Baghdad Blogbuster

It’s an old adage that truth is the first casualty of war. But surely the American invasion of Iraq would be different? After all, this was billed as the first prime-time television war.
Plentiful information has indeed been available. The problem is, it’s been so plentiful — and contradictory — that it has completely ceased to be credible. Locations which were supposed to have been secured turned out to be theatres of conflict long after they had ostensibly fallen.In the early days of the war, there were several reports of a local uprising against the existing regime, but that particular news seems to have been considerably exaggerated. On Thursday, it was reported that coalition troops were within five miles of Baghdad, and the airport had already been captured. But a few hours later, journalists from western news channels turned up at the airport and found it still under Iraqi control. Estimates of casualties — particularly coalition troops brought down by so-called friendly fire — vary wildly, depending on whom you’re hearing. And of course, there have been repeated claims that Saddam Hussein may already be dead, or injured, which have been strenuously refuted by Baghdad.
True, misinformation and propaganda are standard operating procedure in wartime. Indeed, during the Vietnam war, Norman Mailer coined the term ‘factoid’ to describe the phenomenon of a lie repeated loudly and long enough being accepted as the truth. But the audience is far more cynical than it used to be. It is no longer willing to buy the official line, all too frequently parroted by the mass media. Instead, people are increasingly turning to alternative sources of information like web logs, or ‘blogs’. One particularly popular blog, ‘Where is Raed?’ — written by a Baghdad resident under the pseudonym ‘Salam Pax’ — provided an immensely readable account of life in Iraq till March 24. Salam Pax has not updated his blog thereafter, sparking off fears for the well-being of the man many are already comparing to Anne Frank. Predictably, some are also casting aspersions on his authenticity. But the fact is, in the information age, ‘embedded’ journalism will find its natural counter in ‘embunkered’ reportage. Given the reduced credibility of both governments and the organised media, perhaps it’s time to ask, even if it is all right to attack another country in the name of freedom, what kind of democratic dispensation deliberately lies to its own people?