In111

Index for 2003 War, Peace and Mass Media Blog

Instructions: To access 2003 archives, go to Blog[http://warmedia.blogspot.com/]and scroll down left column to see archive link lines. Click on desired dated archive to access full story link.

12/28/2003-01/03/2004/2003 - 01/03/200 Tuesday, December 30, 2003 MRE fights access problems Board sends protest letter; begins media access probe With increasing reports of tighter media restrictions, confiscations of film and videotapes and new reporting ground rules in and stateside, Military Reporters and Editors, Inc., has taken several steps to protest and investigate media access problems. Reporters Editors When George Bush’s Pentagon doesn’t like what a reporter writes, it attempts a preemptive strike In the case of Tom Ricks, military reporter for , the Pentagon took the attack right to the heart of the enemy. Defense Department spokesman Larry DiRita first sent a letter of complaint to the Post; then he met with the paper’s top editors to press his points.

12/14/2003-12/20/2003PM Thursday, December 18, 2003 9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable CBSNews.com NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2003 For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston. 7:50 AM Wednesday, December 17, 2003 It's Time for Plame-Case Reporters to Out the Administration Leakers! By Bernard Weiner Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers. December 16, 2003 Journalists do not reveal sources. It's what gives the Fourth Estate some of its clout: Officials, and lower-level whistleblowers, trust us to receive sensitive information and not get them in trouble by ratting on them. In Washington and in state capitols, officials leak information all the time, provide off-the-record statements to reporters, engage in "background" interviews without permitting themselves to be quoted by name or title. 7:37 AM Tuesday, December 16, 2003 Read All About It! From the Capture of Saddam to Prospects for Iraqi Stability-- Juan Cole's web page is a major resource Blog editor's note: I've recommended this site before, but given the capture of I think a reminder is in order to check out the web page of Juan Cole, a professor of history at University of Michigan, whose analysis of current events in Iraq is among the best informed of which I'm aware.

Monday, December 15, 2003 Why 'USA Today' Probed Cluster Bombs in Iraq As New Report Claims 1,000 Casualties From Weapon By Seth Porges, Editor & Publisher DECEMBER 11, 2003 NEW YORK -- USA Today's front-page story Thursday about how the Pentagon "painted a misleading picture" about the use of cluster bombs in Iraq was born when reporter Paul Wiseman encountered Iraqis personally affected by these controversial weapons.

12/07/2003-12/13/2003PM Wednesday, December 10, 2003 The privatisation of war · $30bn goes to private military · Fears over 'hired guns' policy Ian Traynor Wednesday December 10, 2003 The Guardian Private corporations have penetrated western warfare so deeply that they are now the second biggest contributor to coalition forces in Iraq after the Pentagon, a Guardian investigation has established.

11/23/2003-11/29/2003

Saturday, November 29, 2003 Gag Order Leaves Troops, Reporters Speechless Mike Littwin Rocky Mountain News Tuesday 25 November 2003 Before the press was herded into the giant hangar in advance of George W. Bush's pep rally/photo op with the Fort Carson troops, we were given the rules. No talking to the troops before the rally. No talking to the troops during the rally. No talking to the troops after the rally.

Mountain News 11/16/2003-11/22/2003 Friday, November 21, 2003 George W. Bush Loves By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Friday 21 November 2003 A number of explosions tore through the British consulate in Turkey today, killing scores of people. George W. Bush is in England, surrounded on all sides by enraged British citizens whose massive protests have required nearly every police officer in London to be put on the line of defense. 8:03 AM Thursday, November 20, 2003 Bush Trip to England Bumped As Television Shifts Into High Gear to Report on Jackson Arrest Warrant By Elizabeth Jensen Times Staff Writer November 20, 2003 [Blog Editor's note: There is no more clearcut example of how NEW YORK — President Bush was on an important trip to Britain, but it was an arrest warrant for Michael Jackson that prompted ABC, CBS and NBC to interrupt programming for special reports Wednesday. 3:24 PM Wednesday, November 19, 2003 Birnbaum v. Anne Garrels 18 NOVEMBER 2003 For many, Anne Garrels’s voice became the most trustworthy stream of information broadcast from Iraq. Robert Birnbaum, in on-line magazine The Morning News , has a frank discussion with the author and NPR Iraq correspondent, one of only 16 non- embedded journalists to remain in Baghdad for Operation Shock and Awe. 9:53 AM Pentagon Boosts Media Access in Iraq U.S. Hopes More Briefings Will Tell Their Side of the Story By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer [ Editor & Publisher web site] NOVEMBER 19, 2003 WASHINGTON -- (AP) As American troops step up their attacks on Iraqi resistance, U.S. occupation officials also are launching a media offensive under pressure from the White House to do a better job promoting the military campaign against insurgents. Part of the idea is to give the American public a better sense that U.S. troops are on the offensive and not just passively facing daily, deadly attacks from Iraqi guerrillas. & Publisher9:30 AM Tuesday, November 18, 2003 Media caught in Iraq's war of perceptions Many Americans have seen news coverage as overly negative, but mounting troop deaths test support for war. By Ann Scott Tyson | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor November 18, 2003 Just as news footage of Vietnam casualties slowly eroded public backing for that conflict, today's bold headlines on US military deaths in Iraq are revealing a ground truth that is, more swiftly, undercutting domestic support for the Iraq war. Some polls show that most Americans no longer believe removing Saddam Hussein was worth the loss of US lives; significant majorities now consider the 400-plus US casualties in Iraq "unacceptable." AM

