The War You Don’t See

// December 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Media, Misc., TV

A cursory glance at the programming schedule for ITV1 on any evening of the week usually prompts a deep sigh of disappointment. Tonight, for example, one can wallow in the bilge of Celebrity Grimefighters at 9pm and after a short break for the ITV News (which needs to sharpen up its ideas a bit) it’s an empty-headed leap into the fuel-injected gracelessness of 2 Fast 2 Furious. Unless you are a particularly vacant yet excitable teenage boy this film is not for you. It was with a great deal of surprise then that I noticed that the same channel had devoted upwards of 95 minutes to the broadcast of John Pilger’s new film The War You Don’t See on Tuesday evening at 10:35pm.

The film focuses mainly on the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and the manner in which public consent was, in the opinion of Pilger and others, manipulated by the US and UK governments with the aid of largely unquestioning editors in the mainstream media. Pilger’s passionate viewpoint is, I believe, too politically idealised to achieve the fait accompli he clearly believes he is presenting, however much in the film should be mandatory viewing for all thoughtful people and certainly for all working journalists.

You should watch the film (for free) on your own particular TV-on-demand service or on the ITV player (for the next 28 days).