Veterans in the Media
The way the media portrays current war veterans and their families is highly political and therefore not consistent. In moving from site to site, I found that the coverage and portrayal of veterans (refers to active, deceased, retired, etc—anyone who served in any of the recent war efforts around the world) varied greatly. Here are brief summaries of the major networks:
CNN: Because no major action occurred this week, you have to hunt to find information about the wars. On the “World� page there is a ‘troop deaths in February drop’ link, but it is on the bottom of the page. The story was posted on Saturday, but it didn’t lead on the front page of the site on Saturday either. There is a page dedicated to Iraq war stories, but the only way to get there is to search or to open a buried story and click on the “Iraq War� topic hot link. CNN reports with a left slant—when reporting something that goes ‘for’ the war, they immediately counter with something ‘against’ the war. They do not always do this in reverse, but the reporting is fairly balanced. I know about the “heroes� campaign, and typed in cnn.com/heroes to find that page. There are no military “Heroes� listed—there are a lot of other things going on in the world, I realize this, but no mention is paid to their service.
MSNBC: An Iraq war headline was on the front page. When clicking on that, a story page appears and other war information is given. There is a “first person� section that has photos of veterans and their families. At the bottom, there is a “War in Iraq� topic page that brings. Of the 6 stories headlining the Iraq War page today, four of them are ‘bad news’ and two are ‘good news’ about the war.
FOX: On their front page, there are three stories today connected to the Iraq and Afghani wars. All of these stories are also on CNN and MSNBC, but you have to go to the “Iraq War� pages to find them. This site has a link for the “Military� when you open any story. The other networks have this as well, but only on the “Iraq War� pages. The stories have a more right/conservative slant in that security seems to be more of a focus than it is on other sites.
Overall, there is not much going on in the war that is “headline catching� lately, but these three networks have fairly equal coverage of the non-events. Instead of searching for good news and reporting progress, they all report what is going on as reported by major advisors, etc, but there are not many (if any) stories told by the veterans or their families. The news is event based and does not have a face.
In Hollywood and movies, veterans and war participants have long been painted in different ways. Sometimes they are the vigilant heroes (Transformers, Saving Private Ryan, the Patriot, U-571, etc) where they can overcome anything and always have the right information and equipment to get the job done or find a creative way to succeed in the environment. They almost always make it home as a unit or if they don’t, proper respect is paid by the individuals/team and by the country upon completion of their duty. Sometimes troops are portrayed as ‘punch the clock’ guys (Top Gun, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, M.A.S.H, etc) where the characters are able to dial into a ‘focus’ to get their job done, but spend the other times lounging and having a good time given the situation. There are other portrayals too including the promiscuous sailors/soldiers, all-go-all-the-time marines/soldiers (Jarhead), gentlemen who look good in a uniform and can get a woman (Top Gun, An Officer and a Gentlemen), and conflicted officers/leaders who make the right decisions but face major challenges to do it. Unfortunately, there are stories also of how we as a culture reacted to these people (Forrest Gump, We Were Soldiers, Flags of our Fathers, etc). There are other stories following one soldier/sailor/marine showing how they overcome a challenge as an individual (Men of Honor). Women in the military are often portrayed as either too masculine (and implied lesbians) or ladies who cannot get the job done and require a second set of standards. This is progress considering they used to only be able to serve as clerical or nursing assistants) Public opinion seems to be changing on this one a bit, but it’s difficult to say how people think of female sailors/soldiers/maries. No one likes sending them to war, but they seem to be capable even if they are not the front page image projected by the mainstream media.
Websites, blogs, churches and other areas all have different takes on the war and those fighting it. There are people who write openly about how wrong the war is and how we have to bring them all home before any more of them or the civilians die. Others fight this concept and see pulling out as a bad idea because it will only cause more unrest and issues. Churches generally (in my personal experience) seem to support the individuals and families and see this lifestyle as a struggle which can be overcome with community. There are people out there protesting all things military like the group who protests at military funerals calling the deceased an abomination, or “CodePink� who protests recruiters—these groups get media coverage, but the general public seems to be somewhere in between. People say ‘bring them home’, but then turn around and say “support our troops.� There is not a clear message of what supporting our troops means.
If you look at Veterans websites, however, “support� has a clear definition. They want to see a successful conclusion of the current actions and do not want to pull out or give up. Support in their opinion is providing morale, supplies, and a general ‘we’re here for you’ attitude. If you look at the major news media for a one day snapshot, you could forget the war is on. To the veterans, being forgotten is the worst thing that could happen.
Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force commercials and websites all have positive information about the opportunities available to people who join. They put a positive outlook and spin on all of benefits of being part of this team and being a ‘good American.’
There is always the “hero� perspective portrayed as well. The disturbing thing is when this is laid out against the ‘we’re killing innocent people’ image—these are difficult to reconcile. The media portrays the later, but when someone dies, they are a hero and we should feel sorry for them because they died “senselessly� (true or not??). They don’t take time to realize that by saying it was senseless, you invalidate their sacrifice and the feelings of their family—how shameful!
It’s all sticky and difficult to define, but there are many images out there. Because I am a military spouse, my slant here is pretty clear: support out troops by believing in them and their jobs—we fail them, we fail our country. Anything that takes away from the truth and real life of what our men are doing and when they succeed is wrong, in my opinion, and hurts our country and our unity (what’s left). Balanced reporting is necessary, so it can’t all be rosy, it’s war! BUT—it has to be fair…not for ratings or profits. They aren’t there in vain—they are doing their JOBS!