Call Me a Bush-Hater Molly Ivins, The Progressive November 14, 2003 [Blog Editor's note: While this blog usually concerns itself more directly with issues of media, war and foreign policy, I make an exception here by linking Molly Ivins' piece on the notion of "Bush Hating." It's the most succinct such analysis I've run into, and certainly the funniest.] Among the more amusing cluckings from the right lately is their appalled discovery that quite a few Americans actually think George W. Bush is a terrible president. 8:22 AM Gore: Decline of Newspapers Bad for Democracy Bemoans TV's Influence, Sees Hope in Web NOVEMBER 12, 2003 By Amber McDowell, Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- (AP) The "quasi-hypnotic influence" of television in the United States has fostered a complacent nation that is a danger to democracy, former Vice President Al Gore said this week.

11/09/2003-11/15/2003 Thursday, November 13, 2003 Media protest treatment in Iraq Letter to Pentagon accuses US troops of intimidation By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff, 11/13/2003 Amid growing reports of journalists being harassed and intimidated by troops policing postwar Iraq, representatives of 30 media organizations, ranging from CNN and ABC to the Newhouse News Service and , have signed a letter to the Pentagon raising concerns about what they view as an increasingly hostile reporting environment. 9:36 AM Tuesday, November 11, 2003 Jessica Lynch: An American tale How the media made her a star By Gary Dorsey Baltimore Sun Staff November 11, 2003 After the fog of war came the fog of media, followed by the fog of war and media, then clarifications and alternative views, then the fog of publicity and the war of competing media. Then Sunday night brought the start of sweeps week and a TV docudrama. Today, Veterans Day, brings the launch date for writer Rick Bragg's biography of former Iraqi POW Jessica Lynch, the West Virginia "get" girl being interviewed by Diane Sawyer on ABC tonight and appearing on the Today Show tomorrow, David Letterman on Friday, Larry King on Monday night and live at the Barnes & Noble store in Annapolis Monday afternoon AM

Two POWs, one an American icon, the other ignored Jessica Lynch's story, some of it hyped, made her a star. Shoshana Johnson faded away By William Douglas Philadelphia Inquirer Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - Tomorrow [Sunday, Nov.9] , NBC will air its made-for-TV movie celebrating Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, whose capture and dramatic rescue is the feel-good story of America's war in Iraq. But some African Americans don't feel so good about Lynch's story. Instead, they ask: What about Shoshana Johnson? Inquirer Did He Or Didn't He? Rumsfeld denies he ever made several pre-war statements BY ERIC ROSENBERG HEARST NEWSPAPERS Published Nov 9, 2003 (Blog editor's note: One of the ways in which official Washington manipulates journalism is to simply deny something. The only defense against such a practice is to carefully investigate such denials and see whether they are factually accurate. Here is an example of a journalist who went back and looked at the record, which clearly shows such a denial to be false.) WASHINGTON - In the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. forces would be welcomed by the Iraqi citizenry and that Saddam Hussein had large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. Now, after both statements have been shown to be either incorrect or vastly exaggerated, Rumsfeld - with the same trademark confidence that he exuded before the war - is denying that he ever made such assertions. Banner 10/26/2003-11/01/2003 Friday, October 31, 2003 The Memory Hole: An Indispensable Source of Information For anyone interested in learning about documents, stories, and events concerning American foreign policy (and other matters as well) that ought to be widely known but aren't, I urge you to check out a web site known as The Memory Hole, whose motto is "rescuing knowledge, freeing information." Russ Kick, who came up with the site, is relentless, creative and highly skilled in tracking down and making available source documents that those in authority would rather escape public notice. I depend heavily on this site for reliable leads.

10/19/2003-10/25/2003 Wednesday, October 22, 2003 Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins By Tuesday, October 21, 2003; Page A23 Washington Post Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.

