Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GLOBAL 'WAR' ON TERROR (GWOT) Years 1 and 2, ie 9/11-2003
Grand Finale Even Hollywood Couldn't Have Dreamed Up by C Chocano Los Angeles Times CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK Grand Finale Even Hollywood Couldn't Have Dreamed Up By Carina Chocano Times Staff Writer December 15, 2003 From the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad to the dramatic rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, from the image of President Bush strutting across an aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" banner behind him to his more recent Norman Rockwell-esque Thanksgiving tableau, the war in Iraq - at least on American TV - has played like a movie seeking a climax. Lynch's rescue turns out to have been more of a dramatization in search of a drama. And the president's "Top Gun" moment proved, as climaxes go, embarrassingly premature. The search for the showstopper has been labored to the point of fatigue. No wonder the images of a captured Hussein were met with widespread media jubilation Sunday. "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him." An eruption of cheers - mostly from Iraqi journalists and American soldiers - greeted U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer III's announcement at a Baghdad news conference. The American TV news outlets offered their own, slightly more restrained, enthusiasm about the capture in their race to report the story throughout the day. In contrast to the slick, overly produced would-be grand finales we've seen so far related to Iraq, their repeated airing of the video of a haggard and humiliated Hussein provided just the dose of rugged, low-tech realism needed to bring home his defeat. The images were startling and almost surreal in their starkness. Silent video released by the U.S. military showed a bearded, pliant and disoriented-looking Hussein standing against a stark, white-tiled wall, as a doctor inserted a tongue depressor into his mouth and shined a flashlight inside. These images were accompanied by night-vision footage of the dank, dark hole where Hussein was found. The hiding place was an 8-foot hole in the ground outside a farmhouse in Ad Dawr, near Tikrit. It was covered by a Styrofoam lid and a rug. Cameras probed the hiding place, which looked worse than any cell that Hussein would be held in. Bush addressed the nation and announced that Hussein would "face the justice he denied to millions". It marks the end of the road for him and for all who bullied and killed in his name." British Prime Minister Tony Blair went easier with the punitive language. He reminded viewers of the reasons for going to war - mentioning the bodies of the 400,000 Iraqis found in mass graves - and thanked coalition forces and the "brave Iraqis who have helped in this action." Bush and Blair both were carried live on a news day that had its TV broadcast start at 2:03 a.m. PST, with a brief report on CNN. ABC followed at 2:06; CBS said it clocked in at 2:07, about the same time as NBC. Fox trailed, saying it waited for positive confirmation before putting the story on the air at 2:38. Then the anchor derby began. CBS' main anchor, Dan Rather, was on by 3:16; NBC's Tom Brokaw followed soon afterward. ABC's Peter Jennings was the last of the network anchors to get on the air because he was in transit from Los Angeles, where he had been reporting a story on the police department. He got on the air about 5 a.m. So, the war finally got a climactic shot. It wasn't the kind Hollywood would have provided, with mighty pyrotechnics and a swelling score. Instead, we got grainy, furtive, homemade amateur-cam footage of the formerly formidable. And as televised perp walks go, it couldn't have been more satisfying. But after a full day of endless video loops, we're starting to see some mug-shot fatigue. Is this the face we've been waiting to see flashed across Times Square and beamed out on national television? As CNN reported Sunday night, the last verifiable sighting of Osama bin Laden was in October 2001. Maybe this wasn't the third-act climax after all. See copy of Centcom's slide presentation at  |