Bill Moyer’s 2007 documentary Buying The War scrutinizes the media’s lack of skepticism surrounding the White House propaganda that eventually lead to the invasion of Iraq after 9/11. It’s the assertion of the film makers that a convincing but false pretense was used to gain broad support for the war. I believe Buying The War is based on the rhetorical strategy that the subject matter is worthy of greater scrutiny. The controversy of the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after the nation and world were assured they existed inherently calls for some sort of investigation. To help persuade the audience of the film’s ideal several strategies were used.
The film uses a strong voice of authority. Well-known journalists and authors such as Dan Rather, Walter Issacson, Bob Simon and Bill Moyers himself, lend their own public image to support the claims. The film can be viewed as a type of propaganda film. No other alternative views were presented besides the ones that support the initial claim. This method of persuasion limits the audiences perspective on the subject matter.
The talking heads approach is also employed by Buying The War. The same authoritative, knowledgable and trusted journalists and authors are interviewed on screen to help sell the directors point. As mentioned in the book on page 283 this emphasizes the complexity of how exactly the media was tricked into going along with the less than honest attempts to start a war.
This was a interesting documentary. The most shocking part came right at the beginning. The documentary starts with a press conference with president Bush before the war had begun. You can hear Bush himself state it, “it’s a script.” The press conference was scripted just so. Bush would call on certain “journalists”. This documentary shows that most Americans had no clue that the Bush administration was lying through their teeth. I certainly was to young to even notice what was occurring and watching this documentary really open my eyes to many things that were occurring and been hide from Americans by the people we trust most. Wesley, I also have to agree with you that the fim uses a strong voice of authority and no alternative views were presented.
ReplyDelete-Alissa Ochoa
I found the documentary quite interesting my self and I have to say I really agree with you when you said that you believe Buying The War is based on the rhetorical strategy that the subject matter is worthy of greater scrutiny. I have the same beliefs, and I feel that the assumptions that were made by Judith Miller as well as the beliefs in weapons of mass destruction did need some investigation, All in all, great response and I agree with argument that the issue needed further investigation.
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