War And The Media example essay topic

War and the media have shared a close bond during the last century. With the developments of radio, television, and the internet, news is able to go directly from the frontlines to our homes. Media is protected in the Constitution under the first amendment so they are free to publish anything. People around the world rely on the media for news everyday and most believe what they hear. But from developments in Vietnam War, it has become clear that people cannot believe all the information they receive from the media.

The media is a biased source of information that only reports news that is beneficial to a country or profitable to a company. During the war with Iraq, a large percent of the country and the world protested U.S. involvement after the UN Security Council vote failed. The media reported these protest until the war started. The media turned into a pro-war cult. On April 24, two leading media bosses, Ted Turner who founded CNN and the BBC Director General Greg Dyke, admitted that "the American broadcast media systematically distorted the news of the war and functioned as an electronic arm of the Pentagon and the Bush administration". They did things like interviewing Pentagon-approved, former generals for their opinions on the war instead of interviewing protesters.

This proves that the American media was deliberately biased towards the war, and they did this to benefit the government. The United States is not the only country in the world whose media is biased. Iraq is also biased but unlike our country, its government controls its media. The Iraqi Information Minister, Muhammad Sa " id al-Sah haf, has become internationally famous for his comical interpretations of the war. He has said things like: "We have destroyed 2 tanks, fighter planes, 2 helicopters and their shovels - We have driven them back". and "There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!" even though tanks and coalition troops were in Baghdad.

These outright lies are propaganda used to make Saddam's troops continue fighting a hopeless war. He is probably the worst source of information about the war. Even though American media doesn't outright lie, it doesn't tell the whole truth just so it can make money. On the first day of the war, every single news network showed video of the massive amounts of tomahawk missiles that were being launched into Iraq, but none of the networks showed what happened when they blew up. Watching these missiles with awe, I could only help but wonder where these missiles were striking? Spectacles like this helped cable news draw an average of 14 million viewers which is 10 million higher than the month before.

The news networks leave out video of the bombed targets because they want to show positive video so people to continue to watch. Newspapers also tend to sensationalize the news of the war by exaggerating the truth just to sell more papers. Money makes the media change the truth. The modern media is biased source of information in wartime.

Media is influenced by its nation and the possibility of making more money. The media fails to show all points of view during war and instead chooses one view that best suites its goal. These flaws in our media system make the idea of free press a far, unachievable goal..