Michael
Massing describes the American press coverage of the war in Iraq as
"the unseen war," an ironic reference given the number of reporters in
Iraq and in Doha, Qatar, the location of the Coalition Media Center
with its $250,000 stage set. He argues that a combination of
self-censorship, lack of real information given by the military at
briefings, boosterism, and a small number of reporters familiar with
Iraq and fluent in Arabic deprived the American public of reliable
information while the war was going on. Massing also is highly critical
of American press coverage of the Bush administration's case for war
prior to the invasion of Iraq: US journalists were far too reliant on
sources sympathetic to the administration. Those with dissenting
views--and there were more than a few--were shut out. Reflecting
this, the coverage was highly deferential to the White House. This was
especially apparent on the issue of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
.... Despite abundant evidence of the administration's brazen misuse of
intelligence in this matter, the press repeatedly let officials get
away with it. [more ]
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