Is American media getting Iraqi war coverage ight?
When American soldiers were taken captive by Iraqi troops last week, television stations across the world aired a video of the prisoners of war first broadcast on Iraqi television stations. In the United States, the American public would not see those images for days as broadcast stations opted not to show the videos, but simply reported that the video was being aired around the world. Despite the fact that the media is saturated with coverage of the Iraq conflict, that incident is just one example of how America’s media images are constantly filtered and restricted, say communications professors at UCF. “We are seeing sanitized news,” said George Bagley, who teaches radio and television courses at UCF. “When we see a bunker blown up, we see it from a distance, and all we see is an explosion. We don’t see the five Iraqi soldiers dead inside.” He feels it is important to show all images of war, including gruesome images like dead bodies and bombed buildings, because it conveys the reali
