Wide World Of Despots

This week marks the seventh anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Kuwait and Iraq, a war that, for both the sanctions-starved people of Iraq and the U.S. media, never seems to have ended. A recent NBC evening newscast, in a medium devoted to 30-second soundbites, gave 22 1/2 minutes of its half-hour program to pieces about Iraq's great military threat, the audacious lifestyle Saddam Hussein enjoys in his dozens of lavish palaces while his people starve, and his history of murdering Kurds and other unfavored groups. One could only feel revulsion towards this dictator.

There has been a spate of media attention given to Hussein recently in light of the dispute over UN weapons inspectors, and we are warned to be prepared for a new conflict. A recent Newsweek article told us that "it is not a question of if, but when" Iraq will release biological and chemical weapons in a U.S. airport or subway.

The media pieces about Iraq raise people's sense of outrage over Hussein's utter disregard for human rights. However, a comparison of the media's treatment of the similarly murderous dictators of Iraq, Zaire, and Indonesia makes it clear that the U.S. mainstream press falls into line with official government foreign policy. All three despotic regimes were previously or currently supported by the U.S., but they have received markedly different treatment by the press.

The U.S. maintained positive relations with Iraq from 1980 to 1990 because it had an interest in opposing Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. Iraq was supplied with exported goods, guns, and weapons of mass destruction, even though Hussein had already displayed a horrible human rights record. The August 1990 invasion of Kuwait was just an addition to his long list of abuses, including gassing the Kurds and executing dissidents.

President Mobutu Sese Seko ruled Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) from 1961, when he assumed power after a CIA-sponsored coup (see Reclaim Our History, Jan. 17), until his overthrow by rebel forces led by Laurent Kabila earlier this year. The U.S. considered Zaire to be a crucial ally during the Cold War for its mineral wealth and its geographic location. President Mobutu ruled Zaire without elections and managed to siphon off $5 billion in a country with an average yearly income of $115. For over 30 years there was a virtual media blackout on honest reporting of the conditions there.

In the post-Cold War era, the Clinton administration began to find Mobutu dispensable to its interests. Perhaps the only reason why the U.S. maintained positive relations with Mobutu during the '90s was the foreign policy influence of Rep. Dan Burton (R) of Indiana. Prominent for his Vince Foster conspiracy theories, the Helms-Burton Act, and his aggressive investigations of Clinton's fundraising, Burton vocally supported and attained favorable treatment for President Mobutu in exchange for campaign donations from a Zairean lobbyist.

In a story somewhat similar to Zaire, the homicidal dictator of Indonesia, Gen. Suharto, came to power in a 1965 coup aided by British agents and the CIA, stamping out a popular communist party. Suharto supervised the killing of over one million mostly landless peasants. With the go-ahead of Pres. Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger, he directed the invasion and annexation of independent East Timor, killing 200,000 (one-third) of the population. U.S. business investment has been strong during Suharto's entire reign, with generous government sales and donations of weapons. Although Indonesian per capita income is $780, Gen. Suharto has accumulated $16 billion in wealth, and the Suharto family as a whole has $30 billion--nearly as much as Bill Gates. A telling photo was taken at APEC in Vancouver, showing Clinton and Suharto laughing and smiling together, wearing identical blue shirts and bomber jackets.

Standard logic argues that all human lives possess equal value and that similar human atrocities should receive equal reporting. Yet clearly, the "never again" ethic stemming from the Holocaust has been thrown out the window. The press treats events in different nations based upon the country's current utility to our government. It is impossible to determine if this behavior is coordinated or occurs in a purely unconscious fashion, but the evidence is clear and goes far beyond these examples.

Since Iraq threatened to interrupt oil supplies in 1991, Saddam Hussein has been the subject of intense media scrutiny of his abysmal human rights record. A search on the Expanded Academic Index of 1500 periodicals covering the past 10 years demonstrates the comparative indifference of the Western media over conditions in Zaire. Saddam Hussein garnered 1003 articles over ten years, while Mobutu Sese Seko had 163 hits, "Oprah" had 294 hits and "Donald Trump" had 280. More than half of the articles containing references to Mobutu occurred within the past two years. Of course, he was just as much of a tyrant in the earlier years. As the rebel forces made progress in 1996-97 and government and business support dwindled, the press broke its 30-year silence and reported the excesses of Mobutu's kleptocracy as though they were recent revelations.

To this day, mainstream U.S. media sources such as Time and Newsweek have been nearly silent upon the record of Suharto. Articles mentioning Suharto in some context during the past 10 years numbered 297, and nearly all of these are business journals such as Forbes. Honest reporting was only to be found in a few left wing periodicals, although business journals sometimes were (as is often the case) more accurate than mainstream magazines. We probably will never see a thorough airing of Indonesia's history until Suharto dies, or Indonesia weakens and no longer serves U.S. interests.

Media Watch is written every two weeks by members of the Media Watch collective, a local group monitoring Seattle news media. Our next meeting will be Monday, Jan. 26 at 6:00 PM, 3rd floor Univ. Baptist Church (4554 12th Ave. NE in Seattle). For info or to get involved, e-mail mediawatch@u.washington.edu or call 632-1656.

The MicroBoeing Watch

Tracking the volume of The Only News That Matters to Seattle's Dailies

Seattle Times Seattle PI Week of 12/14-12/20 Microsoft Boeing Microsoft Boeing front page 3 3 3 3 front section 3 4 3 3 business 8 8 3 5 total in paper 15 12 6 8 Week of 12/21-12/27 front page 0 0 0 0 front section 0 0 0 0 business 6 2 6 4 Total in paper 8 2 6 4

The last days: 12/28-12/31 front page 1 1 0 0 front section 1 1 0 0 business 4 2 3 2 Total in paper 5 5 3 2

This marks the last installment of our 1997 tally of Microsoft and Boeing articles in the Seattle Times and P-I. Look for an analysis of the stories, and media treatment of our local corporate gorillas, in an upcoming installment of Media Watch.