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Fw: CNN USING 1991 FOOTAGE of celebrating Palestinians to manipulate you



 

Dear all,
I hope I didn't bother you too much with all the articles I've sent you last week. I've done this because true activists for peace (and anti-imperialists) in the Western Countries need all the "fair information" they can get in order not to become too dazed and confused by the war talk of Western leaders and their media. But I feel I must (yet again) draw your attention to a very interesting mail I received from a Brazilian student. This mail has been the subject of an article in the newspaper " Metro" in Belgium, and shows yet again the morbidity of CNN. But aren't we used to media-manipulation, for instance, during the Gulf-war?
Greetings.
Dirk. 
 
THE ARTICLE
By Marcio (posted by kitty) 5:34am Thu Sep 13 '01
CNN USING 1991 FOOTAGE of celebrating Palestinians to manipulate you
I'd like to add some ideas from here, down south.
There's an important point in the power of press, specifically the power of
CNN.
All around the world we are subjected to 3 or 4 huge news distributors,
and one of them - as you well know - is CNN. Very well, I guess all of you
have been seeing (just as I've been) images from this company. In particular,
one set of images called my attention: the Palestinians celebrating the
bombing,  out on the streets, eating some cake and making funny faces for the camera.
Well, THOSE IMAGES WERE SHOT BACK IN 1991!!! Those are images of
Palestinians celebrating the invasion of Kuwait! It's simply unacceptable
that a super-power of cumminications as CNN uses images which do not
correspond to the reality in talking about so serious an
issue.
A teacher of mine, here in Brazil, has videotapes recorded in 1991, with
the very same images; he's been sending emails to CNN, Globo (the major TV
network in Brazil) and newspapers, denouncing what I myself classify as a crime against the public opinion. If anyone of you has access to this kind of files, serch for it. In the meanwhile, I'll try to 'put my hands' on a copy of this tape.
But now, think for a moment about the impact of such images. Your people
is hurt, emotionally fragile, and this kind broadcast have very high possibility of causing waves of anger and rage against Palestinians.
It's simply irresponsible to show images such as those.
Finally, I'd like to say that we all regret and condemn all that has happened in the last days; but Nikos has a point here. I really don't want to be misunderstood here, but the truth is that US government had shown no respect for other countries in the last decades. In the 60s and 70s they had halped lots of military coups throughout the world (including Brazil in 64). Later, with Reagan and Bush Father, the Washington Consensus have been demolishing the bases of our economies, making us more and more dependant (and, many of us, prehocupied with this situation).
Your current president quickly made things worse: Kioto Protocol, Star Wars, Colombia Plan, the exchange of rain forest for pieces of external debt, the abandonment of the position of third party in negotiations between IRA and England, and between Palestinians and Israel. All those mistakes in US external politics made your country more hatred than before, and, of course, more vulnerable. 
Listen, I'm NOT justifying the terrorist actions that took place in your country; but it seems to me that, if your leaders had come along another path of thoughts and actions, you wouldn't be suffering what you are now.
Best regards, and the hope that everything is resolved for the best of all of us
Márcio A. V. Carvalho
State University of Campinas - Brazil

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