catapult magazine

has anyone else been keeping up with news coverage of the war in iraq? it’s really strange to have cameras in baghdad as it’s being bombed. last night, you could hear dogs barking and birds chirping as the bombs fell.

and then there are all of these reporters who are “embedded” in military units who are giving constant live reports. heck, saddam hussein could just watch CNN to see where everyone is coming from and when they’ll be arriving on his doorstep.

weird.

I agree that it’s weird. I spent a good deal of tonight watching the war coverage and I was just overcome with a really unsettled, indescribably anxious feeling. In some ways I like having the information so readily available and so in-my-face. At the same time, I quickly got annoyed at the repetition. How many times do I need to hear how much fuel the U.S. army needs to cart along with them as they move into Iraq?

But what struck me even more was watching the coverage of the anti-war protests, especially here in Chicago. It was eerie to watch the huge procession marching up Lakeshore Drive, blocking the road, and then seeing the police moving in and surrounding the group and not letting people out of the crowd—and the whole time knowing my roommate was somewhere in that mass. It really twisted up my stomach to watch that level of chaos. And I’m in Chicago—not even Iraq.

I’m hoping the media doesn’t treat this war like desert storm. I was a freshman…sophomore? in high school when that happened and I remember watching how “cool” some of the shots of the smart bombs were. War shouldn’t be entertaining. I don’t want to think that a bomb exploding is ever cool no matter how intelligent or accurate it might be.
I’ve been watching the news and haven’t seen that yet. I hope I don’t have to turn off the news to avoid sensationalism.

What struck me about the news coverage is that there is so little happening but every station seems committed to full coverage – especially on the 19th when the 48 hour count down was over. The producers seemed to have anticipated being able to show the “Shock and Awe” part of the war and that left everyone scrambling to find things to fill the air. I have been switching from station to station – US and Canadian. You do get some different perspectives this way.

But so far this seems less like a war for television than the Gulf War in 91. It’s very boring television – if children were watching TV to get an image of war, they would think it is mostly men standing in front of cameras talking to other men and women in TV studios. Though I did see a CNN reporter this morning cringe because gunshots were heard in the Northern Iraqi villiage where he was posted. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the fighting is handle, especially if it gets more intense.

I was curious about the US reaction to Canada not entering the war. Does anyone really care down there? Opinion up here ranges from full support for the CDN government to anger that we are too weak to support our neighbors and stand up to a tyrant. I am a bit confused myself as to what Canada should have done. As a US raised almost Canadian citizen I understand the differences in the countries but still don’t know what is right.

And, does anyone read the newspapers for news anymore?

Yesterday I spoke to a gentleman from Albertra who told me he was fully supportive of president Bush and that there were many in Canada who were “very ashamed of their leader”. I imagine they would rather have Stockwell Day calling the shots.

What has been Canada’s response? I know there are no troops, but are they any part of the coalition?

Oil-rich Alberta is known to be relatively right-wing—thus Albertans are the mostly likely Canadians to sympathize with (oil-rich) Bush, but public opinion across the country is decidedly anti-war. Unfortunately this has made itself manifest in ugly acts like booing the US anthem at NHL hockey games and burning US flags at anti-war protests. Here in Quebec it seems like public opinion is nearly 100% against the American action. In Montreal, the weekend anti-war protests are becoming a bit of a tradition with colourful crowds of around two hundred thousand shutting down Rene Lavesque Blvd and camping out in front of the US consulate.

The government has taken, what I consider to be a levelheaded approach in reflecting Canadian public sentiment in their foreign policy. Canada is not part of the coaltion of the willing, a historically important and unprecedented act of departing from British and US foreign policy. Jean Chretien, the prime minister, has made it clear that he is disturbed by US unilateralism and disregard for the United Nations process, but has been careful to keep the rhetoric low key. As soon as the bombs started falling on Baghdad, he said he hoped for a quick US victory, and that Canada would aid in Iraq’s reconstruction.

Jean Chretien is careful to distinguish between the war on terror, in which Canada is a major player with ships and troops in the Gulf, and the war on Iraq. He has emphasized that Canada will continue its role in the war on terror, but will not be involved in the war on Iraq. I saw a recent poll that suggested a majority of Americans believe Saddam Hussein bears responsiblity for 9-11. I haven’t met many people north of the border who buy that argument.

