Bonne ou mauvaise nouvelle? « The US media is dying »

Intéressant séminaire au Qatar (les 1er-3 février), organisé par Al Jazeera, la chaîne de télévision du Qatar. Parmi les divers sujets abordés (voir notamment The Guardian, le site Al Jazeera et Democracy Now!), l’état de la presse US par rapport à ses divers devoirs d’information, principalement dans le cas de la guerre en Irak.

De Christopher Dicker, éditeur régional pour le Moyen Orient et chef (et seul membre) du bureau de Paris de Newsweek : « After 25 years as a foreign correspondent I know what the US wants from the rest of the world: to forget about it. There's this idea that the US media is controlling the agenda. In fact the US media is dying. Resources, money and staff are being cut back. Twenty years ago Newsweek had 25 staff in Paris, today it has one: me. »

Amy Goodman, de Democracy Now!, rapporte que sur 393 interviews sur le conflit irakien sur NBC, CBS, ABC et PBS, trois seulement ont concerné le mouvement antiguerre aux USA. « This is a media cheerleading for war and does not represent mainstream opinion in the US. [...The policy of embedding reporters with coalition forces was] a total failure for independent journalism [...] western audiences need to see the other side of the story — from communities and hospitals. If people in the US had a true picture of war — dead babies, women with their legs blown off, dead and dying soldiers — they would say “no”. There is nothing more important than the media — it is more powerful than any bomb or missile and we have to take it back [...] we need a media that is independent and honestly showing us the images, the hell, ugliness and brutality of war, not selling us war. »

Mis en ligne le 4 février 2006 à 20H15