What’s the biggest difference between the media coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the media coverage of Vietnam?
Well, both were television wars, all right. But in Vietnam, the purpose of the media was to stop the war. To convey images back to the civilian population of the atrocities of war.
The purpose of the media in OIF is to reinforce the US’ role as the good-guy, to justify the war, to glorify the effort, and heaven forbid to show wounded or killed bodies on either side, to keep the war sanitized so that the American people feel more comfortable about being there to begin with.
What is wrong with this picture?
Why will the anti-war movement NOT work this time? Because the media are not interested in it working. Because they are more interested in playing for whose going to end up being the Ministry of Truth by the time its all wrapped up.