Post 10/12/2003-10/18/2003 Tuesday, October 14, 2003 How the war was covered: Journalists share first-hand accounts at OU symposium By James S. Tyree “The events of 9-11, sadly, have blunted some of our instincts,” was the judgment of CNN anchor Aaron Brown speaking at the University of Oklahoma on “The Media, the Military and the Iraq War.” Continuing on the mass media’s treatment of the Bush administration before and during the Iraq War, the 54-year-old "NewsNight" host added, “I wouldn’t say we gave them a free ride, but I don’t think we put many speed bumps in their path.” Transcript

10/05/2003-10/11/2003 Wednesday, October 08, 2003 Are the News Media Too Liberal? Forty-five percent of Americans say yes by Frank Newport and Joseph Carroll GALLUP NEWS SERVICE PRINCETON, NJ -- Forty-five percent of Americans believe the news media in this country are too liberal, while only 14% say the news media are too conservative. These perceptions of liberal inclination have not changed over the last three years. A majority of Americans who describe their political views as conservative perceive liberal leanings in the media, while only about a third of self-described liberals perceive conservative leanings. News Service10:59 AM Tuesday, October 07, 2003 We report, you get it wrong By Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service WASHINGTON - The more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and its aftermath, according to a major new study released in Washington on Thursday.

09/28/2003-10/04/2003 Saturday, October 04, 2003 Miller's Star Fades (Slightly) at 'NY Times' Jackson: Is More Objective WMD Coverage Coming? By William E. Jackson, Jr. OCTOBER 02, 2003 OPINION/ANALYSIS On Sept. 29, a remarkable story appeared on the front page of : "Agency Belittles Information Given by Iraqi Defectors; Pentagon Intelligence Review Says Debriefings Provided Little of Any Value." Far down in Douglas Jehl's report was this mea culpa: "The Iraqi National Congress [INC] had made some ... defectors available to ... The New York Times, which reported their allegations about ... the country's weapons programs." 7:27 PM Thursday, October 02, 2003 Why the Media Don't Call It as They See It By Paul Waldman The Washington Post Sunday, September 28, 2003; Page B04 True or false: Saddam Hussein helped plan the Sept.11 attacks. As those who read or heard President Bush's recent statement on the issue are aware, that assertion is false. Then why have so many Americans -- 69 percent, according to a Washington Post survey last month -- been telling public opinion pollsters they believe it is likely that Saddam was involved? 7: AM- 09/21/2003-09/27/2003 Wednesday, September 24, 2003 British Editors give go-ahead for f-word John Plunkett Tuesday September 23, 2003 The Guardian Anyone following the investigation in England into the now infamous claim by the British government that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes will be interested to learn that in an unprecedented move, three national newspapers used the f- word in its unexpurgated form today in their reporting of Alastair Campbell's now infamous diary entry of July 4. 12:09 PM U.S. Army Used Media Coverage in Iraq for Own Ends September 05, 2003 By David Morgan CARLISLE, Pa. (Reuters) - As U.S. troops approached Baghdad last spring, senior Army officers sought to win the surrender of enemy forces by orchestrating news coverage by journalists traveling with front-line fighting units, military officers said this week.

Top British TV Anchor Refused to Report 45-min claim Rob Harris September 9, 2003 The Guardian News at Ten anchorman Sir Trevor McDonald has revealed he defied his editors by refusing to report the government's key defence of war in Iraq - the infamous 45-minute claim. Before the outbreak of the war earlier this year, Sir Trevor stood his ground against ITV news chiefs who wanted him to focus on the perceived threat from the Iraqi regime's weapons of mass destruction.

Fox News (Predictably?) Has Different View of Amanpour's Criticism of Media War Coverage September 20. 2003 Link to a transcript of Watch and its panelists' views on Amanpour's assertions discussed in the previous post. [For the record, based on having studied, written and taught about the subject for more than 30 years, it's my considered judgment that Amanpour was completely on target.] AM

Bush's tame U.S. media may yet have teeth By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor, The Toronto Sun September 21, 2003 MIAMI -- I've long considered CNN's Christiane Amanpour an outstanding journalist. Last week, my opinion of her rose further when she ignited a storm of controversy when asked by a TV interviewer about the U.S. media's coverage of the Iraq war. Breaking a taboo of silence in the mainstream media, Amanpour courageously replied, "I think the press was muzzled and I think the press self-muzzled. Television ... was intimidated by the (Bush) administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News.11

08/24/2003-08/30/2003 Wednesday, August 27, 2003 Press Groups Blast Pentagon Report: Soldiers Accused of Hampering Press in Iraq AUGUST 26, 2003 By Mark Fitzgerald Editor & Publisher Online CHICAGO -- Like the belief that the Iraq war was finished when statues of Saddam fell in Baghdad, the notion that embedding American journalists with U.S. forces would transform relations between the military and the media is foundering in the tense and often violent reality of the occupation.

