ÿş<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">  <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Al Jazeera - objective and balanced global news coverage and analysis- Media</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=UTF-16"> <META http-equiv=Content-Type><LINK href="article-war-journalism_files/style.css" type=text/css rel=stylesheet> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2722.900" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY leftMargin=0 topMargin=10 rightMargin=0> <DIV align=center xmlns:UDF="http://mycompany.com/mynamespace" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"> <CENTER> <TABLE style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" borderColor=#111111 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px" align=left><IMG src="article-war-journalism_files/banner.gif"></TD></TR> <TR> <TD><IMG src="article-war-journalism_files/mainheader.jpg"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV> <DIV align=center> <CENTER> <TABLE id=AutoNumber2 style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" borderColor=#999999 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=770 border=1> <TBODY> <TR> <TD> <TABLE id=AutoNumber3 style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" borderColor=#111111 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD class=dates id=hDate dir=ltr style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px" width="80%" bgColor=#cccccc></TD> <TD dir=ltr width="20%" bgColor=#cccccc></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <TABLE id=AutoNumber4 style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" borderColor=#111111 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=768 border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD width=565> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD colSpan=2 height=5></TD></TR> <TR> <TD style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px" colSpan=2> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 xmlns:UDF="http://mycompany.com/mynamespace" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"> <TBODY> <TR> <TD class=indicationLink2 vAlign=top><A class=indicationLink href="http://www.thememoryhole.org/media/al-jazeera/index.html">Homepage<IMG src="article-war-journalism_files/spacer.gif" width=2 border=0></A><IMG src="article-war-journalism_files/spacer.gif" width=3 border=0><IMG src="article-war-journalism_files/spacer.gif" width=3 border=0>/ <IMG src="article-war-journalism_files/spacer.gif" width=2 border=0><A class=indicationLink href="http://www.thememoryhole.org/media/al-jazeera/topics/indexc0a9.html?cu_no=1&template_id=282&temp_type=42">Media<IMG src="article-war-journalism_files/spacer.gif" width=3 border=0></A>/ </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR> <TR> <TD colSpan=3 height=6></TD></TR> <TR> <TD width=10></TD> <TD><INPUT id=item_cu_no type=hidden value=1 xmlns:UDF="http://mycompany.com/mynamespace" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"><INPUT id=item_no type=hidden value=820 xmlns:UDF="http://mycompany.com/mynamespace" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"><INPUT id=version type=hidden value=1 xmlns:UDF="http://mycompany.com/mynamespace" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"><INPUT id=date1 type=hidden value=25/03/2003 xmlns:UDF="http://mycompany.com/mynamespace" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"><INPUT id=dateTime type=hidden value=" 9:39PM" xmlns:UDF="http://mycompany.com/mynamespace" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"><INPUT id=articalText type=hidden value="<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>The attack on Iraq looks set to be the most&nbsp;information&nbsp;controlled conflict of modern times. Coverage in the mainstream media will be&nbsp;manipulated as never before. The US is going to unprecedented lengths </FONT>
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<TD class=imgcaption id=Comment dir=rtl vAlign=top align=middle><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial><STRONG><FONT size=1>British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw face the media at the start of European Union heads of state summit in Brussels </FONT></STRONG></FONT></FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><FONT face=Arial size=2>to ensure that its spin will dominate media agendas across the West. And it will&nbsp;expend massive resources in minimising critical coverage across the world.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>US and UK governments have shown themselves adept at learning&nbsp;media-management lessons from successive conflicts. In both Suez (1956) and most importantly Vietnam, the UK and US governments came to believe that propaganda was key to winning wars. In the Suez debacle General Sir Charles Keighley concluded in an internal British government report in 1957 that the “over-riding lesson” was that 'world opinion is now the absolute principle of war'.&nbsp; </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>The role of the media in the Vietnam war was believed by many to<BR>have been a key factor in the defeat of the US.&nbsp;But in fact the US media only started to feature dissent after the US ruling elite became split on the war. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nevertheless, according to John McArthur's book "Second Front", America¹s future war planners decided not to risk uncensored press coverage of their own conflicts. “They are determined - evidently beginning in the Reagan Administration - that reporters would never again have the opportunity to confuse the American public about the government's war aims, whether deliberately or by accident”.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>The lessons of Vietnam were put into effect in the Falklands conflict in<BR>1982. There was close control of the 29 journalists who were allowed to accompany the military to the South Atlantic and no independent facilities for reporting.&nbsp; A dual system of censorship operated which ensured that journalists’ copy was censored on naval vessels in the South Atlantic and then again at the Ministry of Defence in London before being released. The success of news management in the Falklands was not lost on the US government as Lt Commander Arthur Humphries of the US Navy noted in 1983:<BR></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>“In spite of a perception of choice in a democratic society, the Falklands War shows us how to make certain that government policy is not undermined by the way a war is reported. Control access to the fighting, invoke censorship, and rally aid in the form of patriotism at home and in the battle zone”. This policy was followed in the US invasions of both Grenada in 1984 and Panama in 1989.