Activity 17, The Media in the Gulf War
During ABC's World News Tonight program on January 16, 1991, Peter Jennings was conducting an interview with ABC's news correspondent Gary Shepard in Baghdad. Shepard saw flashes of light and told Jennings that "It's like fireworks on the Fourth of July, multiplied by 100!" Perhaps the strangest fact was that at the time Baghdad was not under attack. Apache Helicopters had attacked radar sites in Iraq to pave the way for the main attack that was to arrive in Baghdad 7:00 p.m. (EST). Due to the use of Stealth bombers, the Baghdad anti-aircraft system went off automatically as soon as there was an attack anywhere near Baghdad. U.S. Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney turned on television to see what the effects of the attack on Baghdad would be. The television stations were broadcasting through the Baghdad Telephone Exchange which had been targeted for the first wave of American bombers. Right on schedule, a bomb destroyed the Telephone Exchange in downtown Baghdad, and Shepard abruptly went off the air.
Cable News Network (CNN), however, had made advance arrangements at $16,000 per month for a special telephone line to Amman, Jordan, that connected with a satellite relay. CNN reporters Peter Arnett and John Holliman were in their room with anchor Bernard Shaw in Baghdad awaiting an interview with Saddam Hussein when they reported flashes.
That evening Bush spoke to the largest audience for a single event in television history, an estimated 61 million households. The President told the American people that sanctions were not likely to work and that military force was the only way to oust Iraq from Kuwait. He clearly spelled out the goals of American-led Coalition: to remove Iraq from Kuwait, to restore the Kuwait government, and to force Iraq to comply with the U.N.'s Security Council Resolutions.
Throughout the war, briefings were held daily in Saudi Arabia, and the Pentagon. Due to the expense of preempting regularly scheduled programs, the major networks did not broadcast the briefings live, although they often aired excerpts from the briefings appeared on their nightly news programs. CNN and C-SPAN did air the briefings live, and millions of Americans became fans of both cable stations.
Saddam permitted CNN to remain in Baghdad, but ousted all other American journalists. Arnett and two technicians stayed behind using their telephone line, but eventually they were supplied with a satellite dish to transmit live pictures. While broadcasting from Baghdad, Arnett occasionally contradicted Pentagon claims that the destruction of nonmilitary targets was accidental damage.
When hostilities commenced, the Pentagon guidelines went into effect and operated as intended. The guidelines prevented disclosure of information that would have endangered the safety of American and allied forces. Reporters found it difficult to see or report unrehearsed military activity. Security reviews delayed news reporting. Military officials used these delays to break news and shape important news stories. The press restrictions remained in effect throughout the conflict. Those reporters who struck out on their own were detained by allied forces, and in one case by the Iraqis.
When the ground war began on February 23, the pool system collapsed due to the rapid movement of military units which overwhelmed the support necessary for the pools to continue to work. The military refused journalists use of their own satellite telephones because the technology stripped the military of control of the flow of information. The military demanded prior review of articles and took responsibility for the transmission of press materials, but the media pool transmission was a low priority. Its mechanisms for getting the pool reporter pictures and copy back to Dhahran were often slow. The media were returned to a "pony express" type courier service to get their materials back to publishers and broadcasters. Stories were lost in the confusion and difficulties of combat; others may have been delayed on purpose.
However, some reporters moved faster than the U.S. military and ended up in front of the troops. For instance, CBS news correspondent Bob McKeown arrived in Kuwait City and began broadcasting before American troops entered the city. He and others followed Saudi and Egyptian forces into Kuwait and escaped the Pentagon rules. With portable uplinks, news reports poured out. Iraqi troops surrendered to Richard Threlkeld of CBS News. Other journalists had similar experiences.
Pentagon spokesperson Pete Williams conceded that there had been problems, but believed that the system was fair and got a reasonable number of journalists to see the action and that the American people got the accounting they deserved. He defended press rules as necessary for the safety of the troops and the security of the military operations. The rules were not intended to prevent journalists from reporting on incidents that might embarrass the military or make military operations look sanitized. Williams noted that many journalists were trying to fight the last war, i.e., Vietnam. The Persian Gulf War was not Vietnam. The Gulf conflict was a conventional war.
There were skirmishes between reporters and the military. This tension in part was related to the differences of their professional cultures. Military leaders want to control the news; it is the business of journalism to offer quick-but-tentative versions of the truth. Pentagon planners, in contrast, believed they must try to manipulate public opinion to their own ends. They know that the mortal business of conflict gives them a considerable advantage against the press, and the general feeling that the public would have permitted even greater restrictions if the Pentagon had so desired. When the bodies of American who died in the Gulf War were returned to the United States, reporters were refused access to Dover Air Force Base to view the coffins.
CBS's Bob Simon attempted to evade restrictions and was captured by Iraqis. He spent the war in prison. Only one journalist was killed, a freelance photographer while working for Newsweekin northern Iraq after the war ended. Caryle Murphy of the Washington Post, hid in Kuwait for 26 days after the invasion and reported by phone. Consequently, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting.
Student Questions
Why were there so many reporters and technicians in Saudi Arabia?
Why was there so little criticism of the reporting during the war?
Why were reporters prevented from visiting Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to view the returning coffins?
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