On a positive note, journalists won’t be shut out of this war like they were during Gulf War I – hundreds of journalists are already being “embedded” into units as “adjunct soldiers.” Predictably, the journalists are already planning to treat the whole thing like a tailgate party writ large.
CNN … has a fleet of Hummer SUVs, equipped with satellite uplinks and other technical gear. ABC News television also has two specially equipped Hummers … Network technicians estimate that each specially equipped Hummer is worth close to half a million dollars … “We have everything you could want, except for the beer,” said Quincy Brown of El Dorado Hills near Sacramento, a technician on an ABC vehicle.
America has now been so primed for the upcoming spectacular — the TV entertainment aspect of the war — that Bush couldn’t pull out if he wanted to — middle America wants their international superbowl, their real-life Jean-Claude van Damme action flick. It’s now become an entertainment imperative that war go forward.
Yeah, and we’re going to get exactly as much true and useful information from those “embedded journalists” as you’d get from a Microsoft press release. They’re not journalists, they’re adjunct PR flacks for the military.
Of course journalists love a war because it is THE place, bar none, to get a journalistic career started. Who in the pressroom would object to a war given that?
Couple of excellent links on how the media has lubed up and bent over for this war:
http://www.nypress.com/16/11/news&columns/cage.cfm
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/mon/opinion/news_mz1e10golds.html
and, it seems, any journalists NOT on the official wagon will be, ahem, shot:
http://www.gulufuture.com/news/kate_adie030310.htm
Somewhat fitting that this entry was accompanied by The Clash.
Which reminds me that The Clash have just been added to the Museum of Rock’n’Roll (or something).
Which is particular ironic because in today’s soft-rinsed music market nobody would dare to sign them up.
Which brings us again back to big media companies.
Chris, thanks for the links, esp the latter. The more I learn about the current press clampdown, the more scared I become. “They have been warned.” Holy crap.
Just reading the Adie interview…
Years ago as a little boy I read a book about how WWIII might play out, written by a retired general from the NATO command echelons (I wish I could remember the exact title and author).
Of course the West won in the book; but one important factor in that victory was that the western journalists were not censored or hindered by their governments.