Area : SNETNEWS

Date : Mon May 13, 23:01                                                       
From : Spirit Of Truth Page                                  1:330/201.1
To   : All                                 
Subj : 60 Minutes: Defending the devil again...                              
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

From: "Spirit Of Truth Page" 
Originally to: ncnmain-l@newciv.org,
Original Date: Mon, 13 May 96 22:19:28 EDT


                ***60 MINUTES: DEFENDING MISTRUTHS AGAIN***

                               J. Adams
                            May 13th, 1996

    Is  it  me,  or  did  60 Minutes reach the end of its journalistic
integrity  last  night?   Indeed,  the  news  program has increasingly
superceded the standards of deceit met by the  rest  of  the  American
media.  Last  night,  however,  60  Minutes  went  overboard.  If  the
program is not more careful,  the American people might soon  catch-up
with its misleading presentation of "the facts".
    The acute phase of 60 Minutes' decline  appears  to  have  started
with  the  1992  Presidential  election campaign when the program bent
over backwards to get  "its  man"  in  the  Oval  Office,  i.e.,  Bill
Clinton.  In an interview excerpt that  appears  in  the  video,  "The
Clinton Chronicles",  the Executive Producer of 60 Minutes brags about
how his news program intentionally ran a story defending Bill  Clinton
against  reports  of sexual improprieties and other corrupt activities
in order to insure his election in the 1992 presidential  race.  Since
the  election,  60 Minutes has aired interviews with both Bill Clinton
and his wife that allowed the  President  and  First  Lady  to  defend
themselves  against increasing allegations of past and present ethical
and criminal misconduct.
    Last  night,   however,   60  Minutes  crossed  the  line  in  its
presentation  of  mistruth.  Rather appropriately,  on the first night
that 60 Minutes aired  an  editorial  by  P.J.  Rourke  upholding  the
'virtues of selfishness',  the news program's lead story came  to  the
defense  of  Saddam  Hussein,  albeit  indirectly.  Leslie Stall (sp?)
recently went to Iraq where she was permitted to visit a hospital  and
interview  a pair of English-speaking Iraqi doctors in order to report
on how Iraqi children are suffering and dying because of U.S.-enforced
economic sanctions against Iraq.  The U.N. implemented these sanctions
after Iraq invaded Kuwait in  1990.  The  60  Minutes'  report  showed
plenty of sick and dying Iraqi children,  unsanitary and under-equiped
Iraqi hospital facilities, and inhumane living conditions in the Iraqi
countryside.  Also,  the  report  included excerpts of interviews with
Iraqi doctors and spokespeople for  human  rights  groups  who  blamed
Iraq's  suffering on U.N.  sanctions and the United States rather than
Saddam Hussein.  When the American ambassador to the  U.N.,  Madelaine
Albright,  sought to defend the sanctions regime, 60 Minutes made sure
to edit its interview to make it look like she endorsed killing  half-
a-million Iraqi children to counter Saddam.
    The truth,  of course,  was removed from what the American  people
were told last night by 60 Minutes.
    Do you think it was a simple coincidence that the  report  on  the
sufferings  of Iraq appeared just prior to the make-or-break point for
a deal in the  oil-for-food  talks  between  Iraq  and  the  U.N.?  As
explained  in  my most recent article on 'Saddam's Revenge',  there is
reason  to  believe  that Saddam Hussein ordered the Iraqi invasion of
Kuwait, stomached the 1991 Gulf War,  subject his country to more than
five  years  of  economic  sanctions  and has underhandedly encouraged
covert U.S.  attempts to overthrow his regime in order  to  build  the
image  that  he  and  his  country  are  victims  of ruthless American
imperialism.  Likewise,  Iraq may have recently entered into  oil-for-
food talks with the U.N.  for the sole intention of having those talks
fail.  In this way,  the U.S.  can be blamed for blocking  any  relief
whatsoever  for  the  Iraqi people such that Saddam supposedly decides
'enough is enough' and heroically seeks revenge against his  "Zionist"
oppressors,  something that I believe will eventually take the form of
a chemical SCUD attack against Israel.
    In  order  to  enhance  his  country's  image as a victim,  Saddam
apparently decided to employ the services of 60 Minutes.  Leslie Stall
mentioned her surprise at the way in which the Iraqi  government  gave
her news crew unrestricted access to Iraqi hospitals and doctors to do
a  story.  Is  she  really  so  naive  as to think such access was not
choreographed?  I mean really:  Two doctors who just happen  to  speak
almost  perfect  English  busy denouncing the U.S.  and dismissing the
idea that Saddam was to  blame  for  the  sanctions  against  Iraq?  A
hospital where flies are buzzing around the wards,  all the ambulances
supposedly don't work due to  a  lack  of  spare  parts,  and  medical
supplies  are  so low that the doctors couldn't even offer a desperate
Iraqi mother cough medicine for  her  sickly  child?  The  60  Minutes
report was so blatantly manipulated,  it was reminiscent of the middle
of the Gulf War when Western journalists and cameramen were brought to
the bombed-out remnants of a factory where  spray-painted  signs  were
posted that read- in English of course- "Baby Milk Factory".
    60  Minutes,  in  its  endless  pursuit  of sensational mistruths,
failed even to check its main statistic.  When the two  Iraqi  doctors
stated that 500,000 Iraqi children had died from disease, malnutrition
and starvation caused by the economic sanctions, Leslie Stall restated
the  figure  over and over again as if it were established fact.  Yet,
in the context of her report,  she mentioned the results  of  a  study
done by a human rights watch group,  which if anything would overstate

Continues in the next message  -->


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Area : SNETNEWS

Date : Mon May 13, 23:01                                                       
From : Spirit Of Truth Page                                  1:330/201.1
To   : All                                 
Subj : 60 Minutes: Defending the devil again...                              
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

From: "Spirit Of Truth Page" 
Originally to: ncnmain-l@newciv.org,
Original Date: Mon, 13 May 96 22:19:28 EDT

* Continuation from previous message....

Iraq's  hardship,   that  found  one-third  of  Iraq's  children  were
underweight  and  one-fifth  of  Iraqi  children  showed  symptoms  of
malnutrition.  Given that there is only around three million  children
in  Iraq,  it  is hard to believe there has been half-a-million deaths
given that only that number of children are currently starting to show
signs of malnutrition.  Why, though,  would 60 Minutes bother to check
such facts?  Their goal,  and Saddam's goal,  was to present the image
that the Iraqi people are victims of American  imperialist  oppression
rather than persecution by the Butcher of Baghdad.
    My intent here is not to minimize  the  sufferings  of  the  Iraqi
people caused in part by the economic sanctions against Iraq, nor do I
wish   to  paint  the  image  that  America  is  somehow  innocent  of
imperialist foreign policy in the Third  World.  What  I'm  hoping  to
point  out  is the way in which 60 Minutes is once again an instrument
of  evil forces seeking to deceive the world in order to achieve self-
serving goals at everyone's expense.  While this might not be so clear
when 60 Minutes defends popular public figures like the  Clintons,  it
is rather obvious when it comes to Saddam Hussein.  Hopefully,  others
will see the lies 60 Minutes is telling us,  whether wittingly or not,
that I see and be wise enough to disbelieve.


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