Pressures Faced by Media Organizations During War Essay

While wars kill people, destroy lives and economies and create changeless hatreds, they a lot bring commodious benefits to a minority of people. Wars argon great for the national cohesion of a untaught, wars bothow unpopular rulers to gather spread come out of the closet for themselves and rally the masses posterior them. Wars whitethorn to a fault benefit the manufacturers of blazonry and ammunition and phalanx equipment, mercenary forces or other industries. War epochs are very much periods of great emotional upheaval and peoples patriotic and nationalistic feelings rise to a great intensity.During wars people are inclined to be less risible of politics motives and more complaint to political sympathies commands and recommendations. However, generally wars cause very much more terms than good and a section of the public ofttimes opposes war. During war times political relations often rely on the national media to sticker their armed services policy and answer an d refute the critics of war in their behalf. Media organizations g everyplacenance pressure from the government, the masses, the corporations and the military to conceal or distort facts or to insure the war in a certain way.In a representative coun get a line, the citizens depend on the media to inform them objectively whether a certain governmental policy is in their best interests or not. Often the rulers of a country decide to go to war, while the people are reluctant. In much(prenominal) features the government whitethorn pressurize media organizations to convince the public of the need for war. This situation occurred in the fall in States at the start of the creation War I. The American public saw no reason to enter war against Germ all at the behalf of Britain.The Pre billetnt Woodrow Wilson, on the other hand pledged to enter war in the forethought of Britain. In April 1917 as the US entered the war, Wilson formed the mission on Public Information (CPI) to convince the American intellectuals to support US entry into the war. The committee flooded the country with speakers and propaganda posters. Newspapers were flooded with intelligence activity releases denouncing the Germans and train true and false accusations at them (Ponder).While at war governments often gaze that the war be seen as a moral cause, wars that are fought for mercenary reasons or out of a misguided or innate conception of patriotism are portrayed as morally O.K. campaign to bring about a noble stopping point. Members of the media are anticipate to use this narrative in their reporting. Those who question the righteousness of the cause may submit punitive actions of various types. During the Vietnam War, the media was employed by the American government as a tool against the anti-war movement.Anti-war protesters were portrayed as traitors, giving aid and comfort to the Vietcong and North Vietnamese enemy. It was not until a large consider of elected officials had d eclared their opposition to the ongoing war, that it became acceptable for the media to discuss the motives and assumptions behind the conflict and the righteousness of Americas cause. However the general expression of the war coverage was highly patriotic as if the presence of the US forces in Vietnam were most natural and it were the Vietcong who were foreign invaders (Hallin).Compared to previous administrations, the Nixon administration had to face a lot more public skepticism and widespread anti-war sentiments. The telly networks too, started showing a lot more criticism of the administrations war policies. The administrations reception was to appeal to the affiliate TV channels, which were mostly owned by rich, white, conservatives, to bear pressure upon the parole networks to reduce the extent of their criticism (Hallin). The success of the organizations efforts to present the war as a moral goal is heavily dependant upon the publics perception of the enemy as the epitom e of evil.Therefore the establishment may try to suppress any discussion in the media that portrays the enemy as having any positive lumber whatsoever. Soon after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, comedian Bill Maher, on his TV show Politically Incorrect questioned chairperson Bushs tittle-tattle that the attackers were cowardly. One of the guests on the show, political analyst Dinesh DSouza replied that the word was wrong when applied to the attackers, they were not cowards but warriors, agreeing with him Maher said, We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. Thats cowardly.Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, its not cowardly. (Jones) This causerie provoked a storm of fury in the public, in the media and the government. The point out was condemned by President Bushs spokesman Ari Fleischer who said, There are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do an d this is not a time for remarks like that there never is. (Jones). As a result of the disceptation generated by the comment, the show Politically Incorrect was deprived of advertising tax income and was cancelled a few months later (Jones).One of the most joint themes employed in pro-war propaganda is the identification of the military campaign as a campaign for the human rights of ordinary people. This propaganda is severely threatened by the news of civilian causalities. Therefore governments at war wish may wish to suppress or minimize the rival of news mentioning civilian casualties caused as a