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  1. #1
    Council Member Sargent's Avatar
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    Default A "radical" view of the press coverage of Iraq

    This opinion piece was published in the Army Times, 23 April.

    U.S. media reports fairly on success, failure in Iraq
    By Gian P. Gentile


    From my foxhole-view as a tactical battalion commander in western Baghdad in 2006, the American press, although not perfect, has reported the reality of the Iraq war.

    Contrary to what most believe in the American military, as well as some conservative columnists and a few politicians, the American press does give a reasonably full, fair and balanced picture of what is happening in Iraq.

    The war in Iraq is complex, difficult, deadly and heartbreaking, but with glimmers of hope and success that sometimes shine through the death and violence. Do we expect the press to only report the good and not the bad? Now, sadly, the bad tends to outweigh the good, and I, as a soldier and citizen, want the press to report the war accordingly. [snip]
    Here's the link to the rest of the story.

    http://www.armytimes.com/community/o...entile_070416/


    I attended the West Point Summer Seminar in Military History when Gentile ran it. He's quite a character, very bright, very intellectually engaged in the subject matter, both as a historian in his own right and as a practitioner. He's also the guy who wrote the book that cut the WWII Airpower Survey down to size.

    On a comical note, we had possibly the most awkward conversation that, with any two other people, could have ended terribly. He came up to me one evening, midway through the seminar, and opened the conversation with, "Hey, what size is your bed?" Now, I cocked my head to the side, trying desperately to figure out where this was going, and answered, tentatively, "Uh, king size, sir." He then goes on to explain that, given a screw-up with the hotel, some of the fellows were being moved to a different motel, but one of the women who had volunteered to switch had changed her mind, and so he wanted to know whether I would be willing to bunk up with her. If I had a king-size bed, that would make it easier. At which point I got a little impish, and replied, "Well, sir, it's certainly big enough for two, but not for three!" I went on to explain that my husband was coming back from a 2 year unaccompanied tour to Okinawa the next night, and was going to come visit me for the evening. He got a little dejected looking, and I knew he couldn't ask me to move, so I offered to switch rooms outright. He was so relieved. In this day and age, it's not often that a conversation can open with a query about a woman's bed and end with a comment about a threesome without a lawsuit or brouhaha ensuing.

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    Council Member 120mm's Avatar
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    The author of the article, in the terms he framed it, is accurate. I agree with him that "in general" the press is pretty accurate, fair, balanced, and all that happy stuff.

    But "in general" serial killers are just regular guys, like you or me.

    The people in the press that I've met, tend to mean well and work hard, but only up to a point. In general, though, when dealing with complex, sensitive subjects (with which they tend to have a poor knowledge base), there is a tendency for members of the press to dismiss important details as "trivial" and their resultant articles/features miss the point completely, or paint a picture that is correct to the letter, but violates the essense of what actually happens.

    It's a matter of knowledge base and talent. Unfortunately, those with the correct knowledge base tend to lack journalistic skill, while those with journalistic skill tend to not have a good subject knowledge base. Or if they have a good subject knowledge base, they acquired it because they have an agenda.

    Of course, the press, like all other walks of life, is inhabited by many who lack knowledge and talent.

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    Council Member Sargent's Avatar
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    I don't necessarily disagree with your critique of the press. What little press coverage there is of Fallujah is almost always wrong in some details, large and small, mostly because they aren't in the city much -- it's too dangerous.

    And you rightly acknowledge that this is not the point of Gentile's article. However, to assess the problems that you bring up would require a book length treatment of the subject. Gentile only sought knock at the notion that the press unfairly reports only the bad news in Iraq. And I would submit that we can't get to the point of dealing with the problems you bring up until we knock down the shibboleth that Gentile is attacking:

    Contrary to what most believe in the American military, as well as some conservative columnists and a few politicians, the American press does give a reasonably full, fair and balanced picture of what is happening in Iraq.
    Point of fact, I think that the press, on the whole, is so scared of being labelled as unpatriotic -- if not downright traitorous -- that there is often a knee-jerk flail to tell _any_ good story that can be found. I rarely watch the news, but by some twist of fate I happened to be watching the day that the piece Gentile refers to aired. I found the coverage of the garbage situation a bit like commenting that a dead body's hair was well-coiffed.

