Media Collapse And The War On Iraq - 1626 Words

Media Collapse and the War on Iraq During Bush’s War on Terror, the US media unquestionably fell short of its normative function, a point argued by Gary Kamiya in his article for Salon, by failing to provide factual, unbiased and relevant information on the war in Iraq. This essay will use Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model to explain how flak and sourcing forced the majority of journalists to report only news that backed the government’s arguments for war, thus skewing the public’s perception of events in the aftermath of 9/11. It will then explain, with reference to John Reith’s Public Service Principles and Johan Galtung’s public sphere model, what the normative function of media in a Libertarian society should be, and how this could be better met by the media during wartime by a better balance of published opinions for and against the war, and better fact checking by journalists. In order to assess how the media â€Å"collapsed† we must first know its normative function. The Public Service Principles, an idea commonly associated with the BBC’s first Director General John Reith, tells us that the media must provide a â€Å"diversity of content reflecting the social and cultural diversity of the public and reflecting a full range of public opinion† (Thompson, â€Å"Media, Society and Politics†). During Bush’s War on Terror, the media failed to present a balance of views both for and against the war. When Charles Kennedy, the â€Å"most famous democrat in the country, raised questionsShow MoreRelatedEssay about U.S.-Middle East Relations724 Words   |  3 Pagescountries in the past. It goes without saying; the most recent is the current gulf war led by George W. Bush and of course the previous gulf war led by his father George H.W. Bush. With neighboring Iran, there have been quarrels such as the Iran-Contra affair. This involved a political scandal in which Ronald Reagans administration sold military arms to Iran. 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