Why does the United States Military dislike the Press?

Question

The military says they fight for freedom of the press but at the same time the military says it wants the free press out of Iraq. The military says the press hurts the war effort.

What is going on here with the military?

Answer 1

If you had ever been to Iraq, you'd know that..

1. What the press reports is NOT what actually happens there. Most stories you will watch on CNN about the events of the day in Iraq are quite different- some because of biased journalism, some because of what is allowed to be reported.

2. Free Press in a war zone directly leads to the deaths of many friendlies.

"Here I am, in _____, with this secret unit on a covert mission, creeping up on the enemy."

DUH.. WHY would you even THINK of allowing that? About as stupid of a question as all the rest of your pointed rants you post.

Answer 2

Everyone agrees that WWII was the last "just" war. What is not generally recognized is that what means were used for us to win that war are the same things that the liberal left is bitching about with regards to how we are forced to fight the Iraq war. FDR put a Gag order on the liberal press. No daily body count, no protest over putting US citizens of Japanese descent in internment camps, no protest over bombing Japanese and German cities killling millions of civilians, no protest over taking no prisoners in the war in the Pacific.

That was a different generation. Today if there were a draft, other than mass protests, there would be a general exodus to Canada exceeding even that of the Vietnam era.

As far as the media or the Press today, it is controlled by the Left and they print only the bad news about the war for the sole purpose of hurting President Bush. The good things that our military does in Iraq is ignored by the Press. The problem is that too many people believe what they read in the newspapers or what they see and hear on television. They think that if it is in print then it must be the truth. A few bad apples rape a young girl and murder her family and for some readers the entire 150,000 Americans stationed in Iraq are rapists/murderers. The terrorists are not stupid and soon they are using what is printed in American newspapers as propaganda to further their cause.

Answer 3

As a Marine who has deployed twice to Iraq in the last three years, and had reporters with me on several missions, I hate the press being "embedded" with us. The reporter that was there with us went out on humanitarian missions is which we set up medical clinics and treated hundreds of women and children, feed hungry people, fixed schools etc.... Yet when I read the articles he wrote, they were about how we received mortar fire occasionally, the roads were IED'd and all the other negative things he could find. Not one article about the great things we were doing. Tell me that is not biased, and deliberately portraying what we do in a negative light, and you, my friend, are lying. Also, as we fight, we have to take care of our Marine to our left and to our right, and we don't want someone there being a distraction, knowing that he is against what we are fighting for. How would you like a reporter going to work with you every day, and tracking everything you do, getting in your way, and then only reporting the mistakes you made on your TPS reports? How does this hurt the war effort? Well, if they didn't always report only negative stories, I know the support for what we are doing would not be so low. How can anyone support what I have done if only the negative has been reported and they focus on the people wanting to get us out? My last time I was in Iraq, I was a member of a Military Transition Team (advisor to Iraqi Army). Did you read about or see on tv that in the time I was there, we doubled the size of their area of responsiblity, they operated on their own, planned and conducted operations unsupported by the US, or anything for that matter about them becoming self supporting? I didn't think so. Now that there is great progress in the Anbar province, where I was, I am seeing the news stories talk about our strategy being dangerous and will eventually fail. Yea, that is sure responsible reporting. I will continue to deploy, because I believe in what we are there for, and love my country. I just wish the press loved their country and supported it instead of trying to find each and every thing wrong with it.

Answer 4

Despite what you think, the press does NOT have free reign over military operations and operational security, or over anything else classified or deemed vital to national security. Besides, the only thing the press has accomplished is to go out of their way to report anything negative they can find and nothing positive, clearly for reasons of their own. The Arab media has done precisely the same thing. I don't blame the military whatsoever for wanting the press to butt out--can you imagine how the first two world wars would have gone if the press had been allowed to get up to the same antics they have had in this war?

Answer 5

We want the free press out because they have no business there. They all put their own spin on things and report what they think/feel rather than what actually takes place. For instance, we had an embedded reporter with us in Afghanistan and when she left us and published her story she focused on ONLY the bad things that took place. Not once did she mention the humanitarian missions we did or any other good acts. All she focused on was our attitude toward the people and things we were saying while on patrol making us look worse than the taliban themselves.

Answer 6

The press definately hurts the war effort, when they broadcast things that should be classified, and/or classified as Top Secret! Such as troop positions.

Think about it - if you had a loved one (spouse, son, daughter, brother, sister, family member, or best friend) would YOU want someone to paint a big, red target over them, and then publicize to people who wanted to kill them, exactly WHERE they could find them?

Freedom of the press is one thing (I used to be a reporter!!!) but using some common sense in reporting, is another!

And, sadly - not only in regards to the US Military - but how many times, has the "Press" weighed stories one-sidedly? And - used their 'power of free speech' to gag others due to "not being politically correct"?

And - mind you - I am not condoning the situation that occured at Abu-Gharib (my apologies, because I know I have spellled that wrong), but how much news coverage was made about how our own troops were treated when taken prisoner?

I have been told, by troops who have been to Iraq, that they have seen US Military troop members, "strung up like a pinata, beaten, dragged through the streets (with more beatings) and then set on fire". Of course - no parent wants to be watching the News - and see their son or daughter going through _that_.

I have also heard stories, from other military families, about Iraqi children, who have gone out to the road, to stubbornly sit next to an IED, so that our troops would have to move a safe distance from it - risking their own lives, in order to protect our troops, so they can do their jobs over there!

Personally - I think _that_ would be news worthy enough to be on every news broadcast, when it happened. But - ask yourself "why not"?

I'm not thrilled that we are 'over there' - Iraq and Afghanistan - and I have had kids in both areas, and more than once. But, it would be good, if the news would help educate the American Public about _why_ we are there, and how the enemy sees our troops, and us - as a people. But, so many of the 'excuses' I hear as to _why_ we are there, don't have a whole lot to do with the facts. (If it were oil, why have gas prices gone up, up, up???) And, if it were oil, (or other things, you may have heard from various political factions) why do so many of our troops, _voluntarily_ go back, time after time, after time? I assure you, it isn't because they think it is "fun" risking their lives, or missing the births of their own children, and being away from their families.

Answer 7

The press has certainly hurt war efforts before, most notoriously Vietnam.

Sometime between Korea & Vietnam, there was a seachange in the media. You can call it liberal or idealist or even traitorous, but whatever it was, the media stopped thinking of itself as having a duty of patriotism. Instead of what amounted to voluntary propaganda, they started covering wars with brutal honestly - perhaps, even, at times, for fear of being a 'propaganda organ,' with some bias towards the 'other side,' just to be sure.

Whether you laud that for idealism and truth, or abhor it as unpatriotic and seditious, it has changed the relationship between the media and the military.

Answer 8

The press contains a majority of liberals with a bias. They therefor only report bad news about the military. Seldom do you see all the good things the military does.

Answer 9

Journalist have been embedded with various units from the start of the war, so journalist have had the ability to report first hand accounts of events. If the military wanted journalist out of Iraq why would it embed them in its own ranks?

Answer 10

Because the press are primarily liberal that do a good job putting the military in a negative light. When do you hear about the schools, hospitals and utilities being built? People being healed people at the hands of military Drs? Increases in security etc.....