result of their soldiers actions. In order to portray the conflict with the enemy as a struggle betwixt good and evil it is unavoidable to minimize any wrong doings or atrocities committed by the national and allied armed forces.Often reporters learning of a history involving atrocities by their own side feel pressured to hide these atrocities altogether. Reporters may also fear that if they report anything negative about the military, their access to the frontlines will be curtailed. In addition for reporters who are embedded within a military unit, within a few days of facing the same dangers as the troops, their identification with the unit may slang it extremely difficult for them to induce an objective assessment of a situation.During the Korean War, in the summer of 1950, the United States forces gunned down hundreds of South Korean refugees at No Gun Ri, believe them to be North Korean infiltrators. This massacre and other lesser ones were cover up by the American reporters because they believed that publishing the story might harm the war effort. It was not until 1999 that the No Gun Ri massacre was reported in the American Media (Penri). In Vietnam, the journalist Morley Safer, who revealed a number of atrocities on the sectionalization of the American military was especially the target of government wrath.Military officials try to have him barr ed from the war zone and recalled by his news procedure (Hammond). In order to keep public support behind the war, the government may wish to give the impression that the war effort is come through very well even when the facts are to the contrary. The government may try to restrict the broadcast of certain types of information such as reason figures. During the Vietnam War, the American forces were fighting a smaller, clandestine war in Laos.In order to prevent the news of this clandestine war graceful public, the misfortune figures for the Vietnam war were expanded to include the casualties in Laos under the heading Casualties incurred by the US . military forcefulness in connection with the conflict in Vietnam (Hammond). During the present day Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Bush government forbade the media from publishing photographs of flag intent coffins of American soldiers shipped back from Afghanistan and Iraq, on the basis that it would undermine the morale of the public.The government may also fear that news of military black eyes received by the national forces may turn public opinion against the war. In World War II, news of setbacks suffered by the US forces in the South peace-loving were severely censored. If it became clear that there was no way to hide the news from being broadcasted, media sources would be instructed to wait until a victory had been achieved, the news of the setback in one area would then be paired up with the news of victory in another area to lessen the impact of the bad news (Carpenter).On occasion members of international media organizations may be regarded as a hostile force by a side in a conflict due to their refusal to ascribe to a enactment of self-censorship or due to perceived bias in their news reports. These media organizations may then face violence at the hands of military forces. The Katari television channel Al-Jazeera may have been the object of this treatment in the present day Afghanistan and I raq wars. In November 2001, a bomb dropped from a US warplane destroyed the Al-Jazeera office in Kabul.Al-Jazeera executives asseverate that the US military had been informed of the coordinates of their office beforehand and that the bombing was deliberate (Wells). Al-Jazeera was again the say target of US attack in Iraq. Al-Jazeera interviewed Allied military personnel captured by Iraqi forces as well as the massive civilian losses caused by the allied bombing. Neoconservative intellectuals close to the Bush administration, such as Frank Gaffney advocated the use of the US military against Al-Jazeera, alleging that it was the mouthpiece of ibn Talal Hussein Hussein and al-Qaida.In November 2005, the British publication The Daily Mirror alleged the existence of a memo from the British Prime Ministers office that claimed that President Bush considered bombing al-Jazeera offices in Qatar in discussions with the Prime Minister Tony Blair and that Blair talked him out of it (Mcguire a nd Lines). The conduct of war often becomes a point of contention between rival groups in a government, this may lead to politically do intentional leaks of sensitive information to the media.These leaks may consist of partial, distorted or fabricated information, giving people a distorted view of the man of issues. Since news media organizations are always looking to gain an advantage over their competitors they may decide to publish this unverified information thereby becoming unwitting tools in the hands of a faction in the government. During the Iraq War, the individuation of CIA operative Valerie Plame was leaked to the press, the leak was seen as a reprisal against Plames husband Joseph C.Wilson IV who had refuted President Bushs assertion that President Hussein of Iraq was want to build nuclear weapons in a column in quantify (Werther). Modern news media attempts to serve several masters at once. In order to get to cover a war a make a profit they have to keep the milita ry, the people, the administration and the affiliates happy. The professional debt instrument of a journalist to report only the truth often takes a backseat to these considerations.