Blog Post 4; The Press Starting Wars?

The Press Starting Wars?

    Why is it that throughout history we see the press silencing anti-war voices and instead, helping to spread false ideas about war?

    It first notably started in the Spanish-American War in 1898 when George Hearst of the New York Journal spoke to a Cuban photographer and said "you provide the pictures, I'll provide the war." Hearst then fabricated an entire slew of articles claiming that the Spanish were responsible for the sinking of the Navy ship, U.S.S Maine, to start a war, which it did. A war that started from the lies of the press. 

The Spanish never sunk that ship, but no 'true' conclusion was ever reached. 

    Even today we see the press fabricating and falsifying stories to incite war. The biggest example of this would be the war in Iraq where the press released stories saying that there were weapons of mass destruction from the United States military in Iraq because that's what the government claimed. 

There were never those kinds of weapons in Iraq. 

    It became very apparent very quickly to the public that large numbers of people lied, screwed up, or possibly both. 

    We see this over and over again. The press continuously feeds into what the government wants and creates stories filled with fallacies. Why? Why are anti-war voices constantly silenced and shoved away when all they try to do is deliver the truth? And why does the press get away with it?

    One way that we can see the ongoing relationship between the press and war is through the Vietnam War. Vietnam left the United States deeply divided and no one issue had been more bitterly divided than the media. However, this issue with the media was addressed by Richard Nixon at the end of the war. 

    He said, "The Vietnam War was complicated by factors that had never before occurred in America's conduct of war. The American news media had come to dominate domestic opinion about its purpose and conduct."

  Very quickly, it became widely accepted across the political spectrum that the relationship between the media and the government during Vietnam was one of conflict.

    From the Civil War up to today, the press has fed off of the fear of war. Fabricating and corrupting the truth as anti-war voices get pushed out. The issue of the role of the media and the press in modern American politics extends much farther than war. Events like the Civil Rights Movement, the Democratic Convention in Chicago, and even Watergate were all affected by the growing prominence of the media.

    These monumental events, along with others, have provoked a broader controversy about the relationship between the press to the institutions of the American government. There is a clear and distinct separation between media and the state.  

    Now that we've seen what the press has done with wars in the past, what will it look like if we let the press continue to falsify stories of war? If you ask me, I would say chaos. I believe America would be a country living off the lies of the media more than we do already. 

    Of course, journalists are always working to deliver 'aggressive' and inciteful reporting while holding people accountable, but is it really right to do that if the information is wrong? In recent years the press has continuously fallen into the president's trap. Some stories are legitimate, some are not. Other stories are generated by the falsehoods and exaggerations of the government. A lot of these issues stemmed from Trump's presidency. It became an all-out culture war that stretched well beyond journalistic operations. 

    Organized journalism is built around rules, traditions, and the careful articulation of words. Traditional politics is built around polling and the careful deployment of words, which are often drained of their meaning to avoid offenses. These two sides are joined in a mutually dependent relationship. 

    If this continues, anti-war voices are only silenced more. We will no longer be able to hear the truth about what is actually happening in our country or our world. Foreign policy will grow and the American government could lose its democracy and reach total world domination. Some professionals and scholars call this a "war on terror". 

    We need anti-war voices in the media to fight against political leaders who think they can get away with starting a war. We need these voices to deliver the truth. Everyone wants the truth and everyone (theoretically at least) wants peace. Yet there is no true designated source or group to support this. We must be active and vigilant citizens in questioning our government officials and what they say as well as the media. 

    The foundation of ethical nonviolence and anti-war advocacy relies on American citizens recognizing the value of their lives and understanding the interconnected social ties of those we have not met. 

    War, politics, and international tensions are some of the most prevalent topics in the news today. We are now living in an era bursting with historical moments and monumental possibilities. Political and cultural issues are changing in a drastic way and now more than ever, we need anti-war voices on the front page to deliver the truth.

    The issue of the press feeding into the lies of the government and the fear of the people throughout history is alarming. It is beyond concerning as an aspiring journalist to see this in our history. Where did the ethics and morals of journalists go during wartime? Why did they choose to listen to the government rather than dig for the truth? Would our country and war history look different now if the press had made better choices? I certainly think so. I believe the tight relationship the press has with the government during wartime is the main issue. They fed off of each other and made the entire matter worse.  

    It's critically important that as journalism students we recognize and learn from this history. If not, it's bound to happen again just like it is today with the tensions between Russia and Ukraine. We have to stop this and actively advocate against the voices in the press that fabricate, falsify, and exaggerate stories. We need to look to put these anti-war voices in the light. 

    No one likes war except for the people that benefit from it. As American citizens, it is our calling to do what is right for our country and today, more than ever, that calling should be for the truth. We need the truth in every story, article, or report on the news. The media is such a large part of our lives and to see the lying and exaggeration of events to the American people is troubling. 

    We must stop this and we must bring the voices of truth forward.