Cleaning Up War

What we see of the many current wars on television is a farce. We only get to see what the military industrial complex wants us to see; a highly sanitized version of something that's too ugly and too horrific for ordinary people to consume.

_{source: Wikimedia Commons}

Or, that's what they'll say is the reason. The real reason is of course that if the people were to see the true horror of war, they'd be "up in arms" against it. Just like with the Vietnam war, you know, back when figures like Walter Cronkite showed what the war was really like, and people stopped believing the government optimism about the operations, and started believing their own eyes because of what mr. Cronkite showed them. Read about the influence of his coverage in Did the news media, led by Walter Cronkite, lose the war in Vietnam?. Especially his coverage of the Tet offensive put a dent in America's positive outlook on the actions and chances of their knights in shining armor.

There is no more Cronkite though. Today we've got fancy stuff like embedded journalism, which gives the impression that viewers are taken into the thick of the fight, but is actually a guided tour, a narrative prepared and provided by the money-interests that profit as long as the wars are allowed to continue. This is why it took more than 18 years before the truth about the quagmire that is the Afghan war finally emerged. It was even arranged, in the Iraq war to my knowledge, how many closed caskets draped with the American flag and containing dead soldiers, were allowed to be broadcast on TV. The absence of true coverage about the horror that is war, combined with the constant glorification of soldiers and the military in films, books and on TV, makes it so that still a lot of young people enlist with the idea that they're embarking on the adventure of their lifetime. Such a waste of life, potential and money...

When Vietnam was reported on, television was relatively new, which allowed the media to shift from war propaganda, used in the World Wars, to actual news reports on the war. We know now that this shift was noted and arrested by the industrial complexes of the military and the mass media, operating in perfect harmony and resulting in the propaganda delivered through absent - or embedded coverage. Watch the video and realize that the fourth estate is dead. We now have the internet for yet another shift toward truth-telling; let's see how long that lasts, how long it takes for the money interests to put a stop to it. Internet 3.0, based on public blockchain technology to the rescue? I think so, and not a moment too soon ;-)

_{Tet Offensive: Walter Cronkite, Television Coverage, and American Identity}

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