When I lived in Britain, headline writers used to love to call American YANKS, probably as a throwback to the lingo in use during World War 2. This morning, a New York Daily News headline refers to US troops this way, a sign of creeping influence of Fleet Streetisms into American tabloid practices.

While some American media embrace Brit lit, others are askance at the style of journalism practiced across the pond. Yesterday I spent some time near “Ground Zero” in a studio at WNYC in Lower Manhattan to share my views for the National Public Radio show ON THE MEDIA to be heard Saturday morning and again Sunday afternoon. They are doing a segment built around a report chastising British media outlets for using inadequate sourcing. I was pressed into service to defend her Majesty’s media workers against calumnies which conjure up that old saw about just who is calling the kettle black.

REPORTING VERSUS JOURNALISM

My primary point is that there is a distinction between reporting and journalism in the sense that what often goes missing in the former is perspective and context. This does not mean necessarily that British journalism is on the whole necessarily better, but it certainly is more diverse and varied with far more experienced teams covering the world. I would argue that on the whole there are more journalists working for the quality papers in London than here, and more independent takes. This is especially true when it comes to covering Washington’s War where critical voices are more apparent. (When the UK went to war in the Falklands back when Maggie Thatcher ruled the roost, their objectivity was regularly tested just as “ours” is today.)

I put quotes around “Ours” because I hardly speak for my colleagues — it is hard enough to speak to them. All too often, there is a confusion of role as when journalists speak of the US military operation in Afghanistan in terms of ‘We.” I heard a senior writer from Newsweek do that on public radio on Wednesday morning as he slipped between using the collective “we” in talking about the soldiers, as if that term has the same meaning as the more impartial “they.”

THE CASTLE OF DEATH

Take a story that most of the US press has already “moved on” from, just as a year ago, most outlets “moved on” from investigating the election debacle in Florida once the Supreme Court had assured a Bush victory. I am speaking of the massacre in what the Independent newspaper calls the “Castle of Death.” I am obsessing on this story because it seems to be such a blatant case of massive human rights violations that were never reported as such in the US media. It hit me hard again yesterday after my visit to the Dentist to read press acounts in The Guardian about dead prisoners having their gold teeth yanked out by vultures posing as soldiers of the Northern Alliance.

Here’s Justin Huggler today from Mazar l Sharif on “What really happened in Qalai Janghi (The name of the fort, (ds)) on Sunday, and in the bloody days that followed? This is a front page story there, not buried in some “A Nation Challenged” section that is becoming as banal as Arts and Leisure. Note how colorfully this story is written, and how shocking it is:

“They were still carrying the bodies out yesterday. So many of them were strewn around the old fortress. We saw one go past whose foot had been half-torn off and was hanging from his leg by a shred of flesh. The expression on the face of the dead man was so clear that it was hard to believe he was dead until you saw the gaping red hole in the side of his forehead. The stench of rotting human flesh had become overpowering; at times, it was hard to breathe. But questions remained as they cleared away the bodies of slaughtered foreign Taliban fighters believed to be loyal to Osama bin Laden.

“How did US and British special forces come to be involved in the massacre of at least 150 prisoners of war – and maybe as many as 400 – who should have been protected under the Geneva Convention?”

THE BLUNDERS AND THE BLOODBATH

His account goes on to describe a series of blunders that cast doubt on what was about to happen, a blood bath that led to 600 people massacred by bombing and gun fire, a CIA agent dead, others wounded, and Northern Alliance leaders shot down as well. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper this morning carries an Agence France Press (AFP( report (no AP or Reuters for them). Note this is based on the reporting of a Nobel Prize winning western human rights group, not a denunciation by Al Qaeda:

“US, UK responsible for Qala-i-Jangi massacre: Amnesty

“LONDON, Nov 29: The killing of hundreds of Taliban prisoners at the Qala-i-Jangi fort in Afghanistan raises questions on the exact circumstances surrounding the massacre and on the role played by British and US forces in the killings.

“Whatever happened the US and Britain bear the brunt of the responsibility as they sent soldiers to coordinate with the Northern Alliance the quashing of the “rebellion”.

“According to the British war journalist Robert Fisk, the western soldiers bear a moral responsibility. It means that “British troops are now stained with war crimes”.

“And Amnesty International is talking of legal responsibility. It means, the Amnesty emphasizes, “the governments (British and American) cannot hide from saying simply ‘that’s war’”.

