Newsweek and the Guantanamo Koran Abuse Story Essays

Fear in itself is something to be feared. Fear is the primary source of insanity and chaos. Fear alone sent the Puritan society of Salem, Massachusetts into a state of utter hysteria in the year 1692, when one of the world's most infamous witch hunts occurred. Arthur Millers play, The Crucible, is a historical fiction depicting the events of the Salem Witch Trials. A witch hunt is a political campaign launched on the pretext of investigating activities subversive to the state. Every witch hunt is identifiable by the five key elements; the use of a scapegoat, a struggle to maintain moral order, a subversive character or group, an outbreak of hysteria and panic, and ulterior motives that provide

Nowadays journalists have the responsibility to report facts as accurately, objectively, and disinterestedly as is humanly possible. ‘’The, honest, self-disciplined, well-trained reporter seeks to be a propagandist for nothing but the truth’’ (Casey, 1944b).

These attacks were a changing point in American society because it brought out racism and discrimination against Muslim and Islamic people.For example,the author discloses,”I know America has a right

For a second, the U.S. stood still. Looking up at the towers, one can only imagine the calm before the storm in the moment when thousands of pounds of steel went hurdling into its once smooth, glassy frame. People ran around screaming and rubble fell as the massive metal structure folded in on itself like an accordion. Wounded and limping from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, America carried on, not without anger and fear against a group of innocent Americans, Muslim Americans. Nietzsche’s error of imaginary cause is present in the treatment of Muslim Americans since 9/11 through prejudice in the media, disregard of Muslim civil liberties, racial profiling, violence, disrespect, and the lack of truthful public information about

In the airports, Muslim people became “the usual suspects”, were thoroughly searched and often interrogated. In her article, O’Connor claims that the lives of American Muslims changed forever, and the statement is hard to disagree with (“How 9/11 Changed These Muslim Americans’ Lives Forever.”) Those who had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks, their children and grandchildren were sentenced to face racism, hate and violence.

Did you know, as American taxpayers, maintaining the prison at Guantánamo has costed $4.8 billion since it had opened in 2002? Well this al back to “ The Global War on Terror” under the Bush administration that,. response to the 9/11 attacks, targeted middle eastern regions of the world;, collecting men from left to right by heavily armed American soldiers. Unfortunately, some of them are destined to pay for another man’s crime by serving time in Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo Bay, located within a naval base in Cuba, became a facility purposed to hold alleged enemy combatants and terrorists alike. Because of later documented injustices reported against detainees, it gained negative spotlight by both citizens and world leaders. When Obama succeeded in presidency, closing the facility became one of his priorities for a number of reasons.

September 11, 2001 live on in America’s history because of the depth of the tragedy and many victims. Nineteen militant individuals associated with the radical extremist group of Al-Qaeda, radicals of the Islamic faith, hijacked four American airlines. Two planes separately entered the buildings of the Twin Towers located in New York City; the third plane collided into the Pentagon located outside of Washington, D.C: while the fourth landed in an open field in Pennsylvania. In total over 3,000 innocent Americans became victims of the radicals, slaying over 400 civil servant workers (CNN, 2013). September 11, 2001, (9-11) is the landmark that sparked radical terrorism, hate crimes for followers of the Muslin faith and how the media views terrorism.

The mass media is responsible for providing the general public with information regarding current events and issues that are occurring in the world. In addition, journalists have the ability to influence and impact individuals’ ideologies about certain topics by the way they present the information, either in a positive or negative manner (Beckford 1994). On the other hand, scholarship strives to methodologically and critically study and analyze a phenomenon in order to present factually correct information. Furthermore, this paper will discuss the difference between journalism and scholarship, and will use the tragic incident that occurred at Waco as an example to illustrate each fields differences in discussing/reporting the events that unfolded.

Guantanamo Bay, though started with good intentions, only highlights America’s negative side. Marine Major General Michael Lehnert, who played a significant role in the opening of Guantanamo, has drastically changed his opinion and said that it, “Validates every negative perception of the U.S.” (Sutton 1). One example of this occurred in 2006, when President Bush justified the use of “physical coercion” (torture) during interrogations (Fetini 1). Some of these torture methods include isolation, beatings, sleep deprivation, and general abuse. Other tactics such as disrespect for Islamic symbols or sexual provocation are used to encourage stress in detainees (Bloche 1). These immoral methods led to an international outcry. It was later remarked that the Cuban territory upon which Guantanamo is located is being used as a “concentration camp” of sorts (Fetini 1). Guantanamo and its unethical values are being recognized by nations around the world, displaying America in a bad light.

During the war in Iraq of 2004, CBS covered a story on 60 minutes that exposed the crude behavior of prison guards in Abu Ghraib prison. CBS exhibit photos of the Iraqi prisoners in a rather unsettling matter, such as being naked with bag over their heads, other where there was electric wire attached to their bodies, and some who were forced to perform sexual acts. A number of Americans were alarmed by our American soldiers. However, what makes this incident even more irksome is 30 years before the Abu Ghraib prison incident the same events played out in Stanford University. Both parties were many years apart causing the Abu Ghraib prison guards to most likely be unaware of the Stanford University study. Which causes one to question to rise:

On the covers of newspapers and on the screens of many, the story of the Boston marathon hits the ground. Twenty six thousand eight hundred thirty nine people from all over the world came to run in this awe-inspiring marathon. Until the tragedy strikes right in their faces. The explosions, injuring scores of people, effected the lives of innocent civilians. Cheers were replaced with screams, sirens, and the first responders providing aide to the citizens. This was a brutal event just like the one on September 11, 2001. Instead of using seclusion towards political and economical reasons for events, the mass medias perceptive towards incidents involving the religion Islam has created the stereotypical thought in society in which we live in today.

In 1949, the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was created to prohibit immoral, cruel and degrading punishment toward prisoners during wartime. The United States ratified this covenant and became a member of the Geneva Conventions. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, a series of human abuses occurred from October through December of 2003 where American military personnel have conducted acts of brutality and immoral behavior toward Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison. The inhumane “interrogation method” of the American military have clearly violated Article 2 and 4 of the Geneva Conventions. Article 2.2 states “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state

We examined two articles about the bus bombing incident, one from Time and one from the New York Times. The Time article gave a much more general overview of the incident, and lacked some details, such as who was arrested and why, and the response of the government. The New York Times article discussed this information in great detail. It includes the names of the perpetrators and the reason for their arrest. It also discusses the response of Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who

September 11th changed the lives of many Americans, irrevocably. The horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon altered the way American’s viewed their positions within the world, not to mention their lives and their safety. The attacks brought terrorism to the forefront of national attention, in every aspect. The government became immediately immersed in an effort to understand and defeat terrorism, and simultaneously, the media, with its perverse fascination with violence and profit-driven espousal to round-the-clock, up-to-the-minute coverage, demonstrated an obsession with the attacks, by broadcasting almost nothing but the latest developments in the search and rescue efforts and investigations

In the case of the New Republic, they were lucky that Stephen Glass’ unethical behavior was exposed or else the magazine could have suffered a great deal more than they already did having to admit that most of his articles were fabricated. Unethical journalism as a whole causes society to feel as if they can trust no one, which then leads people to feel as if they need to do their own research in order to obtain the truth. Falsifying information only further disrupts the trust between the media and society.