Out of sight…
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- March
- 13
Sorry Nicole and I haven’t posted in a while. We’ve had few technical glitches this week. Hopefully, everything is OK now.
A Pew Research Center study found that the American public is less aware of developments in the Iraq war than they were last year, mainly because it’s getting less media attention. A story in the Washington Post notes that the number of news reports about the war have dropped sharply since last summer.
In earlier surveys, about half of those asked about the death tally responded correctly.
There has been plenty of criticism about media coverage of the war, with many saying “good news’’ stories about progress being made are not reported. Early on in the conflict, there was a lot of debate within journalism over whether reporters who were embedded with military units were being “handled” and not able to report what was really going on.
I know plenty of Vietnam veterans who insist that media coverage of that war turned the American people against it and made it impossible for anything positive to be accomplished. My late father was just such a veteran.
As a public information specialist in the late 1970s at an Army base in Germany, I was responsible for putting out hometown news releases about promotions, awards, participation in NATO exercises and the like. I also wrote the occasional “human interest” story about things like twin brothers in the same unit, open house events and units hosting West Point cadets or National Guard troops, etc. Needless to say, I never was allowed to report on things like fatal drug overdoses, soldiers being arrested in the town near the base or other “negative’’ news.
As a journalist, I strongly support freedom of the press. As a former soldier, I understand why the military sometimes has a problem with that freedom. I’m curious to hear what you all think of media coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan, and what kind of coverage you think there should be.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 3:09 pm by Rich Liebson.
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As an Iraq vet I think the press coverage is deplorable. They are quick to give body counts, attacks, or a service member doing “the wrong thing”. But what about the infrastructure improvement the opening of schools, the capture of known terrorists like Muhammad Zaydan the mastermind of the Achille Lauro hijacking. None of these stories make the news. When you have looked an Iraqi child in the eyes as he says “Thank you” you will realize that more good is happening then bad.
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