{"id":4635,"date":"2008-09-18T08:45:01","date_gmt":"2008-09-18T07:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=4635"},"modified":"2008-09-18T08:45:01","modified_gmt":"2008-09-18T07:45:01","slug":"how-the-press-swallows-mod-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/contributions\/how-the-press-swallows-mod-propaganda\/","title":{"rendered":"How the press swallows MoD propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Media Workers Against the War<\/a>\u00a0| Last month the press reported<\/a> how friendly fire in a bungled assault killed a British soldier in Helmand last year. They all neglected to remind their readers, however, how they first reported the operation \u2014 as a noble tale of heroism and comradeship.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In January 2007 the British papers went wild over a \u201cRescue bid by heroes strapped to helicopters<\/a>\u201c. Describing how British soldiers had tied themselves to the wings of a helicopter to retrive a soldier\u2019s body, an army spokesperson told the Mail<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a leap into the unknown. It was an extraordinary tale of heroism and bravery of our airmen, soldiers and Marines who were all prepared to put themselves back into the line of fire to rescue a fallen comrade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the headline \u201cHeroes of Helmand: the first amazing pictures<\/a>\u201c, the Observer talked of \u201ca mission that carried echoes of Saving Private Ryan\u201d, \u201ca trip into the unknown, a mercy mission that has already etched itself into contemporary military folklore\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Guardian effused<\/a> that the mission evoked \u201cthe manner of the heroes of the second world war film Flight of the Phoenix\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Times had this wonderful line<\/a>: \u201cReports said that soldiers from 45 Commando Royal Marines did not want their 30-year-old section commander falling into the hands of insurgents, who they feared would mutilate his body<\/em>.\u201d Top marks there for demonising the enemy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Telegraph reported<\/a> the operation\u2019s success, followed by an army spokesperson\u2019s words that it showed \u201cthe level of camaraderie and bravery of those soldiers involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that the full MoD report on the mission is out, however, we learn that it was a tale of \u201cpoor training, confusion and friendly fire<\/a>\u201c. In the midst of the chaos, a British gunner had opened fire and shot another soldier dead. \u201cA devastating board of inquiry report released by the Ministry of Defence exposed a catalogue of errors,\u201d said the Guardian.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course most papers buried this news<\/a>, and the Sun managed to tell it as a story of \u201cMoD betrayal<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So \u2014 when will the British media learn not to take MoD press releases at face value?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media Workers Against the War\u00a0| Last month the press reported how friendly fire in a bungled assault killed a British soldier in Helmand last year. They all neglected to remind their readers, however, how they first reported the operation \u2014 as a noble tale of heroism and comradeship. \u00a0 In January 2007 the British papers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1615],"tags":[55],"class_list":{"0":"post-4635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-contributions","7":"category-uk-news","8":"tag-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}