Episode 13: The Always Stumbling US Empire
Citations Needed
Citations Needed
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2017
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Stumbling", "sliding", "drawn into" war––the media frequently assumes the US is bumbling its way around the world. The idea that the United States operates in "good faith" is taken for granted for most of the American press while war is always portrayed as something that happens to the US, not something it seeks out.
On this episode, Adam and Nima explore the media's commitment to the narrative of "United States as reluctant warrior," whose leadership and decision-making always has the "best intentions." We also examine the new Ken Burns and Lynn Novick PBS series on Vietnam which traffics in many of these tropes. With guest Professor Hannah Gurman.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Citations Needed with Nemeshirazi and Adam Johnson. |
| 0:08.8 | Welcome to Citations Needed, podcasts where we talk about media, power, PR, and the history |
| 0:14.4 | of bullshit I am Nemeshirazi. |
| 0:16.4 | I am Adam Johnson. |
| 0:17.8 | You can find us on Twitter at CitationsPod, Facebook at Citations Needed, and feel free to support |
| 0:24.7 | us and our work. |
| 0:26.9 | The Patreon at Citations Needed podcast is where you will find us as the name Nemeshirazi |
| 0:33.2 | and Adam Johnson right on there. |
| 0:34.2 | Yeah, so we appreciate all the support we've gotten. |
| 0:36.1 | It helps keep the show going. |
| 0:38.6 | Today we are discussing a very common trope in media that we write about a lot, which |
| 0:42.8 | is the idea of US as a stumbling empire, the idea that we are merely blending around |
| 0:48.9 | the world looking for the light switch. |
| 0:50.5 | We touched on it briefly in the human rights episode with Greenwald, but we didn't really |
| 0:54.8 | get into it. |
| 0:55.8 | And that's the notion that the US, according to the media, is usually either two things. |
| 1:00.5 | We're either incompetent or benevolent, and we're oftentimes usually incompetent and benevolent. |
| 1:07.5 | Those are the only two real options. |
| 1:09.0 | On today's show, we're actually going to cover a lot of ground, and we have three primary |
| 1:12.9 | issues to dig into with regard to this. |
| 1:15.5 | So again, as Adam mentioned, we're going to talk about how the United States has always |
| 1:19.2 | described as a reluctant, worrier state, routinely dragged or stumbling into wars. |
... |
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