The Media Syndrome by David Altheide

Author:David Altheide [Altheide, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781629581477
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2016-05-12T00:00:00+00:00

Then there was the Amiriyah bunker that was bombed. It was justified by military officials because their information portrayed it as a command post, so it was hit. The numerous casualties—Iraq claimed 300—were covered by the press, but not enough, according to some. At the bunker, the images and photos were shown; horrible pictures of burnt bodies, and children were shown here; they were sent to the west but the US networks hardly showed them; after all, this was being cast as an antiseptic war, virtually no American casualties, and audiences could imagine what happened to the enemy. The networks did discuss it, however. A partial transcript from ABC’s Nightline—the show that began during the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979/1980—illustrates how civilian deaths became a special component of death, something which had received little coverage to this point in the war. Another point to keep in mind while reading the transcript is information management, which was acknowledged by the US reporters, on the one hand, while the military spokespersons cautioned against accepting claims from the managed Iraqi press! After explaining that the bunker was a military target, anchor Ted Koppel queried that it may have also been a place for children, and indeed that

the evidence is also overwhelming that hundreds of men, women, and children had taken shelter in that building. And most of them were killed. Sometimes in war, civilians are targeted intentionally. The Germans did that during the Second World War when they aimed their V-1 and V-2 rockets at London and then when the Luftwaffe bombed Coventry. And by grim coincidence, it was on this day forty-six years ago that more than 35,000 Germans died as the result of Allied bombing raids against Dresden. But in this war, the United States and its coalition partners insist that they are doing everything humanly possible to avoid civilian casualties. (Nightline, February 13, 1991)

The ground war was preceded by some concern and trepidation of blood being spilled, not only for the Iraqi others but for the “coalition” forces as well. Massive bombing runs to soften up the opposition, especially their well-reported via military spokespersons claims about being dug in, and so on, but there was little video provided of the actual bombing runs. This did not matter, since Department of Defense (DOD) film of carpet bombing in Vietnam was available and was shown several times as a prelude to what that phase of the war would look like. Long anticipated by news analysts, the ensuing ground war was previously scripted as part of the war narrative, as though the third stage was significant to keep in mind while presenting the air war. Without doubt, the high-tech stardom of smart bombs was compelling in its own right, but it was also given meaning and significance for what would come if it did not work—the ground war, in which machines killing machines would be substituted for more bloody bodies. What we continued to see, however, was still more graphics, maps, game plans;

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