WHY DID THE PRISONERS REVOLT? TAKE TWO

Why did the prisoners revolt? Huggle offers a reasonable explanation: the feared they would be killed, which is exactly what happened: “…a Northern Alliance account suggests that the prisoners launched the battle when an Alliance general went to reassure the prisoners that they would be well treated.

“We tried to treat the prisoners humanely and they took advantage,” General Dostum said on Wednesday as he surveyed the carnage. “I gave orders for them to be allowed to wash and pray, but they attacked us.”

“Another explanation is that the prisoners feared that they were about to be executed.” This reporter, who is also a journalist in the best sense of the word concludes after rconstructing the events in a way that does not simply blame it all on one side. Again, he speaks of a tragedy of errors:”….it will be a long time before the world fully takes in what it all means. When the war in Afghanistan began, we were told the foreign Taliban intended to fight to the death, and many feared a massacre or a bloodbath in Kunduz. But, in the end, bin Laden’s warriors staged their last battle in the fortress at Qalai Janghi. If the accounts of the Northern Alliance soldiers are to be believed, 400 defeated men managed to force the United States into taking part in the massacre of prisoners of war.

“WE ARE BECOMING WAR CRIMINALS”

Another Independent newspaper journalist, Robert Fisk, best known for his seasoned reporting from the Middle East then adds a perspective, clearly labeled as a commentary or argument that is equally enraged at those that allowed this horror to happen. He also lambasts the TV media that showed pictures, accepted official rationalizations, and never explained their significance.

“We are becoming war criminals in Afghanistan. The US Air Force bombs Mazar-i-Sharif for the Northern Alliance, and our heroic Afghan allies – who slaughtered 50,000 people in Kabul between 1992 and 1996 – move into the city and execute up to 300 Taliban fighters. The report is a footnote on the television satellite channels, a “nib” in journalistic parlance. Perfectly normal, it seems. The Afghans have a “tradition” of revenge. So, with the strategic assistance of the USAF, a war crime is committed.

“Now we have the Mazar-i-Sharif prison “revolt”, in which Taliban inmates opened fire on their Alliance jailers. US Special Forces – and, it has emerged, British troops – helped the Alliance to overcome the uprising and, sure enough, CNN tells us some prisoners were “executed” trying to escape. It is an atrocity. British troops are now stained with war crimes. Within days, The Independent’s Justin Huggler has found more executed Taliban members in Kunduz.

“The Americans have even less excuse for this massacre. For the US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, stated quite specifically during the siege of the city that US air raids on the Taliban defenders would stop “if the Northern Alliance requested it”. Leaving aside the revelation that the thugs and murderers of the Northern Alliance were now acting as air controllers to the USAF in its battle with the thugs and murderers of the Taliban, Mr Rumsfeld’s incriminating remark places Washington in the witness box of any war-crimes trial over Kunduz. The US were acting in full military co-operation with the Northern Alliance militia.

“Most television journalists, to their shame, have shown little or no interest in these disgraceful crimes. Cozying up to the Northern Alliance, chatting to the American troops, most have done little more than mention the war crimes against prisoners in the midst of their reports. What on earth has gone wrong with our moral compass since 11 September?”

THE TIMES OF INDIA: US ‘HERO’ MAY HAVE PLAYED A ROLE IN RIOT

Rashmee Z Ahmed of the Times of India News network reports today that The United Nations has joined human rightsgroups in demanding an urgent inquiry into the carnageat the Qala-i-Jhangi fort near the northern Afghancity of Mazar-i-Sharif, even as new information is.emerging” …

” Even as the CIA saluted its slain colleague, the firstAmerican fatality in Afghanistan, “American hero”Johnny “Mike” Spann, who died in the prison revolt,British journalists in Mazar-i-Sharif have begunreporting that Spann was less an innocent victim thanthe one who allegedly provoked the riot.

“With allegations of “war crimes” against the US and UKcoming in thick and fast for ignoring the GenevaConvention on the treatment of prisoners of war,United Nations High Commissioner for Human RightsCommisioner, Mary Robinson, has echoed Kate Allen,director of the London-based Amnesty International incalling for an urgent inquiry.

