Response to 'Spilling blood with oil in Iraq'. What have you learnt about the media in the way they present what is perceived over what is real?

Media is a powerful tool that can brainwash people and instill in them new ideas that they do not accept at first. That is the reason why many leaders in around the world use the media to carry out propaganda and to achieve more support from the people. One of the examples of using the media can be seen from the article 'Spilling blood with oil in Iraq'.
In the article, media is seen as a propaganda tool to make people think that the war is necessary and the fault does not lie with the US. In the article, the media is also seen to tell lies to divert blames to other people. For example, when a Baghdad market was bombed, killing more than a dozen people, Iraqi anti-aircraft fire was blamed for targeting civilian areas. There are some words and phrases such as 'falsehoods' and 'catalogue of lies' that the writer uses to describe the actions of the media.

Initially, the media covered the US real intention in invading Iraq by reporting that the US army 'real' intention in invading Iraq was to remove Saddam Hussien and to find the mass destruction nuclear weapon. Many people believed what the media had reported and showed their support as they thought the US army was just carrying out justice and to the save the Iraqis from Saddam's regime. However, after a long period, the US army had yet found the nuclear weapon, instead they had show their true colours. The US was actually targeting at the oil industry in Iraq.

When the US army was in Iraq, the soldiers committed some heinous crimes but they were not being reported at first. When the US army attacked the Iraq's state television station, the incident was denied. After further news reports emerged of the attack, the denials faded away. Some US soldiers tortured the prisoners of war (POWs) by forcing them to take off all their clothes. This violated the Geneva Convention which concerns the treatment of POWs, one part which states no physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind. However, this issue was not being reported by the media at first.

In a modern world where there are always incidents happening all around the world, the media should even be responsible enough to report the truth to everyone instead of distorting or hiding the truth.