Weapons of Mass Deception

In a personal and dynamic style, director and journalist Danny Schechter criticises the way the American media cover the war in Iraq. In a barrage of newsflashes and sound bites, he uses the instruments of the commercial media against them. As a variation on Michael Moore in his FAHRENHEIT 9/11, Schechter's voiceover is the recurring element, and like Moore he appears on-screen. The beginning, for example, is a parody of the opening scene of APOCALYPSE NOW (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979). But instead of humour, Schechter's tone mainly oozes frustration. In successive chapters, he analyses the mechanisms of the government, of business-oriented media networks and of individual journalists, many of whom have admitted their faults – like CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and the editorial staffs of The New York Times and The Washington Post. He pays attention to embedded journalism, the role of Fox News and war coverage in the Arab world. He shows images from Iraq, of the large-scale American anti-war demonstrations and of journalists' debates. In short interviews, he speaks with critical journalists like Robert Young Pelton, author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places, and CNN’s Peter Arnett, who was recalled by the network after he spoke on Iraqi television.