Prompt #1 Response

The article from the Guardian about the rescue of Jessica Lynch further developed my opinion regarding the prompt: "Deception is just as bad as telling an outright lie." Initially, I strongly disagreed. Our justification as a group was that deception is almost always much worse than a outright lie. This is because a lie could be told to benefit another person in any given situation, where deception is often a result of bad or evil intentions, with the hope of hurting someone. After reading this article, I realised that the twisting of the original story by American media was also a for of deception. The deceived the public. However, this was not through malicious intent. They did so to instil confidence and pride in the hearts of the American people. Although this could heavily be considered to be propaganda, it does not encourage any negativity, and this idea goes against the ground I stood on initially. After the read, I lean more towards disagreeing with the prompt instead of strongly doing so, as I now have evidence of a case in which deception is not a result of malicious intent. 

This was further emphasised by the documentary on the war in Iraq, and how the Arabic news broadcaster Al Jazeera seemed to portray the war to their audience. In the documentary, Al Jazeera were referred to as both "American propaganda" and "the mouthpiece of Osama Bin Laden." Also mentioned in the documentary was The American broadcasters, and how they seem to reveal a different side of the story. This was suggested by John Rushing. Both broadcasters have different audiences, and the information provided depends on the audience. As a result, information can be twisted, and bias can be created in favour of supporting the ideologies of the audience being reached out to. This further supports my claim, that deception, like in this case, could be for the better of the audience. The Americans gain confidence in their troops, as they are portrayed as exceedingly heroic in Baghdad. However, the Arabs are given a different perspective, supporting their ideology of Americans taking over and causing high rates of attrition. Both ideologies are supported by news broadcasters through deception.