Email an article

From (enter your email address here):

Recipient (email address):	Additional recipient (optional):	Additional recipient (optional):


Your message: (optional, limit 100 characters)
I thought you might be interested in the article from the FAIR web site. The following article will be appended to your message: That's Militainment! By Robin Andersen The media build-up to war presented a military attack on Iraq as an overwhelming natural force whose momentum could not be stopped. "The clock is ticking," NPR reported in early March (3/8/03), with soldiers in Kuwait complaining that there was "too much waiting around." Military preparations were like a "huge gun and every day you cock the hammer back a little more." February 15 marked the first time in history that millions of people around the world demonstrated against a war before it started. But Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw were already wearing khakis in the desert, driving humvees, profiling soldiers, hitching rides on helicopters and previewing high-tech weaponry. "With all this firepower and all these forces primed and ready to go, how long can they stay in peak condition?" worried Brokaw (NBC, 2/18/03), reporting from the northern frontier of Kuwait with "a new band of brothers preparing for the first war of the 21st Century." The "waiting for war" stories that dominated coverage were the result of what was being heralded as a new era of military openness. The Pentagon promised access to the battlefield unseen since Vietnam. Hundreds of journalists were "embedding" with military units, waiting for close-up views of combat. A spate of stories followed showing "embeds" training at media boot camps, learning about gas masks, running with heavy backpacks and pointing their cameras at soldiers. Embedding was the brainchild of Assistant Defense Secretary Victoria Clarke, formerly with Hill and Knowlton, the PR firm infamous for promoting the false baby-incubator story during the first Gulf War. "We want robust coverage," she claimed (CNBC, 2/19/03). To read the rest of the article, please click on the link below. http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1141 This article was published on Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting's Website (http://www.fair.org).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Site designed by the May First Technology Collective