Do people support the war in Iraq because of their misconceptions, or...

do they hold onto misconceptions in order to justify their support of the war?

I found this story through TruthOut this morning:

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We report, you get it wrong
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - The more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and its aftermath, according to a major new study released in Washington on Thursday.

And the more you watch the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News channel, in particular, the more likely it is that your perceptions about the war are wrong, adds the report by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).

More...

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The main gist of the article is that commercial media is distorting Americans' perceptions about the war in Iraq, our reasons for going, and its aftermath.

Many people support the war because they hold some misconception (or more than one.

No big surprise there.

The thing that I started wondering about is whether many people (individuals, not politicians) deliberately believe the misconception because they already support the war.

I feel that some of my coworkers supprted the idea of war with Iraq, totally absent any justification for doing so, out of sheer jingoistic bloodymindedness. Because they see that Fox News, MSNBC, etc report that the White House claims various justifications, they point to that to justify their bloodlust, despite growing evidence it was very wrong. I get the sense that there is an Orwellian desire among them to make themselves believe the bullshit.

Am I overly paranoid about this, or do you feel the same?

is domestically rooted in anti-bush, GOP-distrust, rather than a fair analysis or an alternative solution to illiberalise the middle east.

And they see that the foreign opposition is somewhat rooted in anti-americanism.

Don't get me wrong, tons of americans are uninformed and uninterested, but alot of them just see knee-jerk liberals being knee-jerk liberals

doesn't matter whose, doesn't matter where, doesn't matter why . . . they just want some vengeance for 9/11, and they don't much care where they get it . . .

to blame the mainstream media for a lot of things, but these days I think that lack of knowledge by the electorate is outrunning even the lazy reporting. No media I ever heard told people that the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis. They were Saudis from day one. I learned they were Saudis from the mainstream media, same as anybody else who cared to listen. And I was on vacation that week and not even glued to the TV.

I'll agree that through the years the media has done a crap job of covering the Middle East, but basic nonsense like the identity of ther hijackers is not their fault.

In general I think people see things on a very basic level and they don't care to make distinctions that might require thought. Arabs bombed the WTC. Any bombing back of Arabs is fair in their eyes. BushCo hasn't created this phenomenon, they just exploit it quite well. How many times have you heard, "Bush is a strong President who has made the US safer. There haven't been anymore 9/11s since 9/11, have there?" That's the brand of "logic" that floats around out there.

To be completely honest, I've been developing a small personal theory that the average media person isn't any smarter than the population it serves.

I came across it yesterday at AsiaTimes and wanted to post it myself, but didn't have time.

Anyway, I think you're most likely correct about some people supporting the war "out of sheer jingoistic bloodymindedness". There's definitely a vengence factor as well -- kill some Arabs, ANY Arabs.

People listen to the mainstream with certain filters already in place. If someone is inclined to WANT to "kick some Arab butt", then they'll only hear what they WANT to hear -- whatever seems to provide justification for an already imbedded emotion.

An excellent concomitant read can be found here: Let Them Eat War -- a thoughtful study of the "angry white male" phenomena. I highly recommend it, it definitely addresses the questions you've raised.

sw

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