From: "Ken Hanly" <khanly at mb.sympatico.ca>
> This war is a festival of lies and they will only get worse
>
> Anything we see of the impact of US strikes will be strictly
controlled.
>
============
You mean the coverage that is no coverage? Or the coverage of the no
coverage--see below? You don't expect a bunch of US Yuppies to get on
a bunch of planes and fly to Afghanistan using only a backpack of
supplies and their wits to tell the story while their team of crack
lawyers sues the Government to respect their 1st Amendment rights do
you ?
Covering a 21st Century War
By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, October 8, 2001; 8:42 AM
Everyone knew it was coming, yet somehow, it was still shocking.
The networks were ready for war, yet they were still reduced to covering it from afar.
And this is only the beginning.
There will be more media coverage of this attack on Afghanistan than of any conflict in human history, but reporters will have a tough time covering cruise missiles and commando raids. What we're likely to see instead is hopscotching around the globe and dueling news conferences - such as yesterday's bizarre spectacle in which Osama bin Laden's defiant taped statement followed real-time addresses by George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
If you've ever wondered what World War II would have been like with cable television - Larry King chatting up Adolf Hitler? - we're about to find out. Taliban officials also hold news conferences - and, once the bombing stops, they are certain to lead journalists to neighborhoods where civilians have died from the U.S. and British strikes. The Pentagon will be putting out its own version of collateral damage, and the propaganda war will be in full bloom.
Even without pictures (except for those grainy night-vision shots that resemble a cheap video game), yesterday's attacks were dramatic - though not dramatic enough, apparently, for Fox and most CBS stations to blow off NFL football.
The attacks on New York and Washington presented a high-stakes test for journalism - which, for a change, won high marks from the public - but the strikes against Afghanistan (and possibly other terrorist-harboring states) will be an even greater challenge. It's a global chess game with multiple levels - the impact on Pakistan, Iraq, Israel, Islam, not to mention possible retaliation against America - and news organizations are already struggling to keep pace.
You can read about the television coverage here. For now, let's go to the morning papers chronicling what the cover of the New York Post calls "TALI-BAM!"
The action is just starting, says the New York Times: "The strikes on the Taliban government opened what senior Pentagon and military officials said would be a weeklong, nearly day-and-night bombing campaign carried out by supersonic jets from aircraft carriers and heavy bombers flying from air bases as far away as Missouri.
"In a sign of the intensity and duration of the planned campaign, the Air Force's stealthy, bat-winged B-2 bombers did not return to their hangars at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., after striking their targets halfway around the world, but rather flew on to Diego Garcia, a British island in the Indian Ocean, where they will reload for more bombing runs. It is the first time the stealthy, sophisticated B-2, built at a cost of $2 billion each, has been based overseas for a combat mission.
"Today's strikes opened with a synchronized barrage of 50 cruise missiles fired from British and American ships and submarines, and continued through the clear, moonlit Afghan night, senior military officials at the Pentagon said. The attacks hit airfields where the Taliban military has a modest air force, air-defense gun and missile batteries and command centers across Afghanistan, including targets in the capital, Kabul, and in the center of the Taliban's political power, Kandahar, they said.
"Another primary target was the Taliban's defense headquarters on the outskirts of Kabul, they said. 'You don't attack the Pentagon and not expect your defense ministry to be destroyed,' one official said."
Still, the degree of bombing success - impossible to determine from scattered television reports yesterday - remains unclear.
[snip]