Please, media, don’t turn the war into entertainment
8 things for journalists to keep in mind as they cover Trump’s military moves
The news media are good at covering war. Well, some parts of war: the explosions, the technology, the heroics.
But journalists tend to be terrible about covering other parts: the lies, the ulterior motives, the human misery.
With Donald Trump deciding on his own to take the U.S. into an illegal war against Iran, here are eight things the news media should keep in mind.
1. Don’t sanitize the impact on human beings.
I was nation/world editor at the Chicago Tribune during the Iraq War two decades ago. I saw how newsroom executives hated to show pictures of dead and wounded people, especially civilians. I’d hear comments like, “People don’t want to see that when they’re eating their corn flakes in the morning,” as if that should be a standard for news judgment.
Such attitudes motivate editors to hide the awful facts about war, performing a public disservice. That kind of coverage makes people think warfare isn’t as bad as it is – and in doing so, it makes people more willing to support war.
Also, the media should be wary about marveling too much about weapon systems. These are not great achievements of mankind; they’re killing machines. And war coverage should not be like an adventure movie. Don’t depict it as glamorous or entertaining,
Remember: War is ugly. The coverage should be too.
2. Put events in a complete, honest historical context.
On cable TV’s coverage of the U.S.-Iran animosity, I’ve heard anchors ask their guests: “Why does Iran hate us?” And the answers tend to be shallow, with the news media often unwilling to recall the whole story.
News stories this past weekend in the New York Times and Washington Post tied the current hostilities to the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled Iran’s dictator, the U.S.-backed Shah, and led to the new Iranian regime holding American embassy staff hostage. That, of course, is an important point in the U.S.-Iran story, but maybe not the most important point. Neither the NYT nor WaPo stories mentioned how the CIA helped engineer a coup in Iran 26 years earlier that overthrew a democratically elected government and installed the Shah, leading to his reign of terror against the Iranian people and then to religious extremists taking over the country. (To be fair, a separate WaPo story last week did note the CIA-backed coup. But a prominent story Sunday – when more people were paying attention – mentioned the embassy hostage crisis but not the coup, which might make some readers think the Iranians started the trouble.)
Why do Iranians hate us? Well, it might have something to do with us destroying their democracy seven decades ago.
3. Hold politicians accountable.
A ridiculously passive NYT headline over the weekend read: “U.S. Military Is Pulled Back Into Middle East Wars.” As if the country with the 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs had no agency. As if its leaders were helpless actors in someone else’s script.
4. Remember that the peace movement is patriotic, too.
There’s always a danger in U.S. wars that dissent is labeled as disloyalty. But in fact, the people who oppose Trump’s go-it-alone approach – without congressional authorization – are the ones showing the highest regard for our laws and the Constitution's system of checks and balances.
5. Keep in mind that lying politicians are even more dishonest during war.
Trump and his gang lie about nearly everything, and the war gives them an excuse to do it even more. Trump announced Saturday that the Iranian nuclear sites that were attacked were “totally obliterated,” even though he was in no position to know that, and other U.S. officials tried to soften that claim.
Trump’s indication last week that he might wait two weeks before deciding whether to attack was later described by the NYT as “military misdirection.” In other words, not an attempt to mislead the American people but an attempt to fool the Iranian military. He can now claim that his lies are in the interest of national security.
It’s up to news outlets to be extremely skeptical of Trump’s war claims and never present them as if they’re facts.
6. Don’t act like you’re “in the know” when you’re not.
After Trump indicated his decision on an attack might be two weeks away, CNN ran a story early Saturday headlined, “‘Always a peacemaker’: How Trump decided to hold off on striking Iran.” That headline looked clueless half a day later.
When the media are in the fog of war, they shouldn’t pretend they have a clear view.
7. Beware of irrational optimism.
Vice President JD Vance claimed Sunday that “this is not going to be some long, drawn-out thing.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “this is most certainly not open-ended.”
They were talking about war, which is one of the most unpredictable things that human beings do. When people assure us that wars will end quickly, they’re lying.
8. Remember that war makes it easier for governments to take away personal liberties.
There’s a reason George Orwell wrote in “1984” that “The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.” Totalitarian governments use war as a rationale for total control over their citizens. They frighten citizens into giving up their rights.
There’s also a real danger that Trump’s foreign war will engross the press and the public so much that they fail to focus on his domestic misconduct. But in these perilous times, journalists have a duty not to be distracted – and to tell the full story of his abuses at home and abroad.
