THIS IS THE EIGHTH year I’ve compiled the most overhyped and underreported stories of the year. Every year, the gulf between what people in this country and those elsewhere in the world are told about the same events widens. But 2004 will be a particularly critical one. Understanding what’s actually happening has never been more important, and the spinmeisters’ efforts to obscure what’s actually happening will be stronger and more technologically savvy than ever. It’s time to get smart.
They told us they’d lie to us. They were telling the truth.
MOST OVERRATED STORIES
Saving Jessica Lynch: Lynch’s bogus “rescue” narrowly outstrips Saddam’s toppled statue as the more sickening episode of government lying. (The “official” story of capture might yet join this elite company.) Both stories were easily discredited in foreign media but remain iconic markers of a “heroic” Iraq invasion. A Baghdad crowd’s supposedly spontaneous celebration was quickly revealed by wide-angle lenses to be a small, staged event. The Lynch episode was even more cynical, particularly for its crass exploitation of a young POW. Lynch wasn’t, as the Pentagon first claimed, captured after a heroic firefight, and her “rescue” from an unguarded hospital involved filming an elaborate raid against an off-camera foe that was completely fictitious. Sometimes the camera does liedepending on who’s holding it.
Schwarzenegger’s campaign: Never before has a political neophyte gained high political office by waging a campaign through appearances on E! and The Tonight Show.
Economic recovery: What the hell is the point of a “jobless recovery”?
The 7E7 factory decision: Guess what? This involves fewer than 1,000 jobsat a taxpayer cost of $3.2 million per job. It’s Boeing corporate welfare. How about “celebrating” the jobs Boeing is shipping elsewhereor the programs cut to pay for our cash-strapped state’s latest gifts to Boeing?
Strippergate: Why stop at a Lake City parking lot when there’s Paul Allen?
Michael Jackson and Kobe Bryant: Bread and circuses, sans bread.
MOST UNDERREPORTED STORIES
Allentown: Paul Allen and his mayoral lapdog are using all of the money and influence at their disposal to get taxpayers to build a transportation and utility infrastructure for Allen’s landholdings in the South Lake Union neighborhood. You want civic corruption? Start with the guy stripping Seattle’s coffers bare.
The moneymaking monorail: The monorail’s funding relies on public- private partnerships with developers. Throw in wheeler-dealer Joel Horn running the show, and it’s a setup for trouble.
Interstate 5 needs to be rebuilt: And how will we pay for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct or a new 520 bridge?
The peace movement was right: No Al Qaeda ties, WMDs, or danger to U.S. security. Dated, exaggerated, or simply forged “intelligence.” An invasion illegal under every conceivable authority. Thousands of civilian deaths. Saddam isn’t the only government leader who deserves to stand trial.
The catastrophic administration of Iraq: Iraq’s resistance is rooted in our incompetence, which is fueling widespread anger over military repression and an ongoing lack of basic services, personal security, or anything resembling a functional economy. Meanwhile, Halliburton, Bechtel, and friends are looting the place.
Taliban comeback: The old brutal warlords now run most of Afghanistan, stealing, murdering, and getting rich from record poppy harvests. Their brethren are quietly getting stronger again in the mountains.
Africa, Africa, Africa: So much escapes our attention, it’s hard to know where to start: Mugabe? Nigeria? AIDS? Worst is Central Africa’s horrific war: a staggering 4 million dead, atrocities, massacres, torture, sexual slavery. Why? Riches from eastern Congo’s rare minerals, used in the production of computer screens, keyboards, and chips. Companies like surprise!Halliburton and Bechtel are in the thick of it. This should be a global scandal, but it’s Africa, so we shrug.
Israel’s apartheid wall: Longer and taller than Berlin’s, and flagrantly illegal. Why so little attention?
Collapse of “free trade” consensus: Seattle was the turning point. From Cancún to Miami to countries across South America, “free trade” is being forcefully rejected by the global South. The poor are tired of being robbed.
Bush’s tax cuts flopped: We’ll be stuck with the bill for decades.
Bush vs. the Constitution: State power, in the name of 9/11 and “terrorism,” continues to growmore seizure and snooping rights, more Guantánamo prisoners (and torture allegations), John Ashcroft still employed. The good news: increasingly, courts are ordering Bush to back off.
America is the biggest terrorist: We sell the most weapons. We’re funding the next Saddams in places like Pakistan and Uzbekistan. We give Israel money and diplomatic cover. We routinely ignore international treaties and laws. The only force that can keep this rogue state in check is the American public. In 2004, we’ll have the chance. Educate yourselves, seek alternative news sources, make up your own mindsand get busy!