“On Wednesday night, the BBC’s authoritative domestictelevision program Newsnight interviewed OliverAugust, correspondent for The Times, London, inMazar-i-Sharif, who said that Spann and his CIAcolleague, Dave, were thought to have set off theviolence by aggressively interrogating foreign Talibanprisoners and asking, “Why did you come toAfghanistan?”. August said their questions wereanswered by one prisoner jumping forward andannouncing, “We’re here to kill you”.

The Guardian’s Mazar-i-Sharif correspondent said theCIA “operatives had apparently failed on entering thefort to observe the first rule of espionage: keep alow profile”.

“The Times’s August said Spann subsequently pulled hisgun and his CIA colleague shot three prisoners dead incold blood before losing control over the situation.

“Spann was then “kicked, beaten and bitten to death,”the journalists said, in an account of the ferocity ofthe violence that lasted four days, leaving more than500 people dead and the fort littered with “bodies,shrapnel and shell casings”.

Hey, have you read this story anywhere in the US media?

WHY ARE JOURNALISTS IN THE USA SO SILENT?

Why are journalists in the US so silent, or are they? Veteran journalist Joe Davidson, whose work I have always respected, reports on Tom Paine.com about a recent seminar he attended on these issues at the Poynter Institute in Florida where many colleagues agonized on how to balance journalistic responsibilities with pressures from the government to get the media to spin the war their way.

“St. Petersburg, Fla. — The television news anchor simply wants to know how long it will last. She’s not talking about the bombing of Afghanistan, the soldiers in the airport or the increased fear of terrorists. What the Florida journalist wants to know is how long she’ll have to wear a flag lapel pin. It was a question she posed to colleagues meeting at a journalism ethics seminar last week. More specifically, she wondered aloud, “If I take it off, will I be un-American?” …

“Lapel pins are not the big issue for Matt Parcell, special projects executive producer at WFTV-TV in Orlando. What bothers him is the creeping erosion of the rights and freedoms “we have taken for granted to do our jobs.” That erosion began in Florida well before September 11, he said, with the gradual closing of access to the state’s public records. Worse yet, he added, “I don’t know that journalists care.”….

Sometimes the damage done to journalism needs little government prompting. Last week, a number of newspapers ran big front-page displays of pictures, released by President Bush, of 22 suspected terrorists. A St. Petersburg Times headline called them “Faces Of Terror” in a huge display that dominated page one.

“Using the photos was a reasonable journalistic decision. But running them so prominently with such a headline could easily do more to provoke fear than provide information, several Poynter journalists concluded. That fear could provoke more unjustified retaliation against innocent Arab-looking and dark skin men.

“On the last day of the seminar, Bun Booyens, an editor from Cape Town, South Africa, and I ran along Tampa Bay, watching the sun slowly rise and a beautiful variety of birds fly along the strand. Booyens spoke of the difficulty Black journalists have with South African officials who seem to consider criticism unpatriotic. It sounded familiar.

IS HOLLYWOOD ENCOURAGING HATE CRIMES?

Some media critics are singling out Hollywood studios for reinforcing stereotypes that are triggering hate crimes, including two new murders reported today. Michael Paulson of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer suggests that the culture of fear in the US is also fed by false images:

“In his book, “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People,” Jack G. Shaheen argues that in the current atmosphere, it would be unfair to depict Arab Muslims as terrorists in the movies — given that Arab Muslims stand accused of masterminding the worst act of terrorism in the history of the United States.

“Shaheen writes that years of depicting Arabs “solely as slimy, shifty, violent creeps” has created a tension between Americans and their Arab Muslim brethren. In testimony submitted to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Arab American Institute reported 326 hate crimes in 38 states in the first month after the terrorist attacks — including seven deaths, 90 physical assaults and 85 incidents of vandalism.

“‘We’re at war, and this is very serious now: We cannot, and should not, give comfort to the enemy,’ Shaheen says. “Every political leader in this country says we are not in a war against Islam, but is the motion-picture industry going to counter this by showing only images of Muslims as fanatics? There certainly should be movies made based on what happened, but if those are the only images we see from now on, if we continue to vilify all Muslims and all Arabs as terrorists instead of making clear this is a lunatic fringe, what are we accomplishing?”

