The "truth"

This weeks OTM included a segment titled "Ain't That Good News". This segment focused on a recent article found in the Washington Post. The Post's article reported that the Pentagon is sending a group of Iraqi Americans to US military bases around the country to "spread the good news." In that same article it is also reported that the US Agency for International Development is ending the distribution of casualty reports here in the United States.

The question that remains is what exactly is the "good news" that is being spread by having Iraqi-Americans visit military bases? At first OTM makes it seem that the so called good news is that despite the "intensifying wave of violence there"(in Iraq) the situation is safe enough to have an election. However, Bill Arkin, a military analyst for NBC who was this weeks guest, is calling this speaking tour a kind of "government sponsored propaganda." he goes on to say that the "Bush administration is manipulating American public opinion about what is the true state of our military in Iraq." In other words the American public is being lied to and kept in the dark about the situation in Iraq. Going along with this is the second piece of the Post's article which states that casualty reports are no longer being distributed in the US. Supposedly the Pentagon decided that the reports should no longer circulate for national security reasons. In making these repotrs restricted the government is keeping information that the American public has a right to know, information that mwy be of interest to the public and may help us to understand the situation in Iraq. Further, this information may play a crucial role in who we decide to vote for in the upcoming election. It sounds to me like this Iraq situation is sounding more and more like Vietnam.

Finally, this segment of OTM brings up the Strategic Communication Policy Coordination Committee who is in charge of coordinating the PR efforts of all the governments departments in all regions of the world. More importantly this Committee is trying to monitor and influence the Islamic press. They are partly doing this by "covert action by the CIA to either buy or plant stories in the Arab press." Thinking back to "Redlines and Deadlines" it seems unfortunate that the Arab press now not only has to deal with the demands and regulation sof their own governments but also those of our government.

In between running miles and listening to Zebrahead at the gym last night my attention was caught by CNN Headline News. The headline was "Stand-Ins".

In October 2002 MTV aquired the College Television Network (CTN) which provided ready made programming for college television stations free of charge. In January 2004 they relaunched the network with a different name and image. It is now known as MTVU. MTVU is to be a "whole new type of media company traversing beyond just being a television entity". Its approach is to reach students everywhere they hang out on-air, online, and on-campus. "mtvU won't just be TV - we're going to be a resource for students' lives, everywhere they are, when they're in their dorm rooms, surfing the net, or walking across campus." said Van Toffler, President of MTV, MTV2 & mtvU.

Does anybody else find this scary? There will be nowehere for students to turn, no escape from MTV! We all know that the media is prevalent in our lives and try as we may we cannot escape it ...but this is getting ridiculous!

But back to the headline. It was announcing the upcoming series premiere of an MYVU show called "Stand-Ins" in which college students will be surprised by their favortie icons who will "stand- in" as college professors. Some of the stand-ins set for the semester include Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt teaching literature and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson informing about racism and the law. While I wouldn't mind having some of these "icons" come into my classrooms to teach, others just seem innapropriate. These include P. Diddy and Marylin Manson. I feel that it would be a waste of my money and time.