[Reader-list] more on the media war from fisk

[Rana Dasgupta]

I've been listening to BBC a lot too and share Fisk's disgust for these
stupid, obfuscatory, cowboy terms like "secured".  Below is a mail I wrote
to them on this subject:

Dear BBC

I am sure you've already seen Bob Fisk's article on the language being used
by your organisation to report the war. but may I reiterate: much of your
reporting has been shocking in the way its language has been drawn wholesale
from the military spokespeople, whose objective-oriented,
technology-assisted, us-them talk is not helpful for those trying to
understand the realities of the war.

To take a single example from the current lead on your website: "Aircraft
have flown more than 900 sorties ... in what correspondents say is plan to
soften up Baghdad's defenders."  Why are BBC correspondents using terms like
"soften up"?  Does "soften up" mean "disarm"?  "Weaken"?  "Kill"?  Please
lose all these military euphemisms which place your audience in the role of
aggressor and, to me, totally discredit your reporting.

R