There are many of us Americans that remember the images that the journalists gave us of the Vietnam War…..many were of horrendous battles, events and situations and in some way lead to the anti-war movement having such an impact.
The US government was NOT going to allow that to happen again!
That situation was eliminated during the first Gulf War where the military had a close grip on the media and did not allow any of the freedoms that were allowed during the Vietnam era…..and that tight hold has continued today.
Basically it is that the media can have the news that the military wants them to have…..in other words tight press censorship…..some will not call it that but that is what it is…..information control has another name that we seldom use….Propaganda. Ask the German people just how effective propaganda can be…..
The new manual by the Pentagon, Law of War, goes a few steps beyond censorship……amazing that the news organizations have not made this issue more of a story……or are the news groups just extensions of the government these days?
Read it and tell me where this is a way for a democracy to function……
Source: Journalist or ‘unprivileged belligerent’? – Al Jazeera English
Everyone knows that the entire Vietnam War was staged in Hollywood on a series of secret sound stages and none of it ever happened. LOL.
Funny how no one knows about this and they allow the media to be controlled to the point of not caring…..the best they can do is when the vets come home….but little about what put them where they are today…..why?
They are only heroes until the shine of exploitable publicity wears off their sacrifice and after that the fat speech makers and flag wavers totally forget their promise to “Never Forget You For The Sacrifices You Have Made.”
Propaganda, Saboteurs? These are disturbing words. Journalists are risking their lives for their stories. The government’s treatment of them is disgusting, if indeed, according to Al Jazeera, is true. The images that were broadcast during the Vietnam War are still in my memory and they were exceptionally disturbing. What was even more disturbing was the daily death toll that all the anchors reported on the evening news. In that case, I can see why the Pentagon would rather have some stifling control. But surely, journalists at the scenes of global disturbances and attacks, should be allowed to report what they see and experience.
And they should be allowed to get accurate reports not something that feeds an ideology…..today reporting has the sole purpose of a continuing support of a war that would otherwise be unpopular…..chuq