The Military and the Media: Why the Press Cannot Be Trusted to Cover a War

William V. Kennedy

Bloomsbury Academic, Jul 30, 1993 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 184 pages

This book is the first about military-media relations to argue for a fundamental restructuring of national journalism and the first to document the failure of American journalism in the national security field for the past thirty years. Press complaints of excessive control by the military during the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91 were the inevitable result of the failure of American journalism to train competent specialists in military reporting and to provide an organizational structure that would assure continuing, comprehensive coverage of national defense in peace and war. This, in turn, is the result of retaining the city-room concept as the basic organizational feature of the press, with continuing reliance on the generalist in an age that demands increasingly well-trained specialists.

So long as the press fails to modernize its basic methods of training to assure well-trained defense specialists, the military will be required to closely control reporters, as in the Persian Gulf War, as a basic requirement of security for armed forces members and the national interests. Permitting the military to control how the military itself is reported is a grave danger to the democratic process. Yet, so long as the press refuses to accept responsibility for large-scale reform, the public will continue to support close military control as an essential element of safety for its sons and daughters in the armed forces, and out of concern for the success of U.S. military operations. This book will be of interest to students of the press, of the military, and of the media at large.

Contents

• Why the Press Cannot Be Trusted to Cover a War: 1
• The Roots of Conflict: 13
• The Here Now and Obituary Medium: 21

About the author

WILLIAM V. KENNEDY began a career as a professional journalist as a 17-year-old cub reporter in 1945, and a military career as an enlisted man in the Regular Army in 1946. He has pursued both of these careers since. His work as a journalist specializing in military affairs has been published in all principal U.S. military journals and many U.S. and foreign professional and commercial journals and newspapers-including all major U.S. daily newspapers. He has served on active duty as an Intelligence Officer in the Strategic Air Command and as an Army Public Affairs Officer in the Pentagon, retiring from the Army Reserve in 1982 as a Colonel. From 1967 to 1984 he served as a civilian member of the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute and U.S. Army War College Faculty, returning to full-time military journalism in 1984. He is a principal author of The Intelligence War (1983), an internationally recognized text on the subject.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Military and the Media: Why the Press Cannot Be Trusted to Cover a War
• Author: William V. Kennedy
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 1993
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Apr 25, 2008
• ISBN: 0275941914, 9780275941918
• Length: 184 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Journalism