WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION (2004) **1/2 Documentaries shouldn't have to be fun, and there's no question that Danny Schechter is passionate about his subject matter, has uncovered important truths, and is right about it all. No one with a brain in their head should have ever been confused about the inevitable disaster of the Iraq War, and the corporate media bowed down to their masters and went right along like silly but destructive sheep. Freedom of the press. Schechter's case is so apparent that he doesn't even have to go into the dumbest corners of the tragedy, like Tony Blair's concerns that Saddam Hussein could bomb London within 45 minutes because some mediocre student's homework suggested that might be the case. Instead Schechter focuses on consumerism, news as profit-generating entertainment, and war as big business. All worthy foci, plenty of information for even the initiated and, as I say, Schechter delivers. From an intellectual viewpoint (my aesthetic problem is that Schechter's voice irritates me) my biggest problem with the film is how quickly reporters who did their work properly (John Pilger and Robert Fisk are acknowledged) are passed by. Why did they so easily access the truth where everyone else failed? Schechter may be right that it was just all very comfortable, and no one wanted to stick their neck out but the reality has to be even worse than that, particularly measured against the international political landscape in the wake of the invasion. There's an ethical cancer at the foundation of capitalism, but there's no questioning that the patient does a damn good imitation of some aspects of health just the same. Maybe the Essenes were right about manichean dualism, partly.
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