- The terrible earthquake/tsunami disaster, along coastlines
of the Indian Ocean, left tens of thousands dead and many times more people
homeless and weakened. Front pages news stories swept the US corporate
media -12,000 dead, 40,000, 60,000 and 100,000 made progressive day by
day headlines. Twenty-four hour TV news provided minute by minute updates
with added photos and live aerial shots of the effected regions.
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- As the days after unfolded, personal stories of survival
and loss were added to the overall coverage. Unique stories such as the
20 day old miracle baby found floating on a mattress, and the eight year
old who lost both parents and later found by her uncle, were human interest
features. Individualized reports from Americans caught in the catastrophe
made national news and numbers of Europeans, and North Americans involved
were a key part of the continuing story. US embassies set up hotlines for
relatives of possible victims to seek information. Quickly added into the
corporate media mix was coverage on how the US was responding with relief
aid and dollars. In Crawford, Texas President Bush announced that he had
formed an international coalition to respond to the massive tsunami disaster.
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- The US corporate media coverage of the Indian Ocean tsunami
disaster, for most Americans, was shocking, and emotional. Empathic Americans,
with the knowledge that a terrible natural disaster of huge significant
to hundreds of thousands people had occurred, wanted to help in any way
they could. Church groups held prayer sessions for the victims, and the
Red Cross received an upsurge of donations.
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- The US corporate media coverage of the tsunami disaster
exposes a huge hypocrisy in the US press. Left uncovered this past year
was the massive disaster that has befell Iraqi civilians. Over 100,000
civilians have died since the beginning of the US invasion and hundreds
of thousands more are homeless and weakened. In late October 2004 the British
Lancet medical journal published a scientific survey of households in Iraq
that calculated over 100,000 civilians, mostly women and children, have
died from war related causes. The study, formulated and conducted by researchers
at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University
and the College of Medicine at Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, involved
a complex process of sampling households across Iraq to compare the numbers
and causes of deaths before and after the invasion in March 2003. The mortality
rate in these families worked out to 5 per 1,000 before the invasion and
12.3 per 1,000 after the invasion. Extrapolate the latter figure to the
22 million population of Iraq, and you end up with 100,000 total civilian
deaths. The most common cause of death was aerial bombing followed by strokes
and heart attacks. Recent civilian deaths in Fallujah would undoubtedly
add significantly to the total.
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- The Iraqi word for disaster is museeba. Surly the lose
of life from war in Iraq is as significant a meseeba as the Indian Ocean
tsunami, yet where is the US corporate media coverage of thousands of dead
and homeless? Where are the live aerial TV shots of the disaster zones
and the up-close photos of the victims? Where are the survivor stories
- the miracle child who lived thought a building collapsed by US bombs
and rescued by neighbors? Where are the government official's press releases
of regret and sorrow? Where is the international coalition for relief of
civilians in Iraq and the upsurge in donations for Red Cross intervention?
Would not Americans, if they knew, be just as caring about Iraqi deaths
as they are for the victims of the tsunami?
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- The US corporate media has published Pentagon statements
on civilian deaths in Iraq as unknown and dismissed the Lancet Medical
Journal study. It seems US media concerns are for victims of natural disasters,
while the man-made disasters, such as the deliberate invasion of another
country by the US, are better left unreported.
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- Peter Phillips is a professor of Sociology at Sonoma
State University and director of Project Censored a media research organization.
-
- Peter Phillips Ph.D.
- Sociology Department/Project Censored
- Sonoma State University
- 1801 East Cotati Ave.
- Rohnert Park, CA 94928
- 707-664-2588
- http://www.projectcensored.org/
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