08/17/2003-08/23/2003 Monday, August 18, 2003 Roundtable: Perpectives on [Coverage of] Gulf II -- Retaken by Storm (A set of three articles from Summer 2003 Political Communication Report which is an on-line journal jointly sponsored by International Communication Association & American Political Science Association) History never really repeats itself, but sometimes it gives a good impression of it. A dozen years after its last war in the Persian Gulf, the United States military finds itself back in Iraq, apparently for the long haul this time. After the first , a group of scholars and professionals got together to produce a book about how the media had covered the war and how the public had responded. The book was called Taken by Storm. We asked some of the scholars who contributed to that volume and focused on media performance during the first Gulf War to give us their take on how the news did this time around. With no editorial prompting, the scholars who contributed to our roundtable thoughtfully considered every phase of the war in Iraq, from the pre-war debate to the post-war assessment. Here's what they had to say: [link to articles by William A. Dorman, Professor of Government, California State University, Sacramento; W. Lance Bennett, Professor of Political Science, University of Washington, and Robert M. Entman, Professor of Communication, North Carolina State University.

08/03/2003-08/09/2003 Wednesday, August 06, 2003 'Some things are true even if George Bush believes them' Oliver Burkeman meets , the influential US liberal columnist who says the attack on Iraq was justified

07/20/2003-07/26/2003 Wednesday, July 23, 2003 Readers Want Press to Cover All U.S. Casualties Article on Media and Iraq Draws Big Response By Greg Mitchell JULY 22, 2003 A news analysis that I wrote last week, posted at E&P Online on Thursday, has drawn the heaviest e-mail response of any article from E&P in the nearly four years I have worked for the magazine. 10:38 AM Tuesday, July 22, 2003 Truth behind those 'sexed up' claims Claire Cozens Tuesday July 22, 2003 The Guardian At the last count, the phrase "sexed up" had been used in 545 articles, formed the basis of 22 newspaper headlines and been the subject of countless readers' letters since Andrew Gilligan's infamous story [dealing with the Blair administration's alleged inflation of claims about weapons of mass destruction in Sadaam's Iraq] broke on May 29.

07/13/2003-07/19/2003 Friday, July 18, 2003 Media Underplays U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Soldiers Dead Since May Is 3 Times Official Count By Greg Mitchell NEW YORK -- News Analysis Any way you look at it, the news is bad enough. According to Thursday's press and television reports, 33 U.S. soldiers have now died in combat since President Bush declared an end to the major fighting in the war on May 2. This, of course, is a tragedy for the men killed and their families, and a problem for the White House. AM Monday, July 14, 2003 Neiman Reports Special Issue on Iraq War Coverage Anyone genuinely interested in how well the American press did covering the Iraq War will find a wealth of scholarly and journalistic analysis in the first serious collection of essays dealing with the subject in Neiman Reports, the publication of the highly regarded Neiman Foundation at Harvard. The consensus is not a promising one.

07/06/2003-07/12/2003 Tuesday, July 08, 2003 Governors back BBC in row over Iraq dossier Jackie Ashley, Michael White and Matt Wells Monday July 7, 2003 The Guardian The BBC's governors sought to gain the upper hand in the Iraq war dossier row last night with a pugilistic statement demanding that Downing Street retract its claims of bias against the corporation's journalism.

06/29/2003-07/05/2003:5 Saturday, July 05, 2003 Biased broadcasting corporation A survey of the main broadcasters' coverage of the invasion of Iraq shows the claim that the BBC was anti-war is the opposite of the truth 7:21 AM Friday, July 04, 2003 Still Miller Time: 'NY Times' Circles the Wagons Paper Criticized for Iraq WMD Coverage By William E. Jackson, Jr. Editor & Publisher--Opinion On July 2, 's byline appeared in The New York Times for the first time since June 7. But, based on comments by a Times spokeswoman, it is obvious that the wagons are still circling at the Times, in this case to protect an embattled star reporter. & Publisher AM Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Are U.S. journalists truly spineless? By DAVID HUNTER June 30, 2003 Justin Webb, a Washington correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation, recently posed this question to his audience: "Are American journalists simply spineless? Do they toe the line because they love the President? Or because their employers do?"

Monday, June 30, 2003 A Long, and Incomplete, Correction By Michael Getler (Washington Post Ombudsman) Sunday, June 29, 2003; Page B06 This is the third column in as many months devoted in whole or in part to the case of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch. If you're tired of it, I can't blame you. But judging from the response to The Post's recent effort to reconstruct how Lynch was captured and rescued, many readers are not yet tired of it, and neither am I.

