MASS MEDIA-perception or reality?

The article, 'Spilling Blood with Oil in Iraq', dated 6 April 2003, gave me much insight as to how the mass media uses different techniques to present information to the general public-be it perception or reality. Following the invasion of the United States into Iraq, the effects that the Iraqi civilians had to face was terrible and the expectation that these civilians would warmly welcome the US troops before the invasion was simply a lie and a fantasy. The arguments that were put across for war were not credible as it ony consisted of a whole string of lies. Even before the invasion, untruths such as France and Germany providing support for the war and the Arab countries willing to follow US and overthrow Saddam were mere lies. Also, a whole lot more lies were told in an effort to justify the war. For example, on the fifth day of the bombing campaign, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, accused Iraq of planning to use chemical weapons just because accusations of them doing something similar were brought up in the1980s. Also, another US official blamed the Iraqis for planning to dress up as the US soldiers to attack civilians and then turn around and blame the invading forces. However, this accusation was not real as well, proving that the US official's mentalities were changed due to perception and not what was actually happening. Then, the next day, some other US officials claimed that the US prisoners of war(PoWs) were being executed and shot in front of the entire town, thus deproving their relationship with Iraq. All these claims were made without sufficient supporting evidence, therefore once again proving that facts can be changed due to different mindsets and biased attitudes toward a certain group of people, in this case between the US and the Iraqi civilians. As the war dragged on, Tony Blair rushed to Washington for supposed "crisis talks" that contained topics unrelated to a crisis at all. The mass media did not present the real facts, but instead were very 'obliging' and catered to the image of Tony Blair, so that the public would not think of him in a bad light. Being the media, they said that the "purpose was to plan the funding for post-war reconstruction" when other notable leaders had already finished their discussion on the same topic. So, here we see how the media can hide the truth and change it to make it look like the way they perceive it!
All in all, the mass media is a really persuasive tool through which ideas are being generated to the public. Being such an effective medium through which we tend to believe almost everything we see and hear, they know how to manipulate our minds into thinking what they want us to think and that is the ultimate power of the mass media.
What the public needs to learn is how to differentiate between perception and reality.