The Gulf War as Total Television

When did the news media become an untrustworthy faceless corporation? We may never know but what Engelhardt does set out to prove in his article "Gulf War as Total Television" is that this can be a dangerous situation particularly in war time. If the public feel they can not trust the media then the only source for news becomes the US government which is then propaganda. This happened during the first Gulf War when a critical Washington Post article labeled follow journalists as cocky, self-righteous, and whinny. Also according to the article,

"The briefings, commented spokesman Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly, were 'the most significant part of the whole operation because for the first time ever...the American people were getting their information from the government-not from the press"

This can certainly be harmful because all this does is lead to propaganda from the government since it will not release any information that could be harmful to them. Advertisers, who keep much news media running are not helping matters much. According to this link, advertisers tend to prefer these untrustworthy sources. A change must be done in order for us to get truthful reliable news.