anyway, this morning in there were two stories that stuck in my head. one was about iraq the other about marketing movies. very different topics, but they were an interesting contrast.
after reporting the morning news, including the horrific violence in iraq over the past few days, the broadcast transitioned into the pre-prepared iraq story:
The number of attacks in Iraq rises and falls, but that is just one way to try to measure progress in the war. Other factors are harder to quantify. One is the way Iraqis view the American troops who still patrol their cities. Philip Reeves spent a day with an American platoon in and around the northern city of Mosul.you can hear the full story if you click on the above link.
the story followed the efforts of lt. joshua daley in a "meet and greet" operation in mosul; where u.s. soldiers go out in their armored vehicles to talk to iraqi civilians. the entire piece is told from daley's point of view, who seems pretty upbeat about the "meet and greet" program's success in iraq which he says is making "significant progress."
but contrary to what the introduction says, the entire story is from daley's point of view, you never get "the Iraqi's view of the American troops." while you can hear a few iraqi voices when the soldiers are questioning them, the only one-on-one interviews are with daley, who repeatedly puts a good spin on everything he does. no attempt is made to articulate any other point of view.
at one point, the reporter accompanies daley's platoon as they march into an iraqi's house and announce that they are seizing it for 2 hours to use as a base. daley tries to politely explain to the confused residents that they are no longer permitted to leave their own home. eventually, after daley doesn't seem to be having much luck getting through to them, a second soldier tells translator to say this to the family:
you're not fucking leaving. no one is fucking leaving this house. you're not using the phone. if anyone comes, they're fucking staying here. if you give me a fucking hard time, i'll turn your ass into to the commandos and they will fuck you up.daley, apparently mindful of the reporter's microphone, tells the translator not to translate the bit about the commandos and the second soldier decides daley is right, adding: "don't translate that [last sentence]. that's what i tell them all the time, but you shouldn't translate that."
it's hard to imagine how that scene can be spun into the creation of any sort of positive relationship with the iraqi people, but daley remains optimistic. when he talks to iraqis whose home was destroyed by americans, he assures them that the u.s. is very sorry and then tells the reporter that things like this (i.e. destroyed homes) make people angry in the short term, but they will get over it soon after they are offered compensation. i have a hard time buying it. in arab culture, its a big deal to violate someone's home. even if soldiers are just seizing a home for a couple of hours, much less knocking it to the ground. it's hard to imagine what compensation can make up for the assault on the owners' dignity (and, i might add, there was no talk of compensation for the family whose home was seized, only the one whose home was knocked down)
hell, violating a private home is a big deal in our culture too. one of the big beefs that caused the american revolution was the british military's practice of commandeering private homes during the french-indian war. but again, that kind of empathy with the iraqis was simply absent. everything was through the haze of daley's "making progress" attitude, even as the situation gave the iraqis plenty of reasons to be more than a little pissed off
the only thing that seemed to rattle daley was when an iraqi tore up the newspaper he was handing out on the street. the newspaper was written to emphasize the good things the u.s. backed iraqi government was doing. daley got upset because by tearing up the newspaper in front of him, the iraqi was "disrespecting" him and everything the u.s. was trying to do in iraq. daley's reaction to this assault on his dignity was rather ironic considering his less excited reaction to someone losing their home. he just seemed so oblivious by the end. despite the overall message of progress the story seemed to be trying to convey, i couldn't help but feel we were doomed to failure by unleashing a pollyanna like daley on the iraqis.
...
later in my drive through jersey, i heard the second story about how movie studies are finding subtle ways to promote their films. some of the subtle (some would say insidious) ways that films are sneaking advertisements on unsuspecting listeners is by allowing movie marketers to rewrite sitcom dialogue to refer to a film. or by convincing scientists to delay the announcement of their discoveries so they can coincide with movie release dates (as universal studios apparently did with three big dinosaur discoveries to correspond with the release of each of the three "jurassic park" films)
hearing paleontologist jack horner explain why giving news organization false discovery dates for his finds is no big deal brought to mind lt. daley's endless optimism from the iraq piece. they were both doing the same thing--putting an 100% positive spin on something that, on its face, not 100% positive. but there was one important difference between the first and second story. unlike the iraq piece, the second story included interviews of critics of the film studios' marketing practices. there was nothing even remotely like that in the story about iraq.
