Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War, With a new afterword [Paperback]

Then there was Granada. That I recall because it was so transparently censored--while US medical students in Granada, the ones whose parents could afford to send them there after they'd been rejected by US med schools, were praising the military's arrival just in time, an obvious placement of the right message at the right time. I thought things couldn't get any worse than this. But then there was Panama...

Up to the present, Gulf War II, following the subject matter of the book, we've evolved to "embedded" journalists, i.e., media personnel accompanying the brave military in staged events to make Cecil B. DeMille jealous. The process and material of this "war" was provided by PR professionals!

This book documents a mid point in that process. And I remember it because I was frequently furious during Desert Storm that every local VFW chapter was called upon to comment while even major newspapers abstained from printing letters critical of the event!

There's a lot in this spectacular volume. The author begins with explaining how the media plan was designed, the "pooling" of journalists covering it, to the objection of few! There is a chapter on the dubious dead babies story (covered in some detail by "Weapons of Mass Deception" in which I heard of this book). The author distinguishes between the journalistic and business voices of the major media. There is even a chapter on Vietnam, to document some of the history to which I've already referred. And one appropriately entitles "Desert Muzzle," a pseudonym to which the author frequently returns.

There's a lot in the book. And be prepared to stay awake if you read it in bed. Lots will make you extremely mad, particularly the absolute gutlessness of some of the "journalists" on whom we rely for the limited information we receive and are allowed to process.

The bottom line is that, if we are to maintain any sense of "democracy," we need information provided by true journalists, not media personalities more intent on getting generals' autographs and invitations to expensive White House dinners than on one-sided, gutless coverage provided by Pentagon PR specialists. And that's all we have now. It's pathetic but true. This book documents it all. Read it and weep.

The book ends with a valuable observation: in the early 90s, just after the "liberation" of our wonderful ally, Kuwait, that little emirate ranked second, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in its incarceration and torture of journalists. Second to China, which is only slightly more populous than Kuwait... Tough to be liberated.

If you want to begin to ponder where changes are needed, i.e., where honesty and integrity in media, prevail, this is a place to start.