06/22/2003-06/28/2003: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 Embedded Reporter's Role In Army Unit's Actions Questioned by Military By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, June 25, 2003; Page C01 New York Times reporter Judith Miller played a highly unusual role in an Army unit assigned to search for dangerous Iraqi weapons, according to U.S. military officials, prompting criticism that the unit was turned into what one official called a "rogue operation."

Monday, June 23, 2003 Many Americans Unaware WMD Have Not Been Found Four in Ten Overall A striking finding in the new PIPA/Knowledge Networks poll [reported June 4] is that many Americans are unaware that weapons of mass destruction have not been found in Iraq. While 59% of those polled correctly said the US has not found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, 41% said they believed that the US has found such weapons (34%) or were unsure (7%).

The myth of Robert Byrd and the USS Abraham Lincoln By Brendan Nyhan June 18, 2003 In what can only be described as a collective hallucination, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) has been described by a wide range of journalists and commentators as having criticized the cost of President Bush's speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier returning from the Middle East. The reality is that Byrd never mentioned the cost of the carrier event, at which Bush dramatically arrived on a Navy jet; the Democrats who most prominently raised those questions were Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and John Conyers (D-MI). But because of Byrd's well-known success at directing federal funds to his state, commentators simply attributed the statements of Waxman and Conyers to Byrd and then called Byrd a hypocrite. This absurd political myth is now being widely repeated as fact.

06/08/2003-06/14/2003: Thursday, June 12, 2003 : A Speech for our time Anyone interested in the politics of today would do well to read what I consider to be one of the most remarkable speeches of our time. Bill Moyers, one of America's premier public intellectuals, recently gave a history lesson that is more than timely--and extraordinarily hopeful.

Was Press Asleep on Pre-War WMD Issue? By Joe Strupp JUNE 12, 2003 Strupp Talks to 5 Top Editors Last week, profound questions arose concerning the Bush administration's key reason for invading Iraq: the threat posed by that country's huge stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Reporters and commentators are now vigorously pursuing the possibility that poor intelligence overstated the threat -- or that the administration deliberately misled the American people in its rush to go to war. & Publisher Wednesday, June 11, 2003 How the media might have to cop the blame for Bush's blushes June 12 2003 From rushing to report on the no-WMDs scandal, the press has been caught up in the scandal, writes Russ Baker, a contributing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review.

06/01/2003-06/07/2003: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 Standard Operating Procedure By PAUL KRUGMAN June 3, 2003 The mystery of Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction has become a lot less mysterious. Recent reports in major British newspapers and three major American news magazines, based on leaks from angry intelligence officials, back up the sources who told my colleague Nicholas Kristof that the Bush administration "grossly manipulated intelligence" about W.M.D.'s. York Sunday, June 01, 2003 Iraqis Dispute Rescue Story Doctors: Force not needed By Scheherezade Faramarzi The Associated Press May 29, 2003 Nasiriyah, Iraq -- The U.S. commandos refused a key and instead broke down doors and went in with guns drawn. They carried away the prisoner in the dead of night with helicopter and armored vehicle backup -- even though there was no Iraqi military presence, and the hospital staff didn't resist. Ne

05/18/2003-05/24/2003 Tuesday, May 20, 2003 Saving Private Lynch story 'flawed' Thursday, 15 May, 2003, Private Jessica Lynch became an icon of the war, and the story of her capture by the Iraqis and her rescue by US special forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the conflict. But her story is one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived.

05/04/2003-05/10/2003 Thursday, May 08, 2003 The War, As Told To Us By Diana Abu-Jaber Thursday, May 8, 2003; Page A31 So now we are told by President Bush that the hostilities against Iraq have drawn to a close. Now, we're told, with an imperious wave of the arm, this chapter has ended. And Americans are meant to feel closure and satisfaction over an event that few of us have been given much insight into. From the buildup for the war to the bombing to the final days, Washington has constructed a simple, heroic narrative of freedom and asked us to ignore the much messier human devastation and tragedies of this war -- stories that, sadly, have little to do with the heroic legend.

Wednesday, May 07, 2003 Which war are you watching? Tuesday, May 6, 2003 Are there two sides to a story? Are those two sides simply black or white? Is the media in the West and the Middle East guilty of slanting the news? Are people kept in the dark as to what really takes place? Is the media in the US a conservative monolith and is there a political dimension to reporting news in the Arab world? Do the Arab and Western media play a part in falsifying history, suppressing information, promoting empty concepts that prevent individuals from raising prickly questions about government policy? These are questions that have been raised by Arabs and Westerners alike in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and, more pertinently since the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq.

