Media stories of the Week: ISIS revealed by Middle East expert
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Every so often, the mainstream news media do their job well, and little nuggets of insights are revealed…
An interview on Radio NZ on 27 November with Damascus-based Syrian historian, political analyst, and journalist, Sami Moubayed gives valuable information on the origins and rise of ISIS.
Rather unsurprisingly, the genesis of ISIS lay with the US invasion of Iraq in 2003;
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This is the background story that is too complex for our nightly TV “News” broadcasts and only a dedicated current affairs broadcaster can allocate the necessary time to analyse the issue.
In fact, the TV News broadcasts, being constrained by micro-brief sound bites and superficial, five-minute formats achieve nothing except reinforce myths, confusion, fear, and the official government party line of “evil Islamic fanatics”.
Once upon a time, TVNZ and TV3 used to air documentary specials such as Bryan Bruce’s Inside Child Poverty (2011) or John Pilger’s The New Rulers of the World (early 2000s?). Now, we get a nightly diet of brutal crime “dramas”; inane US sitcoms; and “reality television” (The Block, X Factor, Highway Cops, Masterchef, The GC, et al) which actually are as far removed from our real world as is Disneyland.
The sugary diet we consume in the West is not confined to beverages and processed foods – it is in our nightly TV viewing. The “empty calories” of junk TV is as unhealthy for our minds, as soft drinks and many breakfast “cereals” is for our bodies.
Lecture over.
Now listen to Kathryn Ryan talk with Sami Moubayed.
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References
Radio NZ: Under the Black Flag – What is daily life like under ISIS?
TV3/Bryan Bruce: Inside Poverty Poverty
John Pilger: The New Rulers of the World
Previous related blogposts
The Mendacities of Mr Key #8: A roof over your head, and boots on the ground
That was Then, This is Now #26 – John Key will let slip the dogs of war
The Mendacities of Mr Key #10: “Only two years!!”
The Mendacities of Mr Key #11: Sorry, Prime Minister, what ‘mandate’ were you referring to?!
Mike Hosking – Minister for War Propaganda?
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This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 30 November 2015.
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I wish I had heard it!
Deb 🙂
Indeed, Deb. Very insightful. And definitely answered a few questions in my mind (and raised a few more.)
Thanks for the links Frank. Just like last week, when we get told on alternative media stations that Russia has supplied satellite footage of this merry band of thugs escorting oil over the border of a country (can’t call it smuggling – more colluding) with a regime whose leader has stated that he’ll resign if it is proven so.
Then we find out that the only people backing them up to defend their airspace (and therefore said activity) are the very people who have allowed this nonsense to occur in a place (Iraq) they have just spent the last 10 years “fixing” (pun intended).
They then have the temerity to suggest that their release of the above-mentioned person (Al Baghdadi) when once in their custody as “dumb”.
I can think of other words.
You’re welcome, MJ.
It occurred to me that there is much more to ISIS/IS than the media have been letting on. Calling it the “fog of war” seems appropriate in that we’re getting the headline stories, but none of the background which has allowed ISIS to flourish in only a few years. To me, it would be like hearing about nothing about the rise of the Nazis in Germany until the first headlines that German troops had annexed Austria.
The Russians have said they have more evidence to release on the collusion between ISIS and the West. That will be interesting to see.