By Daily Press staff
The media was too soft on President Bush when he launched into the Iraq War. So says a film that will be featured at Santa Monica College next week. SMC will present the documentary "WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception," which casts a sharp eye at media coverage of the Iraq War. The viewing will be followed by an audience discussion with its filmmaker, Danny Schechter.
Billed as a "Media Literacy Dialogue," the screening and discussion will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, March 18 in room 214 of the SMC Art Complex, 1900 Pico Blvd. The event is free, as is parking. Seating is limited and is on a first-arrival basis.
Schechter's 98-minute documentary investigates and examines the U.S. government's influence over the media networks' coverage of the Iraq War. Schechter embedded himself in front of several televisions before and during the war to examine whether the networks kept the airwaves fair and balanced. The film reveals how the war Americans saw and read about is an entirely different one than that seen by the rest of the world.
The film has already has prompted executives at ABC, CBS and NBC to acknowledge publicly that they should have more aggressively questioned the Bush administration's grounds for invading Iraq.
Frequently comparing "WMD" to Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," critics throughout the nation have praised the film. The Chicago Reader wrote that "WMD" goes beyond Moore to offer a "comprehensive and devastating critique of the TV news networks' complacency and complicity in the war in Iraq."
Schechter has had a long and distinguished career in journalism, government, political and social activism, TV and film. Among his many honors have been Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard, where he also taught; Major Armstrong Awards for radio broadcast journalism; and Emmys for television news.
His writing has appeared in leading newspapers and magazines, including The Nation, Newsday, Boston Globe, Columbia Journalism Review and Village Voice.
The screening-discussion at SMC is sponsored by the SMC communication department in association with the SMC Foundation, SMC Associated Students and SMC Associates, a private organization that funds speakers and special programs at the college.
For information, call (310) 434-4588. Imagine the possibilites of dance at SMC
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 9, 2005. Read the original PDF.