Concerning ‘embedded’ journalists, I don’t see this innovation as aiding in the dissemination of good information to the public. First, because they are embedded, the military has control over what they see and where they go. Second, being part of the ‘boys’ is not a condition that facilitates fair coverage. Seems to me like these journalists have turned into cheerleaders. I’ve appreciated coverage that stands back and analyzes images and rhetoric emerging from embedded journalists as if it were coming directly from military propagandists.

I was watching the newsconference with General Tommy Franks today and noting the types of questions asked by journalists. American journalists asked detail questions about how many troops, and was anything unexpected — no questions showing concern for the Iraqi people. The only critical voices (and very few of them were allowed) came from journalists of other countries who asked questions like what’s the point of bombing empty government buildings, why was this newsconference delayed for a couple of days, where are these thousands of defectors, etc. I’m not watching American media coverage, but I get the impression that coverage on CNN and others is remarkably uncritical. It’s disturbing and dangerous when journalists become government lackeys, don’t you think?

Much more than by the government, the U.S. media is driven by PUBLIC OPINION. When people considered the redundant Sept. 11 images too disturbing, the media drew back and apologized. They’re constantly looking to feed people what they want. The U.S. government must make a show of giving the people what they want (honest and first-hand coverage of the events via press conferences, satellite photos and “embedded” journalists), however, while controlling as much of the most damaging info to them as possible for a democratic government.

I haven’t seen much of the footage for the war. I really do want to see as much as I could possibly see without being there (and we often see more than people who really are there), or at least have access to such images. For the same reasons that we need Holocaust museums and good films.

I agree with Grant. I want to see as much as I can of this war, including all sides. The community I’m part of right now (my school) is in an interesting position because over half of the student population is international students. Probably 25% of the people in my program are instructors at the Defense Language Institute, the language training center for the US Armed Forces. Arabic is the most needed language right now, and so a lot of my classmates are Iraqis who are teaching Arabic to US forces, an interesting juxtaposition. Some of my classmates (Americans who were also instructors of Arabic) are trained “listeners” and are in the middle east right now. These people, who are in such interesting circumstances, have been great sources for real information.

I’ve found many sources of information here, and at my school (we have a center for non-proliferation studies which has been really active in education here). A few other sources of information are Al Jazeera (you can find sites to translate it into English) and http://www.iraqbodycount.net/bodycount.htm It’s gruesome, and gory, but it’s also the truth of what is going on. Despite the censorship of the US media, this war IS being televised.

Speaking of information and things being televised, I just saw ABC news w/Peter Jennings, and he called the mother of one of the POW’s. It was incredibly moving—she talked for a little about her son, but when she saw the picture ABC was showing on the screen, she broke down. Jennings then also got teary-eyed, and apologized to her for disturbing here….what a strange interaction.

I saw that too. Later in the broadcast, there was a very interesting piece about how Al Jazeera is showing everything because they believe everything that occurs in war time is newsworthy, but ABC would not show what Al Jazeera was showing. ABC was TELLING us what another network was SHOWING, but ABC would not SHOW us what Al Jazeera was SHOWING. It was a strange thing, a very clear indication of the different philosophies of the news organizations.

In another related matter, I was soooo glad the Oscars were on last night. I personally feel like film offers much hope as a means to counteract the violence of television media coverage and the show reinstilled that hope. Even though I want to be able to see everything, there’s something wrong with the idea that all images have a right to be shown because they really occurred. And there’s also something wrong with images being used as weapons, which is what Al Jazeera seems to be doing by airing Iraqi pictures of captured and dead U.S. soldiers to try to break down U.S. moral, which is what the U.S. does by displaying the sophistication of its weaponry to strike fear and awe in the hearts of the Iraqi soldiers. But this is a time of war, where everything (sand, civilians, a moonless night, television) is magically weaponized. Perhaps the problem indeed has everything to do with how we see the world, how we reveal it to ourselves and to others. Our media is just an extension of the Revelation human beings are always already involved in.