Fahrenheit 9/11

  The media was complicit in leading our country to the war because it fed out all of the propaganda to the country during the time of 9/11 and well after. Every newspaper and news station was covering a "new breakthrough" in the story on how Iraq was involved in the terrorist attack. The media led us as a country to believe that a man, Saddam Hussein, was a major part of the attack. Later on we found out that was not the case. The media failed to tell its people that Iraq never harmed us in any way. Never once did they even kill one American. The media pulled a blanket over our eyes that Iraq was the enemy and the enemy needed to be stopped in any way possible. The media just wanted to make money off of this attack, which they most definitely did. Each station wanted to be the first to catch something, most stations had the wrong information because they wanted to get it out so fast. Propaganda to a naive audience is the best way to bring in revenue.  

The media absolutely served to the public interest during this time. It gave the people what they wanted, someone to blame for this devastating attack. By blaming Iraq it gave people a sense of "safety" that we were going to war with them, as if that was going to solve the issue. The American flag became a symbol of a new meaning to nationalism in our country. The media spoon-fed that we were going into a war for the right reasons, and people believed that. We wanted Iraq to feel what we felt and also for other countries to see us as powerful. In reality our officials just wanted to make money off of this war because Iraq is rich in valuable resources.  

The major technique the media used to make a case for this war was instilling fear into the minds of the American people. Constantly we would here that after 9/11 we were still at risk for another attack. We were told to be on our toes about it. Since we were so fearful of another attack it made us support the war against terrorism. If we got them first than they can't come after us was the mentality that we were being fed. It made us send our sons and daughters overseas to "fight for our freedom" when really they weren't fighting for anything at all. People put their trust in these government leader to guide us in the right direction because we were always told that we were at risk. Our fear is what created a billion dollar security industry alone, without the media that would not exist.