Media Placing Positive Spin on Iraq War

In early August of 2007, Common Dreams News Center affiliate Norman Solomon wrote an article entitled "Media Blitz for War: The Big Guns of August." This article claims that in August the media was putting a positive spin on the unpopular war in Iraq. He cites that these Media outlets were focusing on the military victories and not to the political failures. In this way, the media was framing the Iraq war to place it in a positive light rather than in a negative one.

The author compares the PR campaign to improve the opinions of the public concerning the Iraq War to re-marketing bad products to rid the buyer of any remorse they may feel. He says the main message of this is that the war must go on. Solomon criticises so called critics of the war by alleging that they want more effective warfare not peace.

Solomon compares these recent media spins to the framing that took place to convince the American people to get into this war in the first place. He discusses the leaking of false information to the New York Times and other media outlets, by Vice President Dick Cheney other top officials. He says that this misinformation was presented to the American people as fact. Solomon's personal beliefs presents itself when he says;

"Arguments over whether U.S. forces can prevail in Iraq bypass a truth that no amount of media spin can change: The U.S. war effort in Iraq has always been illegitimate and fundamentally wrong. Whatever the prospects for America's War there, it shouldn't be fought."

Solomon says the most opponents of the war believe that the "tides of history" have shifted and that the Iraq War is basically over. The American public will be reassured by talk of military success, because the media is seemingly obsessed with militarism.