|
Disinformation: Media Myths About the War on Terror
|
| Price: | £16.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery on orders over £5. Details |
Availability: Usually dispatched within 3 to 4 weeks
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk
31 new or used available from £0.43
Average customer review:
Product Description
Bin Laden was trained and funded by the CIA. The Bush Administration killed 100,000 civilians in Iraq. The Jews who worked at the World Trade Center were warned not to work on Sept. 11. These are just some of the myths that have appeared in mainstream media outlets. Collectively, these myths undermine wartime U.S. morale and confuse the discussion of vital issues. Here Miniter debunks the myths of the left (and the right) with hard evidence, high-level interviews and on-the-ground reporting in more than a dozen countries.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #891007 in Books
- Published on: 2005-10-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 275 pages
Customer Reviews
An aptly named book.
This book contains just what the title says: disinformation. Or if one is to give Richard Miniter the benefit of the doubt, he is simply telling myths himself that are now proven as such, or trying to pin conspiracy theories in the arab world on "western media". All this with the dubious intent of trying to convince the reader that these myths "undermine the War on Terror". I guess this has something to do with his previous books, where he tries to blame 9/11 on Clinton, and comes to the conclusion that Bush is winning the War on Terror without us hearing about it. He is blaming these "myths" on Liberal media, saying that they are helping the terrorists. Anyone smelling a conservative agenda here?
The book contains 22 topics, that Miniter suggests are myths. Some are really myths, but they are few and tend to be obvious ones, and mostly he is building a house of cards. For instance, he takes the widely spread conspiracy theory of the WTC being devoid of Jews on 9/11, all of them being warned by the Mossad (Israeli Intelligence). This is not a media-myth as we are to understand Miniters use of the term: myths that Liberal media is spreading. It is a conspiracy theory that you can find on the Internet. So it doesn't really qualify as a media-myth (unless you live in the Middle East I guess), and it might just be there to give credence to the idea of Miniter finding untruths. It is however quite objectionable to use this in an attemt to question Liberal media...
Be that as it may, the book might have caused a few 'aha-moments' when it came out in 2003, but now it has been surpassed by history. Miniters claim that the cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden before 9/11 WAS true, and that WMD:s HAVE been found in Iraq after the war, have now been adressed by the congressional hearings of the intelligence services in 2006. Their report on the matter debunks all of Miniters claims in the book.
It is also ironic that Miniter claims that these "myths" are what we hear all the time in the Liberal media, but to question their conclusion he uses Liberal media as a source. He takes lots of his "facts" from news-sources. This kind of contradicts the notion of these sources peddling "myths" of the opposite. But more importantly, it shows that Miniter thinks that you can get hard facts about intelligence operations from newspapers. And he actually uses Colin Powells UN hearing in 2003 as a source of information on there being WMD:s in Iraq, saying that Powell must be a reliable source since he one of the dows in the administration.
This book is maybe a testament to bad investigative journalism, or possibly an example of rhetoric for political purposes, but no more than that. If you are interested in 9/11, find some actual research on the subject.
