When the whole Jessica Lynch hype was going on, I had a sneaky suspicion that it was overplayed by the media, and even mentioned to my roommate that it was probably one big joke. Well, apparently, it looks like that’s the case. Jessica Lynch mentioned on Primetime last night that the military had used her in a propaganda form and condemns the Pentagon. As you may know, she was honorably discharged from the military.
From this article, which I found interesting:
What is particularly sad in all of this is that a wonderfully hopeful story was available to the Pentagon to sell to the eager media: one in which besieged Iraqi doctors and nurses bravely cared for and supplied their own blood to a similarly brave young American woman in a time of madness and violence. Instead, eager to turn the war into a morality play between good and evil, the military used if not abused Lynch to put a heroic spin on an otherwise sorry tale of unjustified invasion.
Got this information from Metafilter. More links about this story can be found here and right here. Also BBC has a story up on it as well.
Oh come on…are you really gullible enough to think that the government was not going to spin her story, which is already amazing enough, into a myth?
Look at our version of history. George Washington and the cherry tree, things like that are all myths based on fact. We as human beings and Americans want to believe these things, therefore we do not question them when they are reported.
However, the media is more guilty than the Pentagon. For example, I am primarily a conservative (not surprising considering I am a former Marine) and I can’t stand to watch CNN. They have the most liberal slant on the news. A liberal could say that about fox news and their conservative slant. It is all about perception and interpetation.
I wasn’t gullible, but I did give it a benefit of the doubt until it became evident enough that it was spun.
I agree on the CNN/Fox News thing. I watch Fox News moreso than CNN, but I try to give them all a watch to get all points of views.