The US has a nasty habit of demonizing the "them," and glorifying the "us" using the media. Concerning war specifically, the media loves to over-sensationalize combat as an alpha-male game of property, oil, and pride, as if it's a video game, but neglecting to publicize content that exposes the results of American corruption. The corrupt officials in the armed forces that compromise our American values and engage in the torturing and execution of innocent foreign civilians are rarely covered. This is the missing piece in the picture. We can rest our heads at night thinking that our freedoms are being protected by soldiers fighting honestly and valiantly to safeguard them because the media told us they did. But what are they not telling us? Showing us?
In this article, an army official snuck away from the base in the Kandahar Province at night to kill 16-17 more Afghans in their homes nearby. He has been sanctioned preemptively including being returned to a Midwest Correctional Facility by the armed forces as he awaits trial.
Surprisingly, this is one story where the media hastened to cover the death toll and other specifics regarding the incident, but more often stories such as this not only are lost in the shuffle, the disparate damage to the opposing country isn't reported. What does emerge beneath the headlines of newspapers about this issue is an exemplary soldier adorned in medals and pictured as a war hero. If the pictures of the dead and smoldered bodies in this incident were published on the front covers of these headlined articles instead of an "American war hero," would we feel the same way toward the incident?
We rarely miss the camera flashes and video recordings of the funerals of cracked out American icons but always miss out on the explicit content involving the malpractice of our own leaders during war that result in foreign deaths. This is partially due to government influence to manipulate media coverage of issues so that they can save face. But perhaps this points to another issue-- how effective is the media in serving as the watchdog over the government when it comes to recognizing the shortcoming of officials in our armed forces? We've discussed in class how reporters that accompany platoons feel a certain loyalty toward the soldiers that fight alongside them, which their reporting reflects. Is there any other compelling reason as to why the media will soften the war stories in news reporting?
One thing is clear-- the public is soothed by knowing information, especially compelling information. This ensures that they have an extra set of eyes where they cannot travel themselves. While certain news coverage is deemed as sensitive and confidential for the best interest of the public such as foreign relation plans, there is no reason why reporting explicit war results should be censored. To censor this does the public a disservice in my opinion-- a despotism of the media.
Tocqueville mentions that the government controls as a soft despot while keeping the public in a false consciousness, as Karl Marx coins the term. The media exercises a considerable control of public access to information, the way that it is reported, and how the issues are framed. They can therefore manipulate public opinion in some fashion. It is a stretch comparison but perhaps the media can be compared to a despot entity that somewhat controls the people, or their perceptions for that matter, keeping the public in a false consciousness of what is really occurring around them except the reality that they want them to see. My vote is-- to a degree, absolutely. As Tocqueville imagined it, soft despotism would keep the public from having to think; or in context, from having to invest energy in finding the real story and processing it themselves. The media does this all the time, not just with stories concerning war.
We can live with pride and security in our armed forces while they may die without reason or justice. We're never the wiser because we're blinded by a facade of victories and the neck of Bin Laden as a notch on our belts. This is a facade if I've ever seen one... a veil of ignorance for the public.
NY Times:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/soldier_battles_allegedly_slayed_CnQ0nbIpMXgDDWkAKEW0HJ
http://www.cbs12.com/news/civilians-4739446-former-accused.html
No comments:
Post a Comment