DOMESTIC ANTHAX SUSPECT IDENTIFIED

Speaking of images, it is significant that the FBI is now seeking an American, not an Arab, for sending anthrax threats. Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday that a man who is on theF.B.I.’s 10 Most Wanted List is the primary suspect in themailing of anthrax threats to hundreds of abortion clinics. A $50,000 reward has been posted. Salon.com deserves credit for breaking a story that the FBI had less success with:

“Clayton Waagner claims responsibility for letters and Federal Express packages that were sent to more than 700 abortion clinics last month with the false threat that they contained anthrax. Fellow abortion foe Neal Horsley, who runs the Nuremberg Files Web site, claims Waagner “took him hostage and used him as his mouthpiece to claim responsibility for the anthrax letters and to announce his threat of new violence against abortion providers,” writes Frederick Clarkson for Salon.com.

MORE DEATH ON THE WAY

While death dominates the headlines, the deaths to come may still prove far worse. There are three of these. First, the terrorist infrastructure of the groups that form Al Qaeda have not been destroyed. The Financial Times today features a two page investigative report on the colossal intelligence failures behind September llth and the sophistication of a network which still has a capacity to do more damage.

Next there are the massacres to come in Afghanistan as various tribal militias march on Khanahar where they are likely to engage in fighting with the Northern Alliance which is 50 miles away in he province. And of course, the Air Force bombardments continue to pound away. More bloodbaths are likely.

All of this pales in the face of the massive starvation caused by draught and now compounded by the war that makes security impossible for aid caravans. The New York Times has a dramtic photo on the front page, but the story was pushed back onto p. 4. Alternet carries an interview with Reverend Ray Buchanan, an American aid worker who is just back from those killing fields.His comment is chilling:

“According to the U.N., and I can agree from having been there, this is the worst humanitarian crisis of our lifetime because of the sheer magnitude of the area covered and the number of people at risk. The drought has affected all of Central Asia from North Korea to China, Mongolia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan and even into the Caucasus. In Afghanistan, because of the years of fighting and the number of refugees, eight million people are at risk of starving this winter. That’s one-third of the population.”

FEEDBACK FROM READERS

Happily, I am beginning to get other outlets to pick up some of my columnizing. Thank you Outllook India.com for leading with my column yesterday. There is also continuing feedback to this weblog which is aimed at my media colleagues as well as the web wise public at large. Barbara ee’s me from Britain:

“Hi Dan

“We are still reading you - even though like everyone else the “noise” of the media outpourings is deafening us. You didn’t mention them but the attached two reports (of a few) by the Times journalist Oliver August about the siege of Kala-i Janghi are informative. What is interesting is that in the Tuesday report he quotes an Afghan commander saying that’s wrong etc - this event was actually shown on BBC TV - with the camera close by and catching both the words (in English, by the way) and the facial expression of the same commander. The tv footage of the mayhem shows the US and British “specials” calling in the strike. You are right B52s putting down “prison riots” is extraordinary but what seemed clear form the footage is the sheer panic and pandemonium of violence - regardless of the “we wage smart clean wars ” platonic nonsense of the Pentagon and its British and other proxies. Clearly Amnesty are right - it all needs investigating… “uprisings”, “riots”, “incidents” - more weasel words to describe barbarity. Some questions for you -Why are the Russians now in Kabul? What about the military courts in the US (only for Osama?) and is it true that US resident Arab men have been asked to make ‘appointments’ at their local police stations in Chicago?”

Barbara, for people of Arab descent, the situation gets worse. Here’s yesterday’s report from Al Gore’s old hometown, Nashville Tennessee, home of the Grand Old Opry.

RACIAL PROFILING, USA

“Nashville gives green light to racial profiling

“In the name of national security, most Nashvillians give the thumbs up to singling out people of Middle Eastern descent for special law enforcement checks, according to a poll released by Vanderbilt University.

Anita Wadhwani of the Tennessean reports on a poll indicating that 62 percent of Nashville residents support security checks for people who are — or appear to be — Middle Eastern.

“In the poll, 74 percent of African-Americans supported the added scrutiny, compared with 64 percent of white and other residents.

MARK WORLD AIDS DAY

That’s my media war report today. If you live in New York City, come along tomorrow at 3PM to the Screening Room for a World Aids Day event for Medicine Without Frontiers (MSF) I will be speaking after a screening of the Globalvision film “Nkosi: Voice of Africa’s Aids Orphans.” It tells the story of the short life and death of Nkosi Johnson, a brave South African boy who died earlier this year. The screening is at 3 PM. Please share your comments and stories. Write: dissector@mediachannel.org