Turns Out Corporate Media Can Oppose War— When an Official Enemy Is the Aggressor

Turns Out Corporate Media Can Oppose War— When an Official Enemy Is the Aggressor

by Jeff Cohen

Having worked inside US corporate media during the beginning of the “War on Terror” and the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq, the differences in today’s war coverage are dizzying to me. 

While covering Russia’s horrific aggression in Ukraine, there is a real focus—as there always should be—on civilian victims of war. Today, the focus on that essential aspect of the Russian invasion is prominent and continuous—from civilian deaths to the trauma felt by civilians as missiles strike nearby. 

Unfortunately, there was virtually no focus on civilian death and agony when it was the US military launching the invasions. After the US invaded Iraq in 2003 on false pretenses—made possible by US mainstream media complicity that I witnessed firsthand—civilian deaths were largely ignored and undercounted through the years (FAIR.org, 6/7/13).

Shortly after the US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, leaked directives from CNN’s management to its correspondents and anchors showed that the network was intent on playing down and rationalizing the killing and maiming of Afghan civilians by the US military (FAIR.org, 11/1/01). One memo instructed CNN anchors that if they ever referenced Afghan civilian victims, they needed to quickly announce to their audience: “These US military actions are in response to a terrorist attack that killed close to 5,000 innocent people in the US.” Such language was mandatory, said the memo: “Even though it may start sounding rote, it is important that we make this point each time.”

A few weeks after 9/11, what CNN viewer had forgotten it?

Noting the cursory US television coverage of Afghan civilian casualties, a New York Times reporter (11/1/01) wrote:

"In the United States, television images of Afghan bombing victims are fleeting, cushioned between anchors or American officials explaining that such sights are only one side of the story. In the rest of the world, however, images of wounded Afghan children curled in hospital beds or women rocking in despair over a baby’s corpse, beamed via satellite by the Qatar-based network Al Jazeera, or CNN International, are more frequent and lingering."

The near-blackout on coverage of the civilian toll continued for decades. Last year, NBC anchor Lester Holt (4/30/21) did a summing-up report on Afghanistan as “America’s longest war” by offering one and only one casualty figure: “2,300 American deaths.” There was no mention of the more than 70,000 Afghan civilian deaths since 2001, and no mention of a UN study that found in the first half of 2019, due mostly to aerial bombing, the US and its allies killed more civilians than the Taliban and its allies. 

As the war on terror expanded to other countries, US corporate media remained largely uninterested in civilian victims of US warfare and drone strikes (FAIR.org, 4/22/20; The Conversation, 10/22/15). 

International law 

Invasions and military force by one country against another are clearly illegal under international law, unless conducted in true self defense (or authorized by the UN Security Council). In coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, US mainstream media have correctly, repeatedly and without equivocation invoked international law and declared the invasion illegal. As they did when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.

By contrast, when the US illegally invaded or attacked country after country in recent decades, international law has almost never been invoked by US corporate media. 

In 1989, when the US invaded Panama in perhaps the bloodiest drug bust in history, mainstream US media made a determined effort to ignore international law and its violation—as well as the slaughter of civilians (FAIR.org, 1–2/90). 

So as we rally to support Ukrainian civilians against great-power aggression from Russia, let’s do so with the understanding that that all civilian victims of wars and violent coups are worthy, whether Iraqi or Honduran or Ukrainian—and that all criminals who violate international law should be held accountable, whether they’re based in Moscow or Washington, DC. 

Jeff Cohen is the founder of FAIR and the co-founder of RootsAction.org, an online action group. A version of this article was published by Common Dreams (2/28/22). 

EXTRA! The Newsletter of FAIR—The Media Watch Group April 2022 Vol. 35, No. 3