`Real-time' TV coverage a real headache for Bush
U.S. spin doctors can't control media message
Morale-destroying images weren't part of the plan
LINDA DIEBEL STAFF REPORTER Mar. 24, 2003. 01:00 AM
WASHINGTON—It's the first "real-time" TV war, and it wasn't supposed to go like this.
On the weekend, these weren't supposed to be the television images of Operation Iraqi Freedom: frightened U.S. prisoners-of-war being held in Iraq; a grainy still of slain American soldiers lying on a floor; reporters explaining friendly fire incidents like the downing of a British warplane; and the stark image of a 101st Airborne soldier on the ground, taken prisoner by his own troops after grenades were tossed into officers' tents in Kuwait with deadly results.
These grim, morale-destroying images weren't supposed to be there because the Bush administration thought it could control media war coverage.
They spent enough time on it, going as far back as the first days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks to create a new-style communications team.
Preparations for "spin control" were the job of the president's most trusted advisers. A White House-based team runs a 24/7 global operation to massage and torque what the public sees, reads and hears.
There were big decisions, including the Pentagon call to "embed" 529 media personnel with advancing U.S. and British troops and put tough restrictions on their reporting.
President George W. Bush signed off the communications war plan two weeks ago in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. He blessed the team's efforts and, reportedly, told them to get out the news "in a co-ordinated way that reflects our efforts."
It's clear that, in the frenzy of war, news simply cannot be controlled, especially in this age of "real-time" coverage.
Maybe they should have listened to their own Pentagon chiefs, who apparently opposed allowing the cameras to get so close from the beginning.
Here's what Americans, and viewers in other nations, watched during the first weekend of the war against Iraq:
CBS's Face the Nation yesterday showed a brief excerpt of American dead and prisoners-of-war, during an interview with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The videotape, shot by Iraqi state television, was aired by the Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera.
Rumsfeld furiously warned it would be "unfortunate" for other U.S. networks to air the footage. CNN showed a still photograph of the dead Americans, with faces obscured, while other networks said they were still debating what to show.
At every opportunity, Rumsfeld urged Americans not to believe what they see with their own eyes.
"The images on television tend to leave the impression that we're bombing Baghdad," said Rumsfeld, clearly addressing international humanitarian concerns about rising casualties in the bombed-out city.
"The coalition forces are not bombing Baghdad," he said, insisting these are surgical strikes of military targets.
A U.S. soldier sat on the ground after being detained in connection with the grenade attacks early yesterday. A command tent at the 101st Airborne Division camp in Kuwait came under attack, with one soldier killed, and 15 wounded, according to military officials.
British reporters explained that a U.S. Patriot missile shot down a Tornado GR4, a Royal Air Force fighter in a friendly fire accident near the Iraqi border with Kuwait. "We can confirm the (two-man crew was) killed in action," said a British defence ministry spokesperson.
Reporters hit Gen. Tommy Franks, Operation Iraqi Freedom commander, as well as other military briefers, with tough questions in Qatar. The Pentagon specifically sought out a wide sampling of reporters — from Al-Jazeera and international networks, to Rolling Stone and New York Magazine.
"What do you say (when) the people most likely to be awed and awestruck by `shock and awe' are the Iraqi civilians you claim to be liberating?" asked one unidentified reporter.
And, finally and perhaps most importantly, there seems to be growing evidence the war is not going over as expected with the viewing public.
"I feel very uncomfortable watching this, and I have a nephew fighting over there," said Washington hotel worker, Madeleine Dorth yesterday.
"You know how Christmas is getting a little too commercial and it's losing it's meaning? Well, that's how this war is to me. It's like a ratings game or something, and I find it's very wrong."
It seems surreal to be watching, for example, announcers in the United States waiting for a bomb to drop on an enemy target near Umm Qasr, and getting excited about it.
"Ohhhh," said one announcer, catching her breath. "I'm feeling tense, and I'm here in Atlanta, Georgia."
No, it's clearly not going well, at least so far, for the Bush administration. And it's not as if the Pentagon has been taken by surprise. Top Pentagon officials, wary of war's unpredictability, strongly advised the Bush administration against allowing around-the-clock media access to the troops, sources say.
The American public is seeing something that "is somewhat historic," said Rumsfeld. "We're having a conflict at a time in our history when we have 24-hours-a-day television, radio, media and Internet and more people in the world have access to what is taking place."
That's why they spent so much time on it, unveiling the first war communications plan under Bush adviser Karen Hughes during the 2001 bombing campaign against Al Qaeda terrorist targets in Afghanistan after 9/11.
The new team — Office of Global Communications — continues to work with Hughes, as well as key people in the White House, Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council. They work around-the-clock, stuffing each 24-hour news cycle, at home and abroad, with a message of the day, designed to fill every information void and ensure the people stay on that message.
"The idea is to present their view of what is happening, and make it the only view," says William Lutz, a Rutgers University English professor and expert on "doublespeak."
"They cloak it with authority ... It is the Pope speaking ...
"People think, `Hey, the government has more information than I do, their view must be more informed than mine.'"
Hughes, a longtime Bush confidante, has been brought back to Washington to advise Bush. But her $15,000 monthly fee is actually paid by the Republican National Committee.
"This is a grey area," Charles Lewis, executive director of the Centre for Public Integrity, told the Washington Post.
Tucker Eskew, global communications team head, stressed they are not selling propaganda or disinformation.
"That is kind of knee-jerk, an easy way to dismiss truthful communications," he recently told the Dallas Morning News. "There's disinformation in the world, and we are here to help knock it down."
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