MovieChat Forums > Three Kings (1999) Discussion > the CNN effect

the CNN effect

posted 14 years ago by nk44ab
8 replies | jump to latest

It's interesting to consider the role of the media in shaping the course of both Iraq wars. Early in both conflicts the images broadcst by news providers such as CNN were almost completely bloodless and favoourable to the military intervention. Then came the "Highway of Death" incident which viewers were seemingly unprepared for and became thedeciding factor in stopping the US/UN coalition advancing further. Also almost a year after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein the dominant news story beame and has remained regarding the insurgency in Iraq.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bogwart-1 14 years ago

What on earth are you talking about? It's not the duty of the media to be heroes, blameless or not and in any case they haven't had any news unless they were embedded, which means they swallowed what the media told them.

News crews found out the hard way what would happen to them if they weren't embedded. More media people died in the Iraq 'war' than in any proper war before them.

Just coincidence, of course.

[–] nk44ab 14 years ago

I know that a popular idea floating around is that the US experience in Somalia caused a certain shyness about using ground forces with Rwanda and Kosovo being mentioned as examples, but really how true is this? In 1993 Delta operatives among others were helping to rip up the Medellin Cartel and the following year US forces were intervened in Haiti, not to mention the role of US special operations personnel in hunting for PIFWC's in Bosnia.
I think with Kosovo it was simply a matter of not needing troops on the ground when airpower had already proven effective in bringing the Serbs to the negotiating table in Bosnia.

[–] ShangriLaDeeDa 13 years ago

"Of course, according to the media, which includes this movie, the media is a blameless hero, the salvation of mankind and the only antedote to the evil military."

I would prefer CNN to what we had in the older wars: Military journalists... That might have been slightly skewed.

In Rockstar We Trust

[–] ledge12-1 13 years ago

If we had the current CNN on June 6, 1944 they would have fired Eisenhower, Crucified FDR and Shot Churchill. We had 3000 killed and wounded in one day just to secure the invasion of Europe. Or even worse imagine CNN covering the battle on Iwo Jima.

I think fear of what the media would say or portray hurt us in the current Iraq and Afghani wars. We lost a lot of good boys being surgical to avoid collateral damage on CNN.

[–] Speedwheels1718 10 years ago

Sorry to rectify this post but are you saying it would have been better to have more collateral damage for less soldiers being killed? I do feel a lot for all the soldiers who have bravely lost their lives in both Middle East wars. It saddens me thinking of all those families now without their husband or wife, son or daughter. I worried when my friends and family were deployed in some of those places and theres a real-ness I felt of the possibility something could happen. But I also think about the families and people of those lost in these wars who were not fighting. To imagine living in those conditions of living in a war zone is foreign to me but I do think I have a partial imagination of what it's like. It comes through cnn as just numbers and videos of bombings or missile strikes come in looking like a video game. Only seeing buildings destroyed imo distants us from the horror war brings. With the way 24 hr news is, I doubt there would be anger from many over collateral damage and more so for lost solders, cost of the war or diplomacy. I understand sometimes war is a necessary action but shouldn't we strive to be surgical? Isn't that in the spirit of being American is deliberately not trying to harm innocent people in times of war? Idk how media would have handled ww2. Imo media today is for ratings and it was a different world back then. But ww2 directly invoked U.S. and our allies with a strong opposing force that even today would have a strong backing imo. I seriously hope we have grown up as a country in terms of some of the things we did with advancements of technology. Mowing down towns with flamethrowers along with treatment of both prisoners and civilians has evolved greatly and don't think it's because of the media, rather we have grown on a world scale in how we treat each other. I really don't know how media hurt us in Afghanistan or Iraq as I don't see them having any influence on what the government/military actually did.

[–] sugar22 13 years ago

the media is just to entertain and create viewership for ratings for the advertisers.

[–] kb01 12 years ago

I know that a popular idea floating around is that the US experience in Somalia caused a certain shyness about using ground forces with Rwanda and Kosovo being mentioned as examples, but really how true is this? In 1993 Delta operatives among others were helping to rip up the Medellin Cartel and the following year US forces were intervened in Haiti, not to mention the role of US special operations personnel in hunting for PIFWC's in Bosnia.
I think with Kosovo it was simply a matter of not needing troops on the ground when airpower had already proven effective in bringing the Serbs to the negotiating table in Bosnia.

Typically, special forces aren't considered "ground forces" in the traditional sense. They're highly mobile, small groups, that perform their objective and rapidly leave. They operate virtually everywhere in the world. Even with the Libyan conflict, where we supposedly had no boots on the ground, if you watch bombing footage, you can clearly see targets being tagged from the ground.

I served in Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo when I was in the service in various capacities (first as a "blue helmet" and later a regular NATO deployment). In every situation, it was entirely in a peace support capacity, in the sense that opposition (mainly, Serbs) had already been bombed into submission. We also had very restrictive ROEs. They weren't ground wars like Iraq, Afghanistan, or Vietnam.