The Danger of a Sanitized Press & Sanitized Education

Citizens of Iran know about American foreign policy because they experienced it first hand.   When the leader of the country wanted to nationalize the oil fields and share the wealth with the Iranian people, the United States did not want that.   The CIA orchestrated a coup, overthrew the government, installed a ruthless dictator whose secret police tortured, imprisoned or killed political opponents.   How would you feel about a country that did that to your country?

Is that in your child's American history textbook?

In more recent American history, America uses drones to kill people in countries with which we are not at war.   People in other countries know that because the press there reports it.   Here?

Every U.S. Citizen should read an excellent piece in the Guardian.

US media yet again conceals newsworthy government secrets.

I gave my students an article from the New Republic by Spencer Ackerman and John B. Judis that reviews how the American people were lied to about the threat posed by Iraq.   It's another article that's a worthwhile read for any citizen.   From a let's be honest with the American people before deciding to go to war, a poignant paragraph is this:

Yet there was no consensus within the American intelligence community that Saddam   represented such a grave and imminent threat. Rather, interviews with current and former intelligence officials and other experts reveal that the Bush administration culled from U.S. intelligence those assessments that supported its position and omitted those that did not. The administration ignored, and even suppressed, disagreement within the intelligence agencies and pressured the CIA to reaffirm its preferred version of the Iraqi threat. Similarly, it stonewalled, and sought to discredit, international weapons inspectors when their findings threatened to undermine the case for war.

Going to war is serious.  It costs billions of dollars, thousands of lives.   I asked my students to read the article and to answer a couple questions.   What did they learn from it?   How had the war been discussed in their high school civics, social studies, government classes?  Here are few comments:

Student:  In my high school, the decision to invade Iraq was not a topic that was discussed very thoroughly. It was sort of brushed over, and not much else was said about it. I learned more from this article about the decision than I ever did in high school.

Student:  The decision to invade Iraq wasn’t discussed much in my high school. If it ever came up, it usually was the students doing most of the talking. Teachers almost always remained quiet.

Student:  In my high school it was barely discussed to be honest. Our teachers told us that we went to war because of 9/11 and to find WMD’s and Saddam Hussein but never really going into detail. They taught us that Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan had a bunch of terrorist organizations and that we had to eradicate them from those countries. Once it was revealed that no one could find any WMD’s I don’t remember discussing it at all. I don’t know whether it was to protect us or just keep us from asking too many questions, but the War in Iraq wasn’t really talked about unless someone from my town died as a result, and that’s pretty sad if you ask me.

Student:  In my high school, my class and I honestly never talked about the decision to invade Iraq.  

Student:  The decision to invade Iraq was not discussed at all in any of my high school classes.

Student:  To be honest, I do not recall any discussion of the Iraq war in my classes. If it was discussed, there were no questions raised and teachers did not show opposition. This is the first time I have questioned why it was started.

 

Teaching a sanitized version of American history/foreign policy does not serve our democracy.   Neither does sanitized reporting.   If you're an American citizen and wish to be informed about what your country is doing, it's probably wise to check the Guardian, Al Jazeera and the BBC.   

Had we had reporters instead of cheerleaders, there wouldn't have been a war in Iraq.   And to have a thoughtful, meaningful discussion about utilizing drones to kill enemies that only the government knows, it's essential to have reporting, not cheerleading.

When journalism fails, bad things happen.

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