A "radical" view of the press coverage of Iraq

[Sargent]

My second issue with Gentile, is the "location, location, location" line from real estate. In Bagdhad you have a wide variety of national media avilable with all kinds of different opinions and perspectives on the US campaign/policy in Iraq. f you are not in Bagdhad, you do not see this kind of coverage. So I would contend that while Gentile made an accurate statement for what he saw in Bagdhad, I disagree with it based on what I saw in other parts of Iraq where I was.

The media aren't really in any other areas of Iraq. Even military reporting from these areas gets things wrong. I get more information on my husband's AO from jihadist or jihadist-sympathetic sites than I do from various American media outlets. They are there and have an interest to tell the story. All I need to do is reorient the skew, which isn't that hard -- their filter is pretty obvious. To be perfectly honest, I don't think it would help the "cause" much to tell the story from where he is. Yes, there are some nice uplifting points about the budding relationships between the American and Iraqi forces and such, but the rest is fairly dismal.

However, not getting the details correct, or not even covering the story to begin with, is different from telling only one side of the story to skew opinion to one political opinion or another. Again, that was Gentile's thesis -- that the media with which he dealt did not only tell the bad news so as to turn opinion against the war, but there was enough bad news that to _not_ tell it would be equally biased.

[skiguy]

If anyone's interested in what an inexperienced, uneducated in Small Wars/Counterinsuirgency (but am working on it), average American citizen's opinion is, here's my thoughts.
I disagree with the article. Most of the media (in America anyway) is slanted Left and is very defeatist. As one who gets a lot of his information from the media (including military reports), it takes some work and time to get the whole story. Most average Americans are not news junkies like myself. Most get their information from the "big 3 (ABC, CBS, NBC) or their local newspaper. Yes, it is the individual's responsibility to educate one's self to the truth. But it is also the media's responsibility to report the truth in a balanced fashion. As far as the MSM, I just don't see it (when I watch it, I prefer FOX over the others, but they aren't off the hook with this either).

Here's an example: I'll ask some guy at work "Are we losing in Iraq?". He will answer yes and tell me how Brian Williams says it's a quagmire. I'll then show him the press releases on the mnf-Iraq web site and point out all the articles about capturing/detaining/killing terrorists, finding weapons stashes, and buildings/infrastructure going up. I can see the surprise in his eyes, then I ask if he 's ever heard any of these on the evening news.

I think most people just don't take or have the time to dig around for news and rely on the 6 o'clock news for their information. When I do watch it, I get infuriated..although, most of the time, I just watch to test myself if I can pick out the misinformation...even taking notes. I get a kick out of the stories they do about troops or future troops, and they are trying really hard to put a negative spin on it, but it's not working. That makes me laugh.

I'm not one who thinks everything is rosy and going fine in Iraq or in the GWOT. I am fully aware it is a WAR. But I am sick and tired of the constant negative barrage and the ignoring of the good things. Fact of the matter is, most of the average American public gets their information from these media sources and IMHO, it's pathetic as well as alarming how the news is presented. If American support is waning, it's not Bush's fault (although he could have done a much better job countering the negative propaganda), it's not the Soldiers' fault, it's mainly the fault of the media. As one who is lookng in from the outside, the only similarity I see between Iraq and Viet Nam is how the media portrays it. According to them, we lost.