Response to "Buying the War"

The documentary “Buying the War” really opened my eyes about the power the system that is the United States government has over our media and its viewers. By forcing the media outlets to publicize one side of the argument and ostracizing those who criticize them they are essentially brainwashing their audience. I’ve always known that the media can help us decide what is important through repeated exposure and that if we hear one side of a story over and over we may be more likely to take this stance, but I never realized how blatantly the government would go about pushing their agenda into the public spectrum. One member of the press noted that they were required to portray at least two people’s opinions supporting the President’s stance on the war for every one person who opposed his stance. The government was well aware that if they firmly repeated their views as facts from high officials that the audience would come to believe it as fact. People in government also made it seem as though we had to quickly, that we didn’t have time to pour over mountains of information to find the facts behind Saddam Hussein’s involvement with Al Qaeda and nuclear weapons. By making people believe they we need to take swift action to counter terrorism, they made those who worked to find the facts and criticized the government’s pitfalls in evidence even more ostracized. Sweeping important information under the rug, repeatedly exposing us to their agenda, using the backdrop of important American symbols of freedom and liberty, and by identifying critics as enemies of freedom are just a few of the tactics American journalism used to push the agenda of war after 9-11.