WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception

WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception

What:

There were two wars going on in Iraq - one was fought with armies of soldiers, bombs and a fearsome military force. The other was fought alongside it with cameras, satellites, armies of journalists and propaganda techniques. One war was rationalized as an effort to find and disarm WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction; the other was carried out by even more powerful WMD, Weapons of Mass Deception.For those of us watching the coverage, war was more of a spectacle, an around-the-clock global media marathon, pitting media outlets against each other in ways that distorted truth and raised as many questions about the methods of TV news as it did the armed intervention it was covering, and in some cases, promoting.

WMD, a 100-minute nonfiction film, explores this story with the findings of a gutsy, media insider-turned-outsider, former network journalist Danny Schechter, who is one of America's most prolific media critics. Schechter says he "self-embedded" himself in his living room to monitor media coverage, by fastidiously tracking the TV coverage on a daily basis.

Featuring:

Danny Schechter, Director of WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception, and, Nieman Fellow, Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard University

Dr. Eric Alterman, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Dr. Steven Kull, Director, Program on International Policy Attitudes

Moderated by:

Mark Lloyd, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

When:

Wednesday, March 2, 2005
Program: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Admission is FREE, but space is limited.
Pizza will be served.

Where:

Center for American Progress
1333 H Street NW 10th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005

To RSVP:
Click here to register.
Or call 202.741.6388

Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line: McPherson Square
Red Line: Metro Center

Close this Window

About the participants:

Dr. Steven Kull is the Director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and a leading scholar on public opinion toward U.S. international engagement after the Cold War. His in-depth polling results have been prominently reported and influential in the national debate. He was also Co-Director (with Mac Destler) of CISSM's Project on Foreign Policy and the Public and (also with Destler) co-author of Misreading the Public: The Myth of a New Isolationism (1999). Kull is a political psychologist whose other books include Minds at War: Nuclear Reality and the Inner Conflicts of Defense Policy Makers. Kull is the principal investigator of U.S. Public Beliefs and Attitudes About Iraq, an influential report that is discussed in the film.

Danny Schechter is a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University, and radio news Director turned CNN and Emmy Award winning ABC News Producer. Schechter has spent thirty years as a media professional and is now an award-winning independent investigative journalist and filmmaker as well as an outspoken author. He writes daily on Mediachannel.org, the world's largest online media issues network and is the Executive Producer for Globalvision, an independent media company. More information about WMD and Danny Schechter, as well as a trailer narrated by Academy Award winner Tim Robbins, can be found at www.wmdthefilm.com. Schechter has also written a companion book, Embedded, on the Iraq War coverage.

Mark Lloyd is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress focusing on communications policy issues. Mr. Lloyd is also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. Previously Mr. Lloyd worked as a communications attorney in Washington, as a broadcast journalist with experience at NBC and CNN, and a MLK Visiting Scholar at MIT. He has published numerous essays on communications policy. His book "Prologue to a Farce: Communications and the Democratic Experiment," will be published by the University of Illinois Press.

Dr. Eric Alterman has been described as "the most honest and incisive media critic writing today" in the National Catholic Reporter, and author of "the smartest and funniest political journal out there," in the San Francisco Chronicle. Eric Alterman is Professor of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, media columnist for The Nation, the "Altercation" weblogger for MSNBC.com and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he writes and edits the Think Again column. Alterman is the author of the national bestsellers, What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News (2003), and The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America (with Mark Green, 2004). His newest book is When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and its Consequences (September, 2004). His Sound & Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy (1992, 2000), won the 1992 George Orwell Award and his It Ain't No Sin to be Glad You're Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen (1999, 2001), won the 1999 Stephen Crane Literary Award. Alterman is also the author of Who Speaks for America? Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy (1998). A frequent lecturer and contributor to virtually every significant national publication in the US and many in Europe, in recent years, he has also been a columnist for Worth, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and The Sunday Express (London).

About Reel Progress

Reel Progress is a new progressive film series sponsored by the Center for American Progress. Each month, the Center will host free screenings of progressive films, which will be followed by provocative panel discussions with leading public policy experts and filmmakers.