Quote: klinton said: I really think this is a huge backfire on the 'popular opinion'front. The overall feel from the press coverage is one of disapointment at the whole event.
You mean, disappointment that Saddam was killed?
I'm not sure I see your point. Can you clarify?
If you mean the dramatic episodic daily trickle of new twists in Saddam's capture and trial, then yeah, I agree. To some degree it was celebrity gossip disguised as news.
Like covering the daily twists in the O.J. Simpson trial, or Tonya Harding, or Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill, or Gary Condit/Sandra Levy (interrupted by 9/11, a true event replacing filler news), Mark Foley, Britney Spears and her ex-husband, etc. It's all lurid fluff, disguised as news.
These episodic soap-operas take on the appearance of news but give no real information.
And the news networks love them, because they're stories that are easy to follow, and people come back and watch them every night.
My disappointment with Saddam's trial is that there was very little overview of the full magnitude of his reign of terror. It was more Saddam refusing to recognize the court's authority, or witnesses getting in Saddam's face and calling him a murderer.
After Saddam's execution was announced last night, I saw an Iraqi interviewed, who said Saddam had murdered twenty-seven members of his family.
Twenty seven !
In one family.
In his 24 year reign, Saddam is estimated to have killed between 750,000 and 1 million people, being unearthed in mass graves all over Iraq.
I only see the magnitude of his slaughter being discussed in broadcast news now that his trial is over.
I wonder if news in Europe, South America and elsewhere is as focused on personalities in the news as it is in the U.S., in a play for ratings, rather than on the more significant facts of events reported.
Likewise, I blame the media to a large extent for the cultural rift in the U.S., because a broadcast clash between polar extremes of conservative/liberal, or black/white, etc., makes for a good onscreen catfight.
Which brings in viewers while creating a sense of greater division than likely exists among more typical conservatives/liberals, blacks/whites, etc., than are shown for the sake of info-tainment and ratings.
But the perception that the nation is more divided than it truly is, consistently broadcast, gradually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and makes it truly become that way.
