Is there any good news, in terms of accurate war coverage?
The good news in all this is that unlike in earlier eras, like in the Vietnam War or even in the first Gulf War, where people still don’t know a lot of the true stories, the Internet has allowed citizen journalists and citizen researchers, and certainly scholars, to very easily get a whole other set of information. Although there’s certainly a lot of misinformation on the Internet, it’s actually very easy to find very accurate information and to find out a different and usually more accurate story of what’s happening. Therefore, while many Americans still believe phony stories about invading Iraqi troops pulling Kuwaiti babies off incubators in 1990, or Iraqi troops and tanks massing on the Saudi border and threatening “our” oil, the latest phony claims have been discredited more quickly and widely. What sort of challenges do mainstream journalists face covering this war, either at home in their corporate headquarters or on the ground with the U.S. military? As you probably know, it’s
