Benjamin H. Bagdikian Quotes
There has been a reflex throughout the history of modern news: When the country goes to war, so do the major news organizations. They consider it ‘patriotic.’ But it is dubious patriotism that abandons citizens in unnecessary ignorance of critical information…The before-and-after picture of U.S. officialdom presents a stark lesson of the tragedies of war and propaganda repeated in the major media.
Benjamin H. Bagdikian,, Journalist, Dean, School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley, Forward to Yahya Kamalipour and Nancy Snow, War, Media, and Propaganda: A Global Perspective
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Steinbeck also served as a journalist as did Earnest Hemmingway and other great American writers. In WWII there was a great deal of censorship and even more self censorship by the press. The result is that many of the U. S. military blunders were covered up on the grounds that it would not be good for the morale of the soldiers to know that their officers had made such tragic mistakes.
In modern times, there have been many incidents of members of the press not supporting the current war effort. Sometimes, it is the greed to get a story, and other times, it is to advocate an alternate strategy. Most often it is a belief that in democracy, only a knowledgeable public can govern the government. The administration or general cannot be relied upon to provide accurate information. Many think The Vietnam War started this problem, but it has been ongoing ever since the Revolution. In the War of 1812, with many Americans dying fighting, other Americans were critiquing the war infuriating the military and the President. Similarly, in all other wars including the Civil War. The relationship between Grant and the Press was as vitriolic as that of the Vietnam War. The war where there was the least conflict between the military and the press was WWII where press were given total access to the front lines without the controls that developed later in the Iraq War.
Even as late as the 1970s most media organizations did not feel any inhibition about having a spokesperson for a political movement or candidate comment about statements that were clearly untrue. The constant political criticism of the media produced this change and no matter how absurd or false a political statement is, most media will have a spokesperson for the lie appear on the program to repeat the lie. Both political parties are thereby encouraged to exaggerate or even lie as they will never by exposed by trusted journalists and can reduce all falsehoods to a “he says, she says.”
See {583400} for the other side of the argument." Oversees and sets policy for the Voice of America