04/27/2003-05/03/2003 Wednesday, April 30, 2003 MSNBC Correspondent's Lecture Ires Bosses: Ashleigh Banfield Tells It Like It Was A April 24 lecture at Kansas State University by MSNBC correspondent Ashleigh Banfield that was highly critical of media coverage of the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars reportedly prompted her NBC employers to severly reprimand Banfield. 8:42 AM 04/20/2003-04/26/2003 Monday, April 21, 2003 The Rules for Covering Brutal Dictatorships Aren't Black and White By ETHAN BRONNER April 21, 2003 Eason Jordan, the news chief of CNN, unburdened himself of some horrific secrets recently and is the object of withering attack. In an article on the facing page on April 11, Mr. Jordan said that on trips to Baghdad, he learned despicable facts about the regime of Saddam Hussein that CNN could not report without endangering its Iraqi staff. Among those facts: a CNN cameraman was tortured by government thugs; , the dictator's son, said he intended to murder two brothers-in-law and King Hussein of Jordan; and an aide to Uday said his front teeth had been yanked out with pliers by Uday's henchmen, who told him not to wear dentures so he would remember never to upset his boss.

U.S. media losing global respect Stephan Richter Japan Today April 21, 2003 With his "preemptive" war against Iraq, U.S. President George Bush took a gamble of historic proportions. But what is far less acknowledged is that the same is true for the U.S. media. American news reporters and major media outlets used to command great respect around the globe. However, in the age of "embedded" reporters, how much longer will that be the case?

Wednesday, April 16, 2003 Nightly News Feels Pinch of 24-Hour News By BILL CARTER April 14, 2003 With the most televised war in history winding down, executives at TV news organizations are noticing one startling detail in how Americans are watching the coverage: viewers are increasingly tuning out the broadcast networks' evening newscasts. During previous periods of intense news interest, most recently in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, viewers have tended to flock to the network news. There they found what they considered the best information but also the perspective and context from the anchors and reporters they trusted the most. York Times Credibility of Arab Satellite Channels Among War's Casualties Raid Qusti, Special to Arab News RIYADH, 13 April 2003 — The fall of Baghdad to American forces was met with feelings of betrayal, disbelief, and shock here in Saudi Arabia. Arab News 04/06/2003-04/12/2003 Thursday, April 10, 2003 Wired Life: Want alternative news on Iraq war? Web's overflowing By David Hoye -- Special to The Sacramento Bee - (April 10, 2003) Most journalists do their jobs with publicly available information. The same holds true for those covering the war in Iraq. And, thanks to the Internet, many of the best sources are available to anyone with a computer. 8:53 AM Wednesday, April 09, 2003 As More Correspondents Die, Media Rethink Their Positions By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, April 9, 2003 The journalistic body count is rising, and some news organizations are starting to withdraw selected reporters from Iraq.

The Pen, Mightier Than the Minicam? By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, April 7, 2003 Television owns this war. We have become an embedded nation. But readers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution could learn how reporter Ron Martz knelt over a wounded civilian's stretcher, comforting the Iraqi, while his photographer held an intravenous drip bag because Charlie Company soldiers were too busy fighting. For the rest of this comparison of print to television war coverage, see Washington Post 10:27 AM Monday, April 07, 2003 Friend or foe? Guardian There are two types of journalist covering the front-line war - the "embeds", on official placements with military units, and the "unilaterals", who have to take huge risks in an effort to gain an objective view of the conflict. We asked one of each to tell their story

03/30/2003-04/05/2003 Friday, April 04, 2003 Technology Makes War Correspondent's Life Easier How Tools Have Evolved Since Last Gulf War By Jim Rosenberg NEW YORK -- Coming in ever-smaller packages, new tools allow journalists to do their jobs in this Gulf War so much easier than the one 12 years ago -- easier, that is, until antenna panels become sails in a fierce sandstorm that picks up and carries away a lightweight satellite phone. "Sandbags seem to be the solution," says Jeffrey D. Lawrence, information-technology director at Knight Ridder/Tribune (KRT) Information Services.

First American Journalist Killed in Iraq Kelly Was Magazine Editor, 'Wash. Post' Columnist APRIL 04, 2003 NEW YORK -- Michael Kelly, a Washington Post columnist and Atlantic Monthly editor at large, was killed in a Humvee accident in Iraq, according to the Post. He is the first American journalist to lose his life in the Iraq war, and the first "embedded" reporter to be killed. For the complete story, see Editor & Publisher PM The Press Gets Pumped By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 3, 2003 Boy, one little POW rescue can sure change the tone of the press coverage. By the time Ari Fleischer faced reporters yesterday, many of the questions were about who would be running Iraq once Saddam is permanently sidelined. 3:39 PM Web Access to Arab TV Network Site You can access the web site of Al Jazeera, the controversial Arab television network, through its English language link. Check out its "Media" section, which gives a decidedly different take on the performance of the American press. Note: Sometimes the site is overloaded and it takes awhile to get in. 3:31 PM Thursday, April 03, 2003 Study finds embedded journalists' reports miss forest By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer - (April 3, 2003) NEW YORK (AP) - Most of the reporting that television viewers get from journalists embedded with troops in Iraq is anecdotal, rich in detail but often lacking perspective, a study released Wednesday found.

