If the Media was in WWII would it have been the same "Great American Victory"?

Question

Maybe the Media should keep its nose out of iraq being that they seem to only report the negative. I have to talked to a soldier that has been over there several times with the special forces, he says not to believe the media.

Answer 1

If the media would have been in WWII the Allies would have lost. They would have done the same crap to our grandfathers as they are doing to our sons and daughters.
Here is another headline they would have printed.
U.S. Marines Masacre innocent Japanese tourist that were enjoying a Hunting trip on Iwo Jima.

Answer 2

The media was in WWII. In fact, there was far better coverage of the media during WWII because the government didn't had free speech blocked like they do now. (Its part of the Patriot Act 2, read it if you don't believe me)

During WWII the coverage by the media from every country around the world was exquisite. Journalists were right on the front with the soldiers, unlike in Iraq where they are forced to stay so far back from the actual events that they can only tell you what the soldiers tell them.

Other countries besides the US have much better coverage of the events going on. If you watch BBC news you will hear things that don't even get reported in the United States.

Answer 3

Amen to that my friend. The old excuse that "We don't make the news, just report it" is a load of crap. With media being the only input for public perception..... A free hand to choose what's ignored and what's reported means they have the power to shape what we THINK reality is. With $ The priority, they're gonna choose stories they think will bring in the most money.
If dead babies, and murderous troops is the most "juicy" story, that's what they're gonna report. I doubt it'd even occur to them to point out that their stories are 1 example out of a million others to the contrary. RESULT: We end up believing that every soldier there's a baby murdering monster. WHY?: That's all we've been told. A billion warm/fuzzy stories have no impact if they're never reported.

The WWII media understood this. Propoganda's a bad word today, but back then, they understood that hope is sometimes more important than hype. To believe one CAN win (hope) is as important to a soldier as bullets. We all become victims when the media robs us of this for the sake of a couple bucks.

Answer 4

I don't know where you learned your history, but it obviously wasn't from a book. Media at the time of WW2 consisted of radio, newsreels and print (magazines, newspapers, journals, etc...) There was no TV (people actually sat around their radios for news and entertainment) and there were but a few national broadcasting companies and they held sway only within their respective medium.

If we had this type of media today I am sure the stories would make your skin crawl. Vietnam taught the army a valuable lesson about war correspondents (yes, that was what they were called.) Do not let them operate independently of your ground forces and to use them as conduits for your news. First hand reports of military action have disappeared from the US media and yet, the perception of this war is still negative.

To call WW2 an American victory betrays an ignorance of facts and to a degree a belief in American exceptionalism. The US entered WW2 as a late arrival (as we did in WW1) and did not even begin to fight Germany until June,1944 (the war ended in Europe in April, 1945.) As far as the Pacific War, there was never a doubt as to the outcome. The only outcome that can in any way be construed as victory for the US is that it was the only major country in the world that ended the war with its economy intact and its land untouched by the ravages of the war.

Answer 5

Friday, 23 June 2006
When News Lies


WHEN NEWS LIES
Media Complicity and The Iraq War


By Danny Schechter, The News Dissector



A new book from Danny Schechter offers an up to date indictment of the role media played in promoting and misreporting the war on Iraq. It is an analysis of how and why the media got it wrong that pinpoints the failures of journalism and the collusion of media companies with the Bush Administration. The author of EMBEDDED: Weapons of Mass Deception (Prometheus 2003), an account of the TV coverage of the US invasion, returns with a more comprehensive, updated and insider look at the media complicity that Schechter argues "made the war possible."



"Most of the anti-war movement focused on the crimes of the Bush Administration ignoring the mainstream media, its far more effective accomplice," says former network producer Danny Schechter (ABC, CNN). "The government orchestrated the war while the media marketed it. You couldn't have one without the other."



WHEN NEWS LIES includes the feature -length DVD of the prize-winning film WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception). The book will also include the complete script as well as a discussion of the challenges of exposing media with media with a documentary. It chronicles the media war fought alongside the military campaign and the struggle to stand up for truth.

Answer 6

WW II would be the same victory by now. The media story of the victory focuses on the major battles and the evil things found (concentration camps) vs not found (WMD - in Iraq).

There was media in WW II, sometimes reporting things the Army objected to:
This story from Walter Cronkite:

"Once in England the censors held up my (Walter Cronkite's) report that the Eighth Air Force had bombed Germany through a solid cloud cover. This was politically sensitive; our air staff maintained that we were practicing only precision bombing on military targets. But the censors released my (WC's) story when I pointed out the obvious--Germans on the ground and the Luftwaffe attacking bombers knew the clouds were there. The truth was not being withheld from Germans but Americans.

Answer 7

Midway Island Demolished. Yorktown, destroyer sunk.
Many US planes lost
June 7, 1942
The United States Navy suffered another blow in its attempt to stem the Japanese juggernaut ravaging the Pacific Ocean. Midway Island, perhaps the most vital U.S. outpost, was pummeled by Japanese Naval aviators. The defending U.S. forces, consisting primarily of antique Buffalo fighters, were competely wiped out while the Japanese attackers suffered few, if any, losses.
In a nearby naval confrontation, the Japanese successfully attacked the Yorktown which was later sunk by a Japanese submarine. A destroyer lashed to the Yorktown was also sunk.

American forces claim to have sunk four Japanese carriers and the cruiser Mogami but those claims were vehemently denied by the Emporer's spokeman.

The American carriers lost an entire squadron of torpedo planes when they failed to link up with fighter escorts. The dive bombers had fighter escort even though they weren't engaged by enemy fighters. The War Dept. refused to answer when asked why the fighters were assigned to the wrong attack groups. The Hornet lost a large number of planes when they couldn't locate the enemy task force. Despite this cavalcade of errors, Admirals Fletcher and Spruance have not been removed.

Code Broken
The failure at Midway is even more disheartening because the U.S. Navy knew the Japanese were coming. Secret documents provided to the NY Times showed that "Magic" intercepts showed the Japanese planned to attack Midway, which they called "AF".

Obsolete Equipment
Some critics blamed the failure at Midway on the use of obsolete aircraft. The inappropriately named Devastator torpedo planes proved no match for the Japanese fighters. Even the Avengers, its schedule replacements, were riddled with bullets and rendered unflyable. Secretary of War Stimson dodged the question saying simply: "You go to war with the Navy you have, not the Navy you want or would like to have". Critics immediately called for his resignation.

Answer 8

Excuse me but I am a little confused, what media was not present during world war 1 & 2.All available print and radio as well as video recording equipment was used during both of those wars to communicate to the American public the progress, and satus of American armed forces.They used news reels at the movies and printed articles and pictures in the newspapers, and broadcast both on military and non military channels the news and events of the war.Other than television what media are you refering to that was not in the second world war.And it was the "great world victory"not the great American victory.All other allied countries celebrated the victories and their parts in achieving it.

Answer 9

I believe in WW II the media still had a realistic view of its position as gatherers and reporters of events and not sharper's of those events through spin. A poll conducted among media types in the early 1980's showed that some 86% of them thought that their opinions more credible and important than the average citizen, or even the president and congress. Today it's even worse they are treated like celebrities, and we know that there are no egomaniacs among celebrities. Let us not forget their unflinching fondness for things liberal.

Answer 10

Fool! It was Rumsfeld's idea to embed the media in the military in the first place. That whole Shock and Awe and "Mission Accomplished" coverage was because Rummy thought it was a slam dunk.

Remember how that Fox News moron Geraldo got sent packing because he drew a map of his loction in the sand and gave the troops location away?

It was only after *%$! started going wrong with the war "plan" that all of a sudden the media became a problem.