Jumpy, could you include your youtube-link into your first post? Due to british copyright laws, television broadcast streams are only accesable from the UK and Ireland. The film looks indeed very interesting and I think many people should watch it.
I will watch it when I finally have my holidays, then I can comment on its content. So for now I can only throw in some random thoughts:
copy/paste from another thread (FCC "net neutrality" proposition):
Any idiot can make a photo with his cam phone, write something under it and put it up on the web. Who of us has the resources to work on a story for several months, do the research, try to include several pov's, etc? This is what the quality media used to do, and some of it still do.
This is an aspect one cannot underestimate: you need money and time to do investigative journalism.
Having said that, you guys brought some good points into the discussion.
The role of embedded journalists:
In modern terms, Orwell could also be called "embedded" when he took part in the Spanish Civil War, yet he wrote one of the greatest books about it. Being/fighting with the troops doesn't necessarily make one free of his own thoughts. A limited POV can lead to interesting reports. A recent example would be Evan Wright with his book "Generation Kill" - this also led to a great TV series by the same name.
The events that the media does not report:
I cannot stress this point enough: (Involuntary) censorship starts at this point. You should always keep in mind that the choice about what gets reported and what not is always a manipulation per se.
The role of the media in preperation for war:
Having been in the US in the summer of '03 and watching the media I felt like I was in a contemporary version of the Wochenschau. There were virtually no critical voices in the mass media, it all felt like a giant preperation for the upcoming Iraq war. Beeing critical of the war equaled being against the troops, a statement which is absolute bs. That's why I am especially interested in the film and its documentation of the role of the british media at this time.
The "unballyness" of reporters:
The good old saying of biting the hand that feeds you fits best to this. How can you do a critical report on corporations who run advertisements in your paper/station? Or how can you do a critical interview with a politician who grants you "exclusive" insights, or grants you the honour to talk with you at all? A remarkable exception was the german magazine "Der Spiegel". In the dark era of Helmut Kohl, the chancellor (and many other government members) refused to talk to its reporters. Yet they walked their way and kept on reporting critical. Butthurt politicians are a proof that journalism can be stinging!
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