One of the biggest topics among conservative bloggers the past several days is a video, broadcast last week by CNN, that shows insurgent snipers in Iraq shooting at U.S. troops. The right is nearly apoplectic about this, and this week, they’re getting support from Republican members of Congress. The anger seems misplaced, and in an odd twist, possibly hypocritical.
The video is, to be sure, rather painful. The footage does not literally show any Americans getting shot or killed, but it does shows a service member standing in a public area. The viewer hears a shot fired, and then the video fades to black before any graphic images are seen.
In response, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said that airing the video was irresponsible, it could encourage more attacks on U.S. troops, and has asked the Pentagon to prohibit CNN reporters from traveling with U.S. military units in Iraq.
“Does CNN want America to win this thing?” Hunter asked yesterday on the network. In past wars, he said, the media was more pro-American. “You can’t be on both sides of the war.” […]
In a letter released yesterday, Hunter and two other Republican House members from California asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to remove CNN from the military embedding program, in which journalists spend time with combat units in Iraq.
“CNN has now served as the publicist for an enemy propaganda film,” wrote Hunter and Reps. Brian Bilbray and Darrell Issa.
It’s interesting Hunter, Bilbray, and Issa would put it this way.
I’m not at all sure terrorists would consider this footage useful for propaganda purposes, but a reasonable case can be made — indeed, has been made — that the latest commercial from the Republican National Committee is far closer to an “enemy propaganda film” than anything we’ve seen on CNN.
This is not just a video which suggests that Republicans will be better at fighting terror. It actually very closely resembles real al-Qaeda videos…. This video would not look out of place on a jihadi forum, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it actually gets posted on them and admired (although the production values are a bit low for an actual al-Sahab product).
Anyone involved in analyzing or combating al-Qaeda’s media strategies has to be astounded that the Republican National Committee has financed, produced, distributed on the internet, and aired on US television what is for all intents and purposes an al-Qaeda recruitment video. The video, if it works as intended, will frighten the American people and influence American politics… just like al-Qaeda’s own videos. Bin Laden couldn’t be prouder, or more grateful, especially since it didn’t cost him a thing.
CNN aired a video showing part of a sniper attack, but intentionally didn’t show anything graphic or violent. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, paid considerably to broadcast, on national television, video highlighting terrorists’ rhetoric and training footage.
Does the Republican National Committee “want America to win this thing?” Has the RNC “now served as the publicist for an enemy propaganda film”?
If CNN’s far-right critics are equally outraged by the RNC’s commercial, I might find their criticism a little more compelling. Until then….