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Keeble, R. (1996). The Gulf War myth: a study of the press coverage of the 1991 Gulf conflict. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City University London) City Research Online Original citation: Keeble, R. (1996). The Gulf War myth: a study of the press coverage of the 1991 Gulf conflict. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City University London) Permanent City Research Online URL: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/7932/ Copyright & reuse City University London has developed City Research Online so that its users may access the research outputs of City University London's staff. Copyright © and Moral Rights for this paper are retained by the individual author(s) and/ or other copyright holders. All material in City Research Online is checked for eligibility for copyright before being made available in the live archive. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to from other web pages. 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The Gulf war myth A study of the press coverage of the 1991 Gulf conflict by Richard Keeble PhD in Journalism May 1996; Department of Journalism, City University, London CONTENTS Abstract ix Acknowledgements x Introduction xi-iii A.1 The war problematic xi A.2 Theory: The "subtle propaganda" theoretical model xii A.3 Methodology xix A.3a The sample xx A.3b Additional sources xxi A.4 The myth of the Gulf "war" xxv Chapter 1: New militarism and the media: an overview 1-36 1.1 From militarism to new militarism 1 1.1a Resolving the democratic contraditions of militarism: in the UK 1 1.1b Resolving the democratic contradictions of militarism: in the US 3 1.2 New militarism and mediacentrism: warfare as fiction 3 1.2a The manufacture of "war": in the US and UK 8 1.2b The manufacture of "war": in Iraq 10 1.3 New militarism, mediacentrism and the myth of the vulnerable state 12 1.4 Secret wars of new militarism and the media myth of defence 14 1.4a Why secret wars? 16 1.4b The permanent warfare of new militarism: missing from the media 17 1.5 The ideological consensus of the national security state 19 1.6 Secret state: silent press 21 1.6a Secret state and the media: in time UK 22 1.6b Secret state and the media: in the US 25 1.7 The roots of new militarism in the media-military-industrial complex 26 1 1.7a The military-industrial complex 26 1.7b The media-military-industrial complex 29 1.8 Press the propaganda arm of government: two case histories 29 1.8a The hidden Omani war 29 1.8b The secret Borneo war 30 Chapter 2. Creation of the new militarist media consensus in the UK 37-53 2.1 Thatcher and the journalism of deference 37 2.1a Mediacentrism and the Iranian Embassy siege 1980 37 2.1b Mediacentrism and the new militarist Falklands manufactured war 38 2.2 Post-Falklands new militarist mythologies 43 2.3 Myth of the media "enemy within": the Libyan new militarist mission 44 2.4 New militarism: the home front 46 2.4a The strong state 47 2.4b The press and the strong state 49 2.4c The media in the face of government "flak" 51 Chapter 3: Creation of US new militarist consensus 54-84 3.1 Growth of secret state and covert presidency 55 3.2 Secret warfare: away from a probing press 56 3.3 The Great Vietnam media myth 58 3.4 Reagan and the journalism of deference 60 3.5 Grenada: the new militarist mission to escape the Middle East humiliation 62 3.5a The secret mission the media missed 63 3.5b Grenada: the media spectacle test case 65 ii 3.5c Administration lies 65 3.5d Casualties cover-up 66 3.5e Exaggeration of the threat 66 3.6 The Sidle Commission 67 3.7 Libya and the secret war in Chad the media missed 67 3.7a Thrilled to blitz with Libyan bombings 69 3.7b Libya and the precision myth 72 3.7c The casualties cover-up 72 3.8 The pool and the Gulf 1987: the first news blackout 73 3.9 The pool and the Panama invasion 1989 74 3.9a The casualties cover-up: again 75 3.9b Demonisation of Noriega 76 3.9c Myth of the sudden response 77 3.10 The Hoffman report 78 3.11 Irangate no Watergate 78 3.12 The Reaganite