True or False? Corruption within Manufactured American News on War in Iraq

According dictionary.com, propaganda is “information, ideas, or rumours deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.”

Corruption scandals with respect to propagandizing of the war in Iraq have gained momentum; especially in the wake of several fabrications told by Bush, Vice President Cheney and other administration officials in order to sell the war to the public.

Documentary producer Michael Moore emphasizes this issue of the war in Iraq being based on a lie in his 2004 documentary ‘Slacker Uprising’. In his film he makes much reference to the 1100 soldiers who have essentially died in the name of a lie. In one scene, Moore was harassing reporters on their lack of accurate investigation prior to the war, whereby the public was convinced of the existence of weapons of mass destruction when the reporters, “failed to do their job.”

According to BBC News in a televised program called “The Debate,” “Bush decided to invade Iraq in April 2001, six months before September 11th, and the official reason was to improve Western access to Iraqi oil.” The decision for military action had nothing to do with 9/11, the war on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, or Iraqi human rights. Furthermore, The Debate had stated that essentially war-time propaganda tells you what you want to hear. They tell you that politicians have noble motives for the war on Iraq.

But before you choose what to believe, have you considered the facts yourself?

Moore claims that his film is the anti-propaganda. “My movie exists to counter the manufactured news,” he says. “The only sad thing about this is that people have to pay $8 or $9 to learn things they should know for free.” Moore claims American society is being fed exaggerations of reality by news agencies, specific mention being made to Fox News and CNN in his film.

“In the end, Moore just didn’t get through to the right people and the slackers just weren’t enough of a force, because America didn’t care. The American public he warned would flip the truth actually continued believing the lies. And we suffered through four more years,” stated movie critic Felix Vasquez.



Katherine Gun, a 29-year-old former translator for the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham UK, was accused in January 2004 for breaching the Official Secrets Act. Gun allegedly disclosed details of a secret U.S. “dirty tricks” operation to spy on UN Security Council members. Gun was reported fired after her arrest.

Her case which had been funded by a legal aid in Cheltenham UK, stated, “Any disclosures that may have been made were justified on the following grounds: because they exposed serious illegality and wrongdoing on the part of the United States government who attempted to subvert our own security services. Gun also tried to prevent wide-scale death and causalities among ordinary Iraqi people and UK forces in the course of an illegal war.”

With the 2008 United States federal election on the rise, Moore’s ‘Slacker Uprising’ is a clear warning for Americans to vote. After four years of fighting for peace in the American war with Iraq, nothing has changed. Misleading propaganda is one of the more prominent issues in dealing with election coverage. American citizens need to understand that what they are being told isn’t always completely accurate. Hopefully, Moore’s ‘Slacker Uprising’ will inspire Americans to look past the fabrications of the media and vote with a clear understanding.