War Coverage in the Media

 In this week’s lecture, we learned about the Pentagon Papers, a study commissioned by the federal government to examine the history of the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War.  The report revealed that military leaders, politicians, and even U.S. Presidents had lied to the American people about the United States’ activities in Vietnam.  When Daniel Ellsberg, one of the co-authors of the report, released it to The New York Times, President Nixon filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction against the report being released, claiming it was a threat to national security.  The suit went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the government had failed to prove this threat, and that the report could be published under the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press.  

So if the media is protected by the First Amendment, why don’t we see more anti-war coverage?  The media is driven by ratings because higher viewership leads to financial gain.  If a media outlet supports the government’s agenda, the government will be more likely to grant them interviews with high level officials, which leads to high ratings, and in turn, more interviews, and on and on.  Antiwar coverage can also be perceived by audiences as supporting the enemy.  You don’t see a lot of coverage that opposes the war in Ukraine because media outlets do not want to appear as though they support Russia.  That could lead to a decline in ratings or bad publicity, driving viewers to other news sources.

Prior to this class, I had never heard of Antiwar.com and TheAmericanConservative.com.  I found Douglas MacGregor’s article “When the Lies Come Home” about how the media has misled the public about the war in Ukraine particularly interesting.  Ukraine was made to look stronger than it actually was by using the same videos of Russian defeat over and over.  “Russian losses and the true extent of Ukraine’s own losses were distorted, fabricated, or simply ignored.”  Why?  Perhaps because the U.S. has sent billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, and if the American public sees defeat, it will cease to support our government’s involvement.  I think Americans have the right to the whole story in any conflict our country is involved in so they can make informed decisions.  They shouldn’t have to hunt down obscure websites to do so.