A "radical" view of the press coverage of Iraq

[Sargent]

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.