Wednesday, September 30, 2009
What if it happened again
So I just got through watching a very interesting documentary in class about how the media greatly affected the public opinion on the war in Iraq. It showed how after 911 there was really little to no criticism on the bush administration from mainstream media outlets such as the Washington Post. The documentary seemed to be trying to say that this lack of criticism played a major role in the decision to go into Iraq shortly after 911. Any questions of the Bush administration during this time were frowned upon and seen as unpatriotic. As a result of this when the attention was turned away from Afghanistan and to Iraq there was almost no immediate criticism which would have been extremely helpful in making a much more intelligent decision. This is a prime example of the media not being objective and how that can be detrimental to the country as a whole. This documentary really got me thinking about what would happen if we were attacked again? What would be different about both the medias reaction and the reaction of the general public? If the reactions did turn out to be different would this be good or bad? I personally feel that another terrorist attack would not bring the country together as it did in the wake of 911. I think that instead it would intensify the criticism of the Obama administration from right wingers such as John McCain and Dick Cheney. I also feel that talk radio hosts such as Rush and Hannity would begin attacking the current administration very quickly after an attack happened. I do not think that this would be a good thing for our country because it would split us down the middle. I think that we need to find a middle ground between these two different responses. It is important that if we ever were attacked again that we get behind our president and support him in what would be another difficult time for the nation, however we still would need to remain objective about how far we would follow. I really would like to know others opinions on these questions so please comment.
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Well for one, the Iraq war showed that Americans will come together at a time of crisis. And also I won't blame the media because the country was attacked at the time, everyone expect the government to know the perpetrators and people gave them the benefit of a doubt. If the Iraq thing was done by another country, the officials involved will be tried for war crimes...just goes to show that there are two set of law in the world.
ReplyDeleteI think it easy to look back and say what "should have been done", but you can not live in yesterday. We just have to keep going and make better choices today. The media has choice in how information is presented to the people. Currently people are trying to hold government officials accountable for their choices why not hold the media accountable? It makes me think of the girl and guy who "uncovered" acorn. They were not happy with what the media was telling them so they went and got their own story. I am not saying that everyone should do this "self reporting" or that they made all of the right choices, but it showed that reporters were not giving them what they wanted so they went and got it for their selves.
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