Shooting the Messenger

by Moorcraft, Paul L.

• ISBN13: 9781574889475
• ISBN10: 1574889478
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-15
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc

Summary

As the literature on military-media relations grows, it is informed by antagonism either from journalists who report on wars or from ex-soldiers in their memoirs. Academics who attempt more judicious accounts rarely have any professional military or media experience. A working knowledge of the operational constraints of both professions underscores Shooting the Messenger. A veteran war correspondent and think tank director, Paul L. Moorcraft has served in the British Ministry of Defence, while historian-by-training Philip M. Taylor is a professor of international communications who has lectured widely to the U.S. military and at NATO institutions. Some of the topics they examine in this wide-ranging history of military-media relations are: ' the interface between soldiers and civilian reporters covering conflicts ' the sometimes grey area between reporters' right or need to know and the operational security constraints imposed by the military ' the military's manipulation of journalists who accept it as a trade-off for safer battlefield access ' the resultant gap between images of war and their reality ' the evolving nature of media technology and the difficulties'”and opportunities'”this poses to the military ' journalistic performance in reporting conflict as an observer or a participant Moorcraft and Taylor provide a bridge over which each side can pass and a path to mutual understanding.

Author Biography

Paul L. Moorcraft directs London's Centre for Foreign Policy Analysis and is a visiting professor at Cardiff University's School of Journalism, Media, and Cultural Studies.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xv
The Origins of War Reporting	p. 1
Shooting the Messenger	p. 1
The Rise of the Specials	p. 6
Russell and the Crimean War	p. 7
The American Civil War	p. 12
The Imperial Wars	p. 15
Entente between Pen and Sword	p. 28
The World Wars	p. 31
The Great War	p. 31
The Wars Between the Wars	p. 46
The Russian Revolution and Its Repercussions	p. 49
Abyssinia	p. 50
The Spanish Civil War	p. 52
The Gathering Storm	p. 55
World War II	p. 57
The Cold War (of Words)	p. 69
The Korean War	p. 70
French Indochina	p. 73
Suez: No End of a Lesson	p. 74
Algeria: A Savage War	p. 75
Britain's Colonial Wars	p. 77
America's War on the Doorstep	p. 80
Vietnam	p. 82
The Empire Strikes Back	p. 88
Grenada, Panama, and Haiti	p. 94
End of History?	p. 98
African "Sideshows"?	p. 103
Rhodesia: Arguing with Arithmetic and History	p. 106
South Africa: Reporting Apartheid	p. 112
Somalia	p. 122
Europe's Intra-State Conflicts	p. 127
Balkan Wars	p. 128
Kosovo	p. 135
Northern Ireland	p. 140
Hidden War: Chechnya	p. 144
The Middle East and Afghanistan	p. 149
Israel versus the Palestinians	p. 150
Iran	p. 151
Afghanistan	p. 153
The Gulf War	p. 156
The Intifadas	p. 168
Media Influence	p. 171
The Long War	p. 175
Afghanistan	p. 176
"With Us or Against Us"	p. 178
The Iraq War	p. 181
Embeds and Fembeds	p. 183
Atrocity Stories	p. 190
Shaping the Information Space	p. 192
The Occupation Fiasco	p. 196
The Other Occupation	p. 202
Troubles Elsewhere: Darfur	p. 205
Lebanon	p. 206
Hearts and Minds in the Long Haul	p. 208
The Mechanics of Reporting War and Peace	p. 213
Reporting Peace	p. 213
The Decline of Foreign News Reporting	p. 216
The Media in Post-Conflict Interventions	p. 220
The Media Operators: Hidden Persuaders?	p. 222
What Makes War Correspondents Tick?	p. 232
No More Heroes?	p. 239
Witnesses to History	p. 239
The CNN Effect?	p. 241
Hacks versus the Bean Counters	p. 246
Notes	p. 251
Selected Bibliography	p. 293
Index	p. 303
About the Authors	p. 317
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