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Humphries&nbsp;however also noted that if there was one deficiency in the policy, it was in failing to be pro-active&nbsp;with filling the picture void. “In the Falklands the British failed to appreciate that news management is more than just information security censorship. It also means providing pictures”. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>This lesson had been well learned by the time of the 1991 Gulf War. In the Saudi desert journalists were isolated from the fighting<BR>and newsrooms were supplied every day with new footage of ‘precision’ bombs hitting their targets. This was a new clean war in which civilians would not be harmed as ‘smart’ technology enabled ‘surgical strikes’.&nbsp;</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>A US-government sponsored&nbsp;audit after the conflict, showed that only seven percent of the ordnance was infact ‘smart’. The other 93% were indiscriminate weapons including weapons of mass destruction. The smart technology turned out to missed its target in 40%<BR>of cases according to official figures. Suffice to say, none of the footage of either the ‘dumb’ bombs or the smart bombs which missed made it onto TV screens.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>But even when the smart weapons hit their targets, civilians died - as in the case of the al-Amariyah air raid shelter, mistaken for a bunker. This time the US and UK are&nbsp;saying that most bombs will be of the smart variety and that the technology has been improved. According to the British Ministry of Defence, “greater attention to precision-guided weapons means we could have a war with zero civilian casualties”. This statement was falsified on the first night of bombing when between three and five Iraqi civilians were hit by shrapnel.<BR></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>The emphasis on clean war diverts world&nbsp;attention from the fact that weapons of mass destruction such as depleted uranium tipped shells, ‘bunker busters’ and ‘daisy cutter’ bombs will be used. Conjuring up the smell of freshly mowed grass, the daisy cutter is actually a bomb the size of a small car which destroys everything in an area the size of a football pitch. It is said to resemble a small nuclear bomb.</FONT></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>The pool</FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>In past wars including the 1991 Gulf War, the pool system has been the main means of control of journalists ‘in theatre’ -&nbsp; a term for propaganda adopted by many journalists. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>The pool allows the military to control the movement of journalists as well as almost everything they see. In 1991 the Pentagon&nbsp;put extreme pressure on&nbsp;journalists not to operate outside the pool and some adopted the value system so fully that they turned in any journalists who tried to report independently. This time the Pentagon has&nbsp;become more sophisticated and more determined to eliminate the possibility of independent reporting. They told journalists to leave Baghdad and by 18 March about half of the 300 there had left, including many of the key UK and US journalists (from US networks such as NBC and ABC as well as the UK press such as the Times and Daily Telegraph) who would likely have more credibility in their own countries.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>The rules issued by the Pentagon were themselves part of a process of&nbsp; spin. They are presented as voluntary and appeared to some to offer “unprecedented freedom to report the facts”.&nbsp; On closer inspection, a number of clauses buried in the text indicate&nbsp;an iron fist in&nbsp;a velvet glove. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>While the rules state that there is ‘no general review process’ of reports by the Pentagon, a later section notes that “if media are inadvertently exposed to sensitive information they should be briefed after exposure on what information they should avoid covering”. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>A security review also becomes compulsory if any sensitive information is released deliberately. In a classic passage attempting to present strict censorship rules as voluntary, the Pentagon notes that “agreement to security review in exchange for this type of access must be strictly voluntary and if the reporter does not agree, the access may not be granted.”</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>The pool this time has a further new feature known as “embedding” which entails that reporters operate in close proximity to military units. They will not be allowed to travel independently and some suggest that control of the technology of communication will be controlled by the military too. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>These new rules mean that journalists will don military uniform and protective clothing and, the Pentagon hopes, start to identify with the military in every way. According to reports there are 903 journalists embedded with US and UK forces, six times the number of journalists who operate independently in Baghdad. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>At US military headquarters in Qatar the daily briefings will be delivered from a huge press centre complete with mock studio with five large TV screens to show accurate bombing runs. Topped of by tastefully deployed camouflage netting installed by a specially flown in Hollywood designer, the centre cost in the region of US$250,000.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>In a little noticed interview on the Irish radio station, RTE, veteran BBC war correspondent Kate Adie has argued that the Pentagon is “entirely hostile to the free spread of information”.&nbsp; “I am enormously pessimistic of the chance for decent on the spot reporting”, she said. But the threat to independent journalism is potentially more severe.&nbsp; Adie reported being told by a senior officer in the Pentagon that if broadcasters’ satellite uplink signals were detected by the military they would be ‘targeted down’ even if there were journalists there.