Wednesday, April 02, 2003 Omnipresent but hardly omniscient, TV struggles with big picture By Rick Kushman -- Sacramento Bee TV Columnist April 1, 2003 In a popular San Francisco bar last weekend, about a dozen TV sets were turned on. Half of the TVs -- every other set across the room -- showed coverage of the war in Iraq. The TVs in between aired the NCAA basketball tournament. It added up to a strange scene. There were six clumps of patrons -- crowded in front of basketball -- and six stretches of open bar in front of the war. 8:53 AM Tuesday, April 01, 2003 THIS WAR IS NOT WORKING Apr 1 2003 By Peter Arnett I am still in shock and awe at being fired. There is enormous sensitivity within the US government to reports from Baghdad. They don't want news organisations reporting from here because it presents them with enormous problems. 2:13 PM Monday, March 31, 2003 US network sacks top journalist US broadcaster NBC has sacked celebrated journalist Peter Arnett after he gave an interview on Iraqi television saying the US-led coalition's initial war plan had failed. Monday, 31 March, 2003 For complete story, see BBC News NBC said on Monday: "It was wrong for Mr Arnett to grant an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV, especially at a time of war. "And it was wrong for him to discuss personal observations and opinions in that interview." 4:51 PM Sunday, March 30, 2003 Metaphor and War, Again George Lakoff, AlterNet (This timely piece by a UC Berkeley linguist explores how metaphors can kill and will be of interest to anyone concerned about language and the news media) That's how I began a piece on the first Gulf War back in 1990, just before the war began. Many of those metaphorical ideas are back, but within a very different and more dangerous context. Since Gulf War II is due to start any day, perhaps even tomorrow, it might be useful to take a look before the action begins at the metaphorical ideas being used to justify Gulf War II. For the complete article, see AlterNet 9:30 AM Beware the Sources of Official Info By Robert Jensen Just as the Pentagon has developed increasingly sophisticated munitions for the battlefield abroad, it has perfected propaganda to secure public opinion at home.

03/23/2003-03/29/2003 Saturday, March 29, 2003 Why Reporters Stay in Baghdad Cox's Craig Nelson Calls in From Iraqi Capital By Joe Strupp MARCH 28, 2003 & Publisher NEW YORK -- While the number of journalists covering the bombing of Baghdad continues to dwindle, with editors calling some home and Iraqi officials expelling others, correspondents remaining in the war-torn city fear the worst may be yet to come. Among those is Craig Nelson of Atlanta-based Cox Newspapers, who has spent nearly four weeks in Iraq's capital, but has no plans to leave anytime soon.

15 Stories the Embedded Journos Got Wrong.com Editor & Publisher's Greg Mitchell reports that "the war is only a week old and already the media has gotten at least 15 stories wrong or misreported a sliver of fact into a major event." Hey, wait a minute. Weren't all of those embedded journalists suppose to give us the "real" story of the war – without censorship and spin? Here's Mitchell's list of stories the major media, well, simply got wrong: 8:36 AM For Broadcast Media, Patriotism Pays Consultants Tell Radio, TV Clients That Protest Coverage Drives Off Viewers By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 28, 2003 Now, apparently, is the time for all good radio and TV stations to come to the aid of their country's war. That is the message pushed by broadcast news consultants, who've been advising news and talk stations across the nation to wave the flag and downplay protest against the war. "Get the following production pieces in the studio NOW: . . . Patriotic music that makes you cry, salute, get cold chills! Go for the emotion," advised McVay Media, a Cleveland- based consultant, in a "War Manual" memo to its station clients. ". . . Air the National Anthem at a specified time each day as long as the USA is at war." 8:25 AM Friday, March 28, 2003 The News Veteran 'Nightline' Anchor Ted Koppel Had to See for Himself The Shape of a Conflict Drawn in Sand By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 28, 2003Post Perhaps the toughest moment for Ted Koppel in Iraq -- beyond the sandstorms and the 14- hour drives and the nights with no sleep -- was when he wound up in a ditch. 6:02 PM A New Wave Of `Scud Studs' Covers Drama Of Battle By Charles Goldsmith and Sally Beatty THE IRAQI WAR is just a week old, but a new generation of television "Scud studs" and their female counterparts is already emerging. PM 'Friends' more popular than enemies Friday, March 21, 2003 ABC's live war coverage ran second to NBC's entertainment programming, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research.

