Chapter 5: Selling America

In the aftermath of September 11th, the Ad Council of America played an important role in promoting a series of Public Service Announcements and print ads with a message of tolerance, unity and patriotism. Formed in 1942 as the War Advertising Council, The Ad Council of America still is the organization responsible for public service announcements. During the Second World War it provided Americans with slogans like: Loose Lips Sink Ships and after 9/11, it started a nationwide campaign via the print media, radio, television and the internet America responds to the crisis: messages that can help and heal which generated different reactions. The Internet was a key medium for this campaign as it hosted the I Am an American PSA, the most popular PSA the Council has ever put forth: Whatever race Whatever country Whatever religion All families worry about the same thing Talk to your children about terrorism Talk to your children about tolerance (Silberstein: 109) Sandra Silberstein offers a few possible interpretations: Terrorism is caused by a lack of tolerance. Inoculate your children against terrorism, teach tolerance; Terrorism is caused by a lack of tolerance. If we dont teach tolerance, we would become vulnerable to recruitment by terrorists., Tolerance is a liberal term that doesnt address the underlying roots of terrorism. Explain to your children why people turn to terrorism when despair overtakes hope., This is the kind of message that Americans write to assume moral superiority over the worlds desperate and the poor., This is the kind of message that would save the world if everyone could see it and be schooled in it.

Another I am an American ad broadcasted on television, showed ordinary people, who were not only ethnically diverse, but also had very different jobs (a nurse, a priest, firefighter etc.). The final message, Out of many, one. The publics response was anything but uniform. Some argue certain categories, especially Muslims had been excluded from the video. Others celebrated the fresh portrayal of ethnic groups Instead of using hyphens and asking for victim group handouts. (Silberstein: 128) After, September 11th it was not only PSAs that reflected a patriotic ideology. Companies like Ford, included a patriotic theme in their advertisements. Although right after 9/11, Americans had leaned towards a more spiritual rather than material life, by Christmas shoppers were back in the stores.

Chapter 6: The New McCarthyism

ACTA, The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, was founded in 1995 by vice presidents wife Lynne Chenney and acts as a watchdog group to monitor and influence higher education. (Silberstein: 127). After 9/11, ACTA picked up on the so-called Blame America First attitude of college faculty and students around the country. People who advocated this view supported peaceful resolutions to the conflict in Iraq. In addition, many of those accused of publically expressing such an anti-Americanism , did so during peace rallies or during speeches, classes or presentations, pleading mostly for peace, tolerance and understanding. Consequently, ACTA issued a report entitled Defending Civilization where it listed anti-American quotes from professors and students. These included statements such as: Break the cycle of violence., War created people like Osama bin Laden, and more war will create more people like him. and democracies, because they have a sense of self-pride and a moral conscientiousness, can often act without restraint and be destructive of values they are trying to promote. The thinking is to find the perpetrators and engage in a military response and feel that that solves something. But there are needs to be an understanding of why this suicidal violence could be undertaken against our country. (Silberstein: 127) The reason which made this campaign look a lot like the Joe McCarthy Cold War blacklisting campaigns against the threat of Communism was the naming of names(Silberstein:

127). Attached to the report, ACTA also published a list containing the names of people which were, in essence, against the war and had made public statements which supported a non-violent solution in Iraq and/or criticized the governments position on 9/11. This list was made public via the internet and it soon triggered reactions from the media and the public which led to its removal within days. The Report is analyzed by prof. Silberstein who proves through logical argumentation the fallacies in the report. Hasty generalization is one error found in the report as follows: Proving a shocking divide between academe and the public at large, professors across the country sponsored teach-ins that typically ranged from moral equivocation to explicit condemnations of America. (Silberstein: 134). The author argues that only half of the statements in ACTAs report were in fact made by teachers. Moreover, the majority of students supported the war. A few of the quotes were even used by George Bush a year later Poverty breeds resentment and resentment breeds anger. The media reacted almost immediately, criticizing the initiative of ACTA arguing that many respected professors, like prof. Gitlin of New York University were in fact nothing short of patriotic (Gitlin had displayed the American flag on his balcony). Also, members of the public wrote to ACTA and expressed solidarity with some of those named in the list. The media gave those mentioned in the report the opportunity to speak out and soon, Lynne Chenney and othet members of ACTA distanced themselves from and denied taking part in Defending Civilization, despite their previous public statements.