    By way of contrast, look at the almost entire lack of coverage of the process of bringing home the fallen. Consider how it was covered in the case of Lt. Travis Manion:

    A six-man Marine honor guard stood by as the helicopter eased down from the afternoon sky. It carefully transferred Manion's body to a gray hearse waiting outside Hangar 680 - a ritual seldom shown in public....

    Yesterday's transfer of the flag-draped silver casket was a scene the Pentagon has often taken pains to shield from public view during the Iraq war. It was displayed at the request of Manion's family, who cast the day as a celebration of his return.

    "His passion and dedication are an inspiration to us, even as we mourn his passing from this Earth," the family said in a statement.
    [from "A sad homecoming for fallen Marine," The Philadelphia Enquirer, 4 May 2007]
    http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local...en_Marine.html



    There is a video on the web of the ceremony. It's gut-wrenching, but it's also the human side of the war. Why shouldn't the American public see this? Most people aren't serving, the least they can do is be forced to confront some of the real costs involved. Such coverage doesn't have to be a critique of the policy, but it's part of the reality. But there's a fear that such coverage will be assumed to be "negative" that it's being left out of the public story of this war.

    So, let's take down the big lie so we can get at the small, and vastly more important, truths of the problem. I think Gentile's piece can be a starting point for that process.
    Last edited by Sargent; 05-20-2007 at 04:38 AM.

  4. #4
    Council Member marct's Avatar
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    Hi Sargent,

    Quote Originally Posted by Sargent View Post
    There is a video on the web of the ceremony. It's gut-wrenching, but it's also the human side of the war. Why shouldn't the American public see this? Most people aren't serving, the least they can do is be forced to confront some of the real costs involved. Such coverage doesn't have to be a critique of the policy, but it's part of the reality. But there's a fear that such coverage will be assumed to be "negative" that it's being left out of the public story of this war.
    I must admit that I have found he US press' reluctance to show material like this to be puzzling. Cori had mentioned elsewhere that the Canadian press was more likely to show images like this, and that is definitely true. Press coverage of fallen Canadian soldiers starts with the report of their death, reactions of their comrades in the AO and at their home base, follows them back to Canada, covers their funerals, etc.

    I fully realize that part of the difference is based on the shear number of casualties, but I think a lot of it has to do with two other factors: a) the open debate on the war here (multi-party vs. two-party) and b) the resurgent control of PR by the Canadian Forces. All through this, we see a fairly consistent "message", and the reactions from the population seems to mirror it.

    I'm mentioning the Canadian example because I think it can be instructive for the US military in how to produce a "message" that is a) true and b) matches the current needs.

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

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    Moderator Steve Blair's Avatar
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    I also think in this case that the media in the US is afraid of its own history. During Vietnam media outlets were often accused of using footage like this to "spin" the coverage of the war in a particular direction. And with Fox News standing ready (too ready according to some) to call other outlets to task, I think they're afraid of that possibility. We may have a two-party system (something I think is a major failing of the American political system as it's evolved over the years), but we now have something close to a multi-polar media network. And I don't think they know how to handle it....
    "On the plains and mountains of the American West, the United States Army had once learned everything there was to learn about hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare."
    T.R. Fehrenbach This Kind of War

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    Council Member milesce's Avatar
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    A couple of years back one of the network news shows (my recollection is that it was Nightline) was going to spend a substantial amount of airtime simply reading the names of the fallen. They were pretty savagely attacked -- the accusation being that it was a political move to do so.

    I participate in a small blog network that features one soldier or marine every week, most of the time someone who has been killed in action. Ironically, the reaction has been almost entirely negative. I get emails from folks on the left complaining that I'm "glorifying the war", and emails from folks on the right saying I'm unpatriotic to highlight the fact that peope are actually getting killed.

    At some point the partisan political attacks need to step aside in favor of some common sense and shared concern for our country.
    ------------------------------------------
    Charles Sheehan-Miles
    Prayer at Rumayla: A Novel of the Gulf War
    www.sheehanmiles.com

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