WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception

D: Danny Schechter

Remarkably, the tidal flood of recent documentaries examining the aspects and angles of the United States’ current Middle East situation have also managed to focus on the media’s involvement, as well: Partisan or not, such films as Control Room, Outfoxed, and, yes, even Fahrenheit 9/11 have forcibly pried open the public’s too-often jaundiced eye to provide a much-needed glimpse into the inner workings of the media in times of war. Schechter – an Emmy Award winner, former producer for ABC’s 20/20, and self-described “news dissector” – topples yet more walls in the fourth estate with this engrossing film on the media’s role in ushering in the Iraq conflict and its stunning failure to adequately question the headlong rush to war until long after the bombs began falling. Schechter is a pro, and his film reflects that professionalism via a convincing assemblage of damning evidence that lays bare the rampant laissez-faire attitude the major media held in regard to the Bush administration’s pro-war pronouncements and beyond.

Friday, Oct. 15, 7:40pm, and Thursday, Oct. 21, 9:15pm at the Arbor

This article appears in October 15 • 2004.

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