Media & War

(see also Media Consolidation, Media Bias, Censorship, Culture of Violence, Gulf War: 1990-Present)

Basics

On the Web: Articles

US, European Press Stand Divided Over Israel, Palestinians, Mark Jurkowitz, Boston Globe (5/1/02). Media coverage of Middle East conflict very different in U.S. and Europe.

The Real War on Terrorism. Mark Scheffler, Salon (4/23/02). Robert Young Pelton’s assessment of US war on Afghanistan; relationship of media to military.

Lights! Cameras! Attack! Hollywood enlists. Cooper, Marc, Nation (12/10/01).

Are Americans Getting the Full Picture? Sydney Morning Herald (11/18/01). Compares US/UK war coverage: US relies mostly on Pentagon briefings, UK more independent, & more focussed on humanitarian aspects.

War Needs Good Public Relations. Normon Solomon, FAIR (10/25/01). Pentagon hires global PR firm to help correct "faulty" perceptions of our war on Afghanistan.

How Much Can We Believe in the News Campaign? Jay Rayner, Observer (10/14/01). Media suffering from censorship, both official and self-imposed.

An Informed Public Is the Greatest Weapon of Democracy. Erwin Chemerinsky, LA Times (10/11/01). Against censorship & misrepresentation by government & media.

President Uses TV Show to Combat Terrorism. Allessandra Stanley, NY Times (10/11/01). US government control of & access to the press.

The Media as Propaganda Ministry. Carla Binion, Online Journal (10/2/01). Ramsey Clarke's 1994 arguments about reasons for Gulf War apply to present conflict.

On the Web: Specialized Sites

Center for Defense Information.

Center for Media & Democracy.

Consortium for Independent Journalism.

Disinfopedia.

Global Vision.

Independent Television Service.

Media Channel (Media Reader)

Media Education Foundation.

Media Watch.

Media Whores Online.

Reporters Without Borders. International press freedom watchdog group.

In the Library: Articles

Arnett, Peter. "The firing of Peter Arnett," Nation (4/28/03):7

Benaim, Daniel, Vishesh Kumar & Priyanka Motaparthy. "TV's conflicted experts," Nation (4/21/03). Wartime punditry on Iraq.

Dorman, William A. "The media: playing the government's game," in Len Ackland & Steven McGuire (eds.) Assessing the Nuclear Age: Selections from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Chicago IL: Education Foundation for Nuclear Science), pp. 261-271.

Douglas, Susan. "The media fall in line," Progressive (nov 2001).

Greider, William. “Washington Post warriors,” Nation (3/24/03):6-8.

Hedges, Chris. "The press & the myths of war," Nation (4/21/03).

Hertsgaard, Mark. "The media & the Persian Gulf," San Francisco Chronicle (12/30/90). Pentagon cheerleading and proactive disinformation have been the practice for quite a while.

Ireland, Doug. "Media warriors," Nation (9/21/98).

Lazare, Daniel. "The New Yorker goes to war: How a nice magazine talked itself into backing Bush's jihad," Nation (6/2/03):25-31.

Lewis, Andrea. "Lights, camera, military action!" Progressive (4/03):32-34. On producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the Pentagon, & making of Profiles from the Front Line & other propaganda films.

Massing, Michael. "Press watch," Nation (10/15/01):6-7.

__________. "Seven days in October," Nation (11/12/01):5-6.

__________. "Hawks at the Washington Post," Nation (11/11/02):20-23.

McArthur, John R. "Unleash the press," Nation (11/19/01):5-6.

Ober, Eric W. "A war is waged for the public's right to know," Wall Street Journal (1/17191). Pentagon restrictions on newsgathering.

Zinn, Howard. "The others," Nation (2/11/02):16-20. What if media helped Americans see Afghan casualties as clearly as we saw those of September 11?

In the Library: Non-Fiction Books

Aronson, James. The Press & the Cold War (NY: Monthly Review, 199?).

Cockburn, Leslie. Looking for Trouble: One Woman, Six Wars & A Revolution (NY: Anchor, 2003).

Collins, John & Ross Glover. Collateral Language: A User's Guide to America's New War (NY: NYU, 2003).

Cumings, Bruce. War & Television (NY: Verso, 1992).

Feinstein, Anthony. Journalists Under Fire: The Psychological Hazards of Covering War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2006).

Gitlin, Todd. Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images & Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives (NY, 2001).

Goodman, Amy with David Goodman. The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, & the Media that Love Them (NY: Hyperion, 2004).

Handke, Peter. A Journey to the Rivers (NY, 1996). Critique of Western media coverage in Balkans.

Hedges, Chris. War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning (NY: Public Affairs, 2002). Deeply disturbing journalist's account of war as an addiction, for combatants & journalists alike.

Hentsch, Thierry. Imagining the Middle East (Montreal: Black Rose, 2003).

Karim, Karim H. The Islamic Peril: Media & Global Violence (Montreal: Black Rose, 2001).

Knightley, Phillip. The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero & Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Iraq (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2005).

Lande, Nathaniel. Dispatches from the Front: A History of the American War Correspondent (NY: Oxford, 1998).

Massing, Michael. Now They Tell Us: The American Press & Iraq (NY: NY Review, 2006).

Moeller, Susan D. Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War & Death (NY, 1998).

Murrow, Edward R. World War II: On the Air (Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks Media Fusion, 2003).

Parkinson, Alan F. Ulster Loyalism & the British Media (Portland OR: Four Courts, 1998).

Pedelty, Mark. War Stories: The Culture of Foreign Correspondents (NY: Routledge, 1995).

Retort. Afflicted Powers: Capital & Spectacle in a New Age of War (London: Verso, 2005).

Said, Edward. Covering Islam. How the Media & the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (NY, 1981; rev. ed. 1997).

Schechter, Danny. Media Wars: News at a Time of Terror (NY: Rowman Littlefield, 2003).

Starr, Paul. The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications (NY: Basic Books, 2005).

Swomley, John M. Press Agents of the Pentagon (Washington: National Council Against Conscription, 1953).

Taylor, John. Body Horror. Photojournalism, Catastrophe & War (NY, 1998).

In the Library: Fiction

In the Library: For Young Readers

In the Library: Poetry

In the Library: Drama

In the Library: Photography

CD & Audio

Film & Video

"Baghdad Rap" [2004], dir. Arturo Cisneros, 74m. Iraq war as lived by Spanish "brigadistas" & distorted by TV.

"Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky & the Media" [1992], dir. Mark Achbar & Peter Wintonick, 167m. In video stores.

"Orwell Rolls in His Grave" [2003], dir. Robert Kane Pappas, 103m. From Sky Island Films. Media & the distortion of truth.