&nbsp; “Who cares - they¹ve been warned”, said the officer.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>The Director of Corporate Communications for the British Army&nbsp; Brigadier Matthes Sykes, has a reported enthusiasm for conflict.&nbsp; He is most animated when talking of his spells in the field, indeed he admits that is where his heart belongs.<BR></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Journalists too get involved.&nbsp; According to Robert Fisk, long-term Middle East correspondent for the Independent and political author,&nbsp;many return to their childhood, playing toy soldiers. The former Daily Telegraph editor Max Hastings admits that&nbsp;he got close in the Falklands war:&nbsp; “I was accused of getting too involved with the troops. I have to plead guilty to that.”&nbsp;In Iraq he now worries for younger colleagues. “TV stations and newspapers tend to get overexcited in wars. It’s a case of boys with toys, but the hardest thing to remember is that this is ultimately all about lives.”<BR>&nbsp;<BR>On the first day of the attack, Iraqi missiles fired into Kuwait were unequivocally reported on the main BBC bulletins as consisting of Scud missiles, even though this had not been confirmed and doubt was cast on the hypothesis by minority audience BBC programmes. BBC News 24, the globally available service continually repeated the spin.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>On the morning of the 21st March BBC, reporter Ben Brown&nbsp;said the word 'Scud' into a two minute&nbsp;news report&nbsp;at least 10 times. Just as many news outlets pointed out the use of Scuds would be a material breach of UN resolution 1441. But the missiles were not Scuds as&nbsp;information confirmed the next day. The correction&nbsp;never received the prominence of the original reports.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>As war approached, the UK&nbsp;government attempted to eliminate dissent by arguing that past differences must be put aside to support “our” troops.&nbsp; A confidential memo to senior BBC management at the beginning of February, leaked by BBC staff, showed that even before the biggest ever demonstrations in British history, there was a recognition of and&nbsp;subtle attempt to marginalise the broadcasting of anti-war voices. Too much dissent was being broadcast,&nbsp;the memo&nbsp;claimed, which 'forces our presenters to put the Bush/Blair position to callers - sometimes making us appear to be siding with government. Not true in all cases.'&nbsp;</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>As war started the first signs of patriotic censorship appeared. The owner of more than 100 weekly newspapers in Britain, Sir Ray Tindle, wrote to the editors of all his papers asking them “to ensure that nothing appears which attacks the decision to conduct the war”.&nbsp;The request drew&nbsp;immediate protests from free media campaigners.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>A&nbsp;hackneyed phrase maintains that truth is the first casualty of war. But it may be argued that it is a casualty because governments&nbsp;make a concerted attempt to destroy it.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG>The author, David Miller, is a member of the Glasgow University Media Group in Scotland, Britain. He is the joint author of "Market Killing" and "The Circuit of Mass Communication"</STRONG></FONT></P>" xmlns:UDF="http://mycompany.com/mynamespace" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"> <TABLE id=AutoNumber5 style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" borderColor=#111111 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 xmlns:UDF="http://mycompany.com/mynamespace" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"> <TBODY> <TR> <TD> <TABLE id=AutoNumber5 style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" borderColor=#111111 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD dir=ltr width="100%"><A href="http://www.thememoryhole.org/media/al-jazeera/xml/topics/printarticle1a2e.xml?cu_no=1&item_no=820&version=1&template_id=282&parent_id=258"><IMG hspace=5 src="article-war-journalism_files/print.gif" align=right vspace=5 border=0></A><IMG onmouseover="this.style.cursor = 'hand' ;" onclick=SendByEmail(); onmouseout="this.style.cursor = '' ;" hspace=5 src="article-war-journalism_files/email.gif" align=right vspace=5 border=0></TD></TR> <TR> <TD height=5></TD></TR> <TR> <TD class=articalTitle>War journalism guided with military precision</TD></TR> <TR> <TD height=15></TD></TR> <TR> <TD id=artical vAlign=top></TD></TR> <TR> <TD height=12></TD></TR> <TR> <TD width="100%" background=article-war-journalism_files/h-dotedline-bg.gif><IMG height=1 src="article-war-journalism_files/spacer.gif" width=1></TD></TR> <TR> <TD height=10></TD></TR> <TR> <TD dir=ltr width="100%"><A href="http://www.thememoryhole.org/media/al-jazeera/xml/topics/printarticle1a2e.xml?cu_no=1&item_no=820&version=1&template_id=282&parent_id=258"><IMG hspace=5 src="article-war-journalism_files/print.gif" align=right vspace=5 border=0></A><IMG onmouseover="this.style.cursor = 'hand' ;" onclick=SendByEmail(); onmouseout="this.style.cursor = '' ;" hspace=5 src="article-war-journalism_files/email.gif" align=right vspace=5 border=0></TD></TR> <TR> <TD height=5></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.2 xmlns:UDF="http://mycompany.com/mynamespace" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"> if(document.all.artical) document.all.artical.innerHTML = document.all.articalText.value ; </SCRIPT> </TD> <TD width=10></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD> <TD dir=ltr width=1 bgColor=#cccccc><IMG height=1 src="article-war-journalism_files/spacer.gif" width=1 border=0></TD> <TD vAlign=top width=202> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD colSpan=3 height=10></TD></TR> <TR> <TD width=10></TD> <TD><A href="http://www.thememoryhole.org/media/al-jazeera/index.html"><IMG src="article-war-journalism_files/homepage.gif" border=0></A></TD> <TD width=10></TD></TR> <TR> <TD colSpan=3 height=8></TD></TR> <TR> <TD width=10></TD> <TD></TD> <TD width=10></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.2> if( document.all.date1 ) { docDate = document.all.date1.value ; } </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="article-war-journalism_files/HomeMenu.js"></SCRIPT> </BODY></HTML>