Media Representations in Wartime

Media Misrepresentations in Times of Crisis
US media and military tactics to incite wartime support
December 15, 2002

A dozen years after the Gulf War in 1991, public perceptions of it are now very helpful to the White House. Using previous occurrences to model current news stories is part of a timeworn pattern used by the media, in today’s case to create an American sense of morale and bravery in the face of military crisis. Illusions about previous wars make the supposed “imminent” seem acceptable, especially to the thousands of mothers and fathers about to send their beloved children into the impending war with Iraq. As George Orwell observed in his novel 1984, "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Now, as we are again on the brink of war one country a previous enemy, and in the midst of a “war on terrorism“, the mainstream media is careful what to rehash of the Gulf War, what numbers to withhold and what touching per...