Propaganda week

newsweek pakistan yellow peril xenophobia

by guest contributor Manish, originally published at Ultrabrown

This scare story was loaded with terrorism hype. By the time I finished the story, it seemed like jihadis were on the verge of overrunning not only Islamabad but India too. And yet with all the advantages of Musharraf’s rigging, Islamist parties crested at a tiny minority of votes in the last election.

Check out the photos in the print edition, all foreboding black and white like a cheesy re-enactment by a TV crime show:

  • Cover: Scary, screaming, bearded man
  • First photo: Bleeding man lying on road, pierced with shrapnel from the Bhutto attack, looking directly at the camera. This is the kind of gruesome verité the American media refuse to show about Americans at home or American soldiers in Iraq, but think it perfectly acceptable to show about those not like us. I’m in favor of showing it all, not this disgusting double standard.
  • Second: Osama bin Laden t-shirt vendor
  • Third: Bullet-pocked walls
  • Fourth: Street scene with signs in Urdu / Arabic script
  • Fifth: Bearded mullah and a Koran

Here’s the thing — it’s a milestone that the media are beginning to drop the artificial he-says-she-says between India and Pakistan. They’re beginning to report the ISI and Pakistani military’s continued support of terrorism, and the fact that Islamists in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are far more dangerous than was the tinpot dictator of Iraq. Some of the content of the story is excellent.

But its packaging and tone are yellow journalism at its worst, ignoring everyday life in Pakistan and puffing up a tiny circle of jihadists using the trashiest techniques of propaganda.

Trackbacks & Pings

  1. Fearing the “Other” Is Politically Profitable: Iran, Islamo-Fascism and the Pursuit of Truth at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture on 02 Nov 2007 at 9:45 am

    […] the dramatic photo of Laura Bush (taken in the UAE, by the way, not Iran) to the Time cover Manish just posted about (which features Pakistan) these strong, salient images are melding into one pulsing […]

Comments

  1. nadia wrote:

    “but think it perfectly acceptable to show about those not like us”

    which *us* are you talking about? desi/middle eastern/muslim american people are excluded from that collective american *us* anyway.

    and unrelated, but ya’ll might be interested: http://angryindian.blogspot.com/2007/10/ksdk-newschannel-5-tv-bounty-hunter.html

    Posted 01 Nov 2007 at 9:48 am

  2. Neil wrote:

    i think it’s safe to assume that by “us”, he means that anyone who is white, not anyone who is american.

    Posted 01 Nov 2007 at 10:43 am

  3. Neil wrote:

    man, fuck newsweek.
    look at the other headlines on that cover. ‘hillary’s secrets’ reduces the presidential candidate to tabloid material (not that i’m rooting for her), and ‘cheney and ‘deliverance” puts the vice president alongside an attribute more commonly assigned to people like moses or jesus.
    again, fuck newsweek.

    Posted 01 Nov 2007 at 10:46 am

  4. Roni wrote:

    Neil: Excellent points about the headlines! I hadn’t noticed/thought through that.

    Admittedly, my head went an entirely different place with Cheney and ‘Deliverance.’

    There were banjos.

    Posted 01 Nov 2007 at 12:06 pm

  5. BT wrote:

    That cover really looks like it was meant to scare people. Not objective at all.

    Posted 01 Nov 2007 at 1:25 pm

  6. Flo wrote:

    Grr, this sh*t makes me so mad, one of my best friends grew up in Pakistan and she was telling me the other day that she can’t even read the newspaper anymore much less watch the TV “news” because of how rediculous the coverage is getting, her older brother recently moved back (he got married to a woman there) and talking to him about it, it’s just so exaturated and skewed, propiganda is right! Uch!

    Posted 01 Nov 2007 at 8:43 pm

  7. Dr Esam Omeish wrote:

    Obviously, the visuals dehumanize and reinforce the stereotype of the screaming irrational, violent and primative Muslim. I assume that this was *not* Newsweek’s intention, but this is the effect of the pictures.

    I can only think about the many people who had misconceptions reinforced when they saw this magazine in the shopping line at their local grocery store.

    While we in the Muslim-American community are working very hard to belie these stereotypes, we have a long way to go and need the help of people of good will when things like this happen. This is why I appreciate the efforts of people like Carmen in educating people about these kinds of stereotypes (againt all people) even though it is not the most popular thing in the world to take up the cause of Muslims these days.

    Posted 01 Nov 2007 at 10:23 pm

  8. Dan (Fitness) wrote:

    I think its interesting to see the contrast between the three men in front.

    The fellow in the center is pure “I will kill you!”, complete with the super scary reaching through the cover to get the westerners hand.

    The man on the left has a painstricken expression, and is also reaching out, but I catch a sense of desperation rather than anger.

    The guy on the right, with an upturned and open face, and raised hands, is broadcasting “religious” rather strongly.

    So it doesn’t just say “look at the creepy Muslims”. It seems to show poverty, violence, and fundamentalism. All in one picture.

    Posted 01 Nov 2007 at 10:47 pm

  9. Mireille wrote:

    That cover picture is not doing anyone any favors

    Posted 01 Nov 2007 at 11:57 pm

  10. napthia9 wrote:

    Oh man, this was -exactly- what I thought when I was filling mail boxes at the campus mail center. I didn’t even bother to check by reading the article.

    Posted 02 Nov 2007 at 12:19 am

  11. Muslimah Media Watch wrote:

    DAMN! That is really nasty. I agree with you, Neil: to hell with Newsweek!

    Posted 02 Nov 2007 at 12:50 am

  12. Neil wrote:

    Dr. Esam Omeish, i strongly disagree that newsweek was oblivious to the type of response that their choice of photographs would receive.
    as a large magazine company, i find it impossible to believe that a cover photo would not be scrutinized from every angle. ESPECIALLY from a cultural angle specifically, since this has everything to do with drawing distinct lines between cultures.
    with a title saying that Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world, it seems pretty obvious to me that they would choose a photo to emphasize that point.

    as a brown man, it’s incredibly frustrating that as much work that has been done to humanize us, all it takes are a couple media pieces from popular mags/tv shows, to completely invalidate the efforts.

    makes you want to just curl up and wish yourself away. just like they want you to.

    Posted 02 Nov 2007 at 11:56 am

  13. Dr Esam Omeish wrote:

    Neil,

    I was just trying to give them the benefit of the doubt

    Posted 03 Nov 2007 at 9:34 pm

  14. daria wrote:

    Are you saying that a country in which “honor” killings go unpunished and women are raped as punishment for their relatives’ crimes is some sort of safe haven?

    Posted 05 Nov 2007 at 3:25 pm

  15. luckyfatima wrote:

    daria: hmmmm, someone sure is propagandized. I guess Newsweek’s propaganda is working

    Posted 07 Nov 2007 at 2:39 am

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