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Coalition for Peace with Justice
Letter to WUNC TV [to CPWJ Letters page] [ to CPWJ home page] April 2, 2003Mr. Michael Arnold Program Director, WUNC-FM Greetings, Michael, The last time we spoke, I raised shortcomings of NPR coverage of the disastrous attack on Iraq, particularly in shaping of public attitudes during the period preceding the decision to attack. I'm writing to share with you a specific account of unwillingness on the part of NPR's foreign desk to examine clear evidence of a US missile strike on a civilian marketplace in Baghdad, preferring instead to repeat the claims by US military that the Iraqis attacked themselves. I just spoke with Alex Chadwick to ask how the official denials of responsibility for the killing of scores of civilians in a marketplace could still be broadcast when the serial number from the missile was found, then published in the UK, and that publication was shared with NPR by its listeners. See details below. Chadwick said he had forwarded the info he received to editors at NPR, but the foreign desk made their own decision on it. To return to our earlier discussion, isn't it reasonable to expect that since the performance of NPR is affected by its proximity to power, local stations need to offer independent programs to the mix, so listeners are not led astray at important times? There is a theme that the hawks in Washington are pushing, that everything suffered by the Iraqi people is the fault of their own government. This attitude ignores the realities that have led to very strong resistance to the US assault and to the many deaths now taking place. When false interpretations are left unchallenged, the public is ill-equipped to resist the next invasion in the series that this administration is contemplating. Suppressing responsibility for civilian deaths makes war easier to promote. Foreign desk indifference to digging out an honest story defeats the efforts of public radio listeners to defend their own interests while hundreds of billions of our dollars go down the drain. Here are two notes that Chadwick forwarded to the NPR foreign desk, including the column by Robert Fisk. Jerry Markatos |
