilger went on to explain his reaction to current reporting of events in Iraq. "The other day, on the third anniversary of the invasion, a BBC newsreader described the invasion as a 'miscalculation.' Not illegal. Not unprovoked. Not based on lies. But a miscalculation. Thus, the unthinkable is normalized. By concentrating on military pronouncements. By making it seem like it is a respectable war, you normalize what is the unthinkable. And the unthinkable is a war against civilians. It's a war that has claimed tens of thousands of people. There are estimates that put it well over 100,000. When journalists report it as a respectable geopolitical act and promote the idea that it was to bring democracy to this country, then they're normalizing the unthinkable."
posted by Matt Borondy at 6/05/2006 12:23:00 PM
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