propaganda machine 79 3.13 Overt censorship by the Reagan administration 80 Chapter 4: Ending history: the press and Saddam Hussein 85-116 4.1 The mystery of Halabja 86 4.2 Bazoft ambivalences 88 4.3 The end of history? Reinforcing the myths underlying new militarism 90 4.4 Ideological function of the human interest story 92 4.5 Hitler Hussein 94 4.6 Behind the Hitler hype -- contradictions 98 4.7 Madman Saddam 99 111 -a 4.8 Saddam trapped within the frame of popular culture 102 4.9 Saddam Hussein as the archetypal bad dad 105 4.10 When bad dad meets hostages in Baghdad 109 4.11 Human interest silences the massacres 112 Chapter 5: Silencing the history of the Middle East: the linkage taboo 117-149 5.1 Missing the why? factor 117 5.2 The myth of the overriding oil factor 118 5.3 The myth of Saddam's threat to Saudi Arabia 121 5.4 The myth of the Kuwait surprise 125 5.5 The secret anti-Hussein strategy 126 5.6 The Glaspie scapegoat 127 5.7 Silencing the Iraqi dimension 128 5.8 Silencing the role of British imperialism 129 5.9 Silencing the role of American imperialism and its covert "wars" 131 5.9a The 1952 coup in Egypt 131 5.9b CIA coup of 1953: Iran 132 5.9c CIA and the Ba'athist coups of 1963 and 1968 133 5.10 RDF: the gun waiting to be fired? 135 5.11 Silencing the Israeli link 136 Chapter 6: New militarism and the making of the military option 150-178 6.1 The Independent: not independent? 152 6.2 The pro-war consensus in the US 153 6.3 Iraq: the necessary global threat 155 6.4 Hyping the inevitability of war 158 6.5 Silencing the anti-war voices: Daily Mirror case study 162 iv 6.5a Naked propaganda 164 6.6 The myth of popular support: Polls and the manufacture of popular opinion 165 6.7 How the polls silenced the peace option 167 6.8 Press manipulation of public opinion 169 6.9 The art of ignoring polls 171 6.10 The art of distorting polls 171 Chapter 7: The apparatus of silence 179-224 7.1 The routinisation of self-censorship 179 7.2 Constructing the "theatre of war" 182 7.3 Symbolic purpose of the censorship regime 183 7.4 Setting up the censorship regime 184 7.5 Pooling the press pack 187 7.6 The purposes of the pools 190 7.7 Emergence of the mavericks 195 7.8 Breakdown of the pools 197 7.9 Controlling the image 198 7.10 The subtle use of press conferences 200 7.11 Censors' pen not the real issue 202 7.12 Response of journalists to censorship regime 203 7.13 The invention of the moral panic 207 Chapter 8: The making of the just war as media spectacle: the Atlantic consensus 225-248 8.1 Silencing the media debate going for the "good story" 226 8.2 Editors for War pronounce -- in Britain 226 V 8.3 Editors for War US-style 228 8.4 The invention of the credible "enemy" 229 8.5 The "inevitable" unfolding drama of "war" 231 8.6 Silencing the casualties: first moves 232 8.7 The Great Deception Strategy mystery 234 8.8 The myth of the chemical threat 237 8.9 The myth of the nuclear monster 238 Chapter 9: The myth of the clean war 249-269 9.1 The post-heroism of new militarism 251 9.2 Kicking the Vietnam syndrome -- again 253 9.3 The precision myth 258 9.4 Indiscrimate: precisely 262 9.5 Myth of the technological success 263 9.6 The myth of the Stealth and Tomahawk successes 265 Chapter 10: Silencing the horror: the casualties cover-up 270-296 10.1 Silencing strategies 271 10.2 The construction of the merry massacres 273 10.3 Behind the merry myths: the massacres 279 10.4 UN debate: a no-go area 279 10.5 Bulldozed and burnt out of existence 281 10.6 The silencing role of massacrespeak 283 10.7 Post-war perceptions 284 10.8 Coalition contrasts 285 10.9 Israel and the myth of vulnerability 287 10.10 Friendly fire storms 289 vi 10.11 Gulf War syndrome further shatters clean war myths 291 Chapter 11: Mediating massacres: The illusion of war 297-340 11.1 The myth of the Khafji battle 297 11.1a Origins shrouded in the fog of war 298 11.1b Massacrespeak shrouds the horror 301 11.1c Inventing the victim syndrome 303 11.2 Mediating a massacre: how the press covered the bombing of the Ameriyya shelter 305 11.2a Manipulating mediacentrism 307 11.