Chapter 7; Schooling America

After September 11th the media started to inform more and more about Islam. Documentaries and television programs talked about the Islamic world and its strategic implications for the United States. In the Peter Jennings documentary Minefield: The United States and the Muslim World, by and large, Islam was portrayed as dangerous. (Silberstein: 151)

The documentary also argued that television had played an important part in bringing the American culture closer to the Muslim world and tried to dispel fears that they all hate Americans. (Silberstein: 151) Another CNN documentary, featuring Christiane Amanpour, CNNs international correspondent focused on the good side of Islam arguing that the Koran advocates peace and human rights, while having some similarities with the Judeo-Christian Religion of the West. How can a religion of peace have been so distorted? (Silberstein: 155) Another CNN report An in Depth Look at Islam and a Newsweek article, both focused on breaking stereotypes. They presented differences, similarities and gave possible suggestions to solving the conflict between the Arab and the Western World. After 9/11, the media dedicated an unprecedented amount of time to informing the public about the Muslim World and its relation to the Western World.

Chapter 8: Rhetorical Years. The Second Anniversary and Beyond.

By the second anniversary and beyond, the rhetorical War on Terror had become the all too real war on Iraq. (Silberstein: 161) If in the beginning the media had provided information, as time went by, the hard-boiled news started to turn into so-called people stories, stories which exploit the human element in the personal experiences of 9/11 survivors and relatives. This was referred to as embedded reporting. A major complaint about embedded reporting was that it showed a narrow slice of a large and complex picture. It was easy for both the public and reporters to generalize incorrectly from what the PEJ (Columbia Universitys Project for Excellence in Journalism) called the view through the soda straw.(Silberstein: 165)

After the second anniversary of 9/11, the American media had another topic to cover and debate: The U.S.A Patriot Act. The main concerns of the public regarding The Patriot Act were: the expansion of the governments ability to search private property without notice to the owner (the so-called sneak and peak provision), the increased ability of authorities to gain access to citizens records held by third parties (such as library records), and a perceived lack of judicial oversight(including the omission of a probable cause requirement for certain searches and wire taps(Silberstein: 167) The Patriot Act was attacked more and more in the American media as was the Bush administration. Organizations as ACLU and Phyllis Schlaflys Eagle Forum openly protested against the act and everything it stood for. Concerns were raised the public sphere regarding the limitation of basic freedoms and rights. Satire followed soon. A website that imitated that of the White House posted a Patriot Registration: Because Non-Traitors Have Nothing to Hide.(Silberstein: 170) The President was also a target for both criticism and irony after the sixteen word speech of 2003. By 2004 perhaps the most telling slogan along the Democratic primary trail had to do with mendacity: When Clinton lied, nobody died.(Silberstein: 174) Another degraded myth was that of the American heroes of 9/11. After September 11th, a program through which firefighters helped the widows of victims brought even more admiration for the heroes of 9/11. It was shortly revealed though, that one firefighter had reportedly left his family and pursued an affair with the widow he was supposed to have been helping. More such stories surfaced shortly and soon, the 9/11 American hero faded from the spotlight. George Bush suffered a staggering drop in his approval rates also. He managed to turn that around, though, by going on a secret visit on Thanksgiving at a U.S. army base in Iraq. The picture of the president, holding a turkey, surrounded by American soldiers, pulled him back up to a 60% approval rating. The Capture of Saddam Hussein also helped the presidents public image as the Chief in Command. Still, the years following September 11th, still leave unanswered questions to this day.