“Whatever you do don’t mention the war, I think I may have said something but I’m think I got away with it…” John Cleese as Basil Fawlty on Fawlty Towers. While these words were spoken by John Cleese nearly 30 years ago, they are still very relevant to today, only this time we are talking about the war on Iraq and Afghanistan particularly through the media.
Now the military has more say as to what goes to air on what is happening in the war zones, in the war on Iraq one the images were more like a video game, now we have embedded journalists with battalions and commanders have veto rights on what is “published”. Does anyone actually know what is happening in the war zones? For months we had action shots and images like Saddam Hussein statues toppling, but recently all that we know about is when an Australian is injured or killed in the war zone.
Now the military has more say as to what goes to air on what is happening in the war zones, in the war on Iraq one the images were more like a video game, now we have embedded journalists with battalions and commanders have veto rights on what is “published”. Does anyone actually know what is happening in the war zones? For months we had action shots and images like Saddam Hussein statues toppling, but recently all that we know about is when an Australian is injured or killed in the war zone.
While this does seem like we are being kept in the dark, who really wants to see these disturbing images of war, so long as it does affect us in everyday life are we really worried. So long as we don’t have to see images of dead bodies of children or bloody figures running from soldiers we are quite happy to live our lives. This has a two fold effect though, because as long as we are not seeing the devastating effects of the war, popular opinion does not go against the war. When the true images of the Vietnam War came home the public turned against the war and we saw mass protests against the war. Now instead of protests we have popular commentators discussing their thoughts on the war but we are able to either tune in or tune out depending on how we are feeling.
The media when it comes to war has a lot of responsibility when reporting, we don’t want to see the Falklands War repeated; when it was reported that the enemies missiles were not shooting straight, while this seems interesting to the public it had a devastating effect of the British army losing two ships the next day. Information is much more accessible to anyone in the world now; militaries have to be conscious of the enemy looking up media reports from around the world. At the end of the day we have to protect our troops who believe in what they are fighting for, but war will always cause divides friends and work colleagues no matter what, unless you’re like JD from scrubs…
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