Fox News Keeps Wartime Coverage Lead Tuesday, March 25, 2003 For complete story, see Lycos TV News NEW YORK (AP) -- Fox News Channel has outdrawn CNN in the ratings through the first five days of the war, a further proof of Fox's audience appeal and a blow to CNN, which was hoping to revitalize the reputation it built during the first Gulf War. Through Monday, Fox News Channel has averaged 4 million viewers each day to CNN's 3.57 million. Fox's audience was bigger when the war began March 19, and every day through Monday, according to Nielsen Media Research. 5:25 PM Thursday, March 27, 2003 Great Expectations By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 25, 2003; 8:46 AM Why did so many people think this would be a cakewalk? You'd have to say the media played a key role. The pre-war buildup was so overwhelming that it seemed like the war should be called off as a horrible mismatch.

'It's more than exciting, Christiane' Most TV correspondents reporting from Iraq are attached to combat units and adopt the military viewpoint, so who is giving us the other side of the war?

Conflict of interest: the sites you need to see Jane Perrone on the best of the warblogs Thursday March 27, 2003 The Guardian.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,922495,00.html This is a momentous moment. For the first time, war has outstripped sex as the most frequent web search term according to internet service Freeserve.

Keeping Up Isn't Hard To Do For a superb weekly summary of international events, flash points and U.S. foreign policy stories, subscribe for free to The Global Beat, which is published weekly by New York University's Center for War, Peace an the News Media. Wednesday, March 26, 2003 This Real-Time War Is Getting All Too Real James P. Pinkerton March 25, 2003§ion=%2Fnews%2Fopinion So which war are you watching? The top American general, Tommy Franks, describes one war: At a press conference yesterday, he declared that American - oops, Coalition - progress has been "rapid" and "dramatic." But Iraqi second-in-command Tariq Aziz describes another: Saddam Hussein, he says, is "in good shape" and "in full control of the army and the country."

A DIFFERENT KIND OF RECRUITING DRIVE The Move On organization, which recently has made extraordinary strides in using the internet to organize against the Iraq War, has come up with a new twist: the MoveOn Media Corps. 6:15 PM UNCOMMON SENSE FROM TOM PAINE For a probing critique and commentary on our media culture, especially now that a war is on, check out the Take On The News Section of TomPaine.

Off Target Safire's Flimsy 'French Connection' "France, China and Syria all have a common reason for keeping American and British troops out of Iraq: the three nations may not want the world to discover that their nationals have been illicitly supplying Saddam Hussein with materials used in building long-range surface-to surface missiles." That was the lead of William Safire's recent two part series "The French Connection" in The New York Times, reprinted in the International Herald Tribune. With the Times' august imprimatur, Safire's charges have been relayed around the globe, in newspapers, magazines and Web sites, fueling the rising storm of outrage against the French.

European TV Shows Different War Unlike CNN And The BBC, Euronews Shows Raw Video From The Front Nina Burleigh See Here in Paris there are many ways we can take our war. We can walk outside in the unusually spring-like weather and join a peace march -- there's usually one somewhere around. We can ignore it and sip coffee at a sidewalk cafe. Or we can sit in the apartment and zap-zap-zap between international CNN, BBC and Euronews, the French-based network broadcast across Europe in English, French, Russian, Italian and Spanish. All three of these big networks have taken advantage of Pentagon "embedded" reporters to reap streams of video. PM

The media at war: live and misleading By Robert Jensen JUST as the Pentagon has developed sophisticated munitions for the battlefield abroad, it has perfected propaganda to secure public opinion at home. San Jose Mercury, http://

Journalism Becomes Part of Story How journalism is performing in the Iraq War is now becoming part of the running story in much the same way as it did during the 1991 Gulf War. A typical overview can be found in a March 26 L.A. times piece, "WAR WITH IRAQ / COVERING THE CONFLICT

An Alternative to Mainstream Media / Tomdispatch.com is researched, written and edited by Tom Engelhardt, a fellow at the Nation Institute, for anyone in despair over post-September 11th US mainstream media coverage of our world and ourselves. The service is intended to introduce you to voices from elsewhere (even when the elsewhere is here) who might offer a clearer sense of how this imperial globe of ours actually works. AM Tuesday, March 25, 2003 'Embeds' Offer Graphic but Limited War Close-Up "Despite access to the frontline, embedded reporters are also seeing the war entirely through the eyes of the U.S. and British forces. The Iraqi army does not have anything that resembles embeds on its side. /wp-dyn/articles/A16382-2003Mar23.html

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