Love/Hate Relationship

This is a quote by Wyoming Senator Alan K. Simpson taken from a CIA transcript about his views on the media.

"The press is spoiled and conceited. All the journalists consider themselves brilliant political scientists. They do not want to see anything succeeding or achieving its objectives." (Second Front, page 40)

Journalists, they seem to be everywhere. They seem to know everything before the masses and they only tell half the story of what’s actually going on. What are we going to do about it?

Well we’re going to watch and listen to them tell the story because they are the only ones telling us anything.

It’s this sort of love/hate relationship, we need them otherwise we will be completely in the dark as to what’s going on and they need us to watch so that they have purpose. We need to develop an opinion and they have to tell us what opinions to concentrate on. It’s there right to cover the world’s events and they will concentrate on the vilest of topics because that’s what they think the masses want.

Sex, violence, corruption, chaos, and all the other things in the world that happen are always blamed on the press and we are drawn to it. In the end we have to ask ourselves, is the coverage by the journalist to blame or the event that’s being covered? Is it really the press that’s causing the problem or is it society? Which came first the chicken or the atom bomb?

How Times Have Changed...

"Accounts of major battles took three to four days to reach New York because of a haphazard military courier system aptly dubbed the 'pony express.'”(Hotel Warriors chapter 1, page 5)

The gulf war news apparently took awhile to actually be reported, 3 or 4 days is a long time and a lot can happen in that time. The Vietnam War coverage could take days and more often than not weeks, and who knows how long it took coverage of WWII to actually make the news reels. The war was likely over for months before an all of America actually knew about it.

Today I watch the news with a 15 second delay from Iraq to “Good Morning America.” The internet can show me up to date information with nothing more then the click of the mouse.

True we did have coverage of the Gulf War in action, we all remember seeing the camera on the nose of the missile falling towards it target, but we don’t remember the end of that episode. Today we have multiple cameras so we can have the first person view of the bomb and another camera recording the explosion.

Today we seem disconnected to the war; the Gulf war had a face to it, reports covering the war and its battles. Even Vietnam had Americans sympathizing with the Vietnamese people. It seems that when we slow the coverage down we have time to really assess what’s happening and develop a proper opinion.

It seems that war coverage, in order to be effective, should be something that takes time to be brought to the masses. It’s as if we need the build up of anticipation in order to truly see what’s going on.

Revised Class Schedule & Second Assignment Available

A revised class schedule (3/25-5/8) and the Second Writing Assignment are now available on Blackboard.

The Second Writing Assignment is due in class on Tuesday, April 15th. Read the instructions carefully. Be sure to make clear and explicit references to the textbooks and assigned readings in your essays.

Reading Assignment:
After break we will begin our discussion of the first Persian Gulf war. You should be reading John MacArthur's Second Front and Fialka & Braestrup's Hotel Warriors. Bring both of these books to class on Tuesday 3/25, Thursday 3/27, & Tuesday 4/1.