War Made Easy
How Presidents and
Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
Media Educational
Foundation
DVD
Narrated by Sean Penn and developed from Norman Solomon’s
2005 book by directors Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp, War Made Easy is an impressive
documentary focusing on role of media in government, peace and war. There are
lots of anti war docos these days and while most of these have a lot to say, it
is too easy to be put off by constant polemics and at times, well meaning but
meandering arguements. War Made Easy takes a different approach, offering what
is primarily a media analysis of the packaging of war marketing by both the
press and the government.
This approach is very different from the vast majority of
docos presently on the market and pays dividends. It is informative and
communicates extremely well. While certainly it has a critical view of the
United States foreign policy ranging from Vietnam to Iraq, the approach is not
to make a “value judgement” about the military actions involved, but to focus
on whether the American public were really given enough information to make a
educated decision about the nature of the conflict. This focus on the media, government
spin doctoring and the nature of democracy is insightful and in many ways cuts
to the quick about United States foreign policy. The issue becomes one of
transparency and honest, rather than one about “doves” and “hawks”.
One of the more interesting discussions in the film is on the
fact that during World War II, even though the causality rate was rising, most
Americans continued to think it was a “just war” right to the end. It was only
during the Vietnam era and beyond, when spin and media manipulation was used to
justify entering wars on false pretences that the public become wary and public
confidence waned. In other words, the issue is not with a necessary war per
see, but with the deliberate use of war for a dishonest end and the packaging
of that war through government and media deception.
This is a superbly presented doco with a wide range of
primary source materials ranging from early information of the Gulf of Tonkin
incident (where the US government deliberately falsified an incident to enter
the war) right through to Iraq. It uses snapshots of reports from Fox, MSNBC
and CNN to show just how compromised their reporting really is and especially
takes aim at the ludicrous concept of embedding journalists with the military,
where emotional bonding and peer pressure assure the sort of reporting the
government needs.
This is an informed, intelligent and well presented
documentary, which is based on clear and critical thinking about the media and
hence has a lot to offer. I believe that its message is also more general than
simply “war journalism” as it reflects on all aspects of reporting and
journalism and on the need for a new analytical approach to current affairs and
indeed, in everyday life.