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Opinion

Media coverage veils the true atrocities of war

Sousan Hammad 
Opinion Columnist

Soon after the invention of the printing press, during the early Renaissance, the authoritarian theory of the press was adopted. Its main purpose was to support and advance the policies of the government in power. The media was controlled by government patents, guilds, licensing and, occasionally, censorship, and is still practiced in many places today.

Though there are many varieties of recollection, there are certain episodes in history, in terms of war, that deserve to be remembered by the press and people who live among us. It is unfortunate how facile the press can be in determining what we shall and shall not remember by assisting in the role of forgetfulness. 

It has been a precarious four years (and counting) since our country located a convenient enemy, Saddam Hussein, and destroyed such a historically magnificent and enriched country as Iraq. But rarely does the media remind us of war, both past and present, enticing people to forget that the country they live in is at war.

Take, for example, high school history books, where past events, such as massacres and war, are either left unmentioned or romanticized. 

In his book The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political realism, suggested that "a prince should emulate both the lion and the fox … (where) the lion uses force … (and) the fox uses deception." This can relate to all the modern day "princes" -- from the rich and powerful, to dictators and tyrants such as Adolf Hitler, who, by the way, is said to have kept a copy of The Prince at his bedside. 

Television networks and journalists, too, have become Machiavellian in a sense. 

Days after 9/11, television networks continually and selfishly aired the image of the two planes flying into the twin towers over and over until the eyes of many were congested with the grotesque image and memory. 

The remembrance of the grievance and death in our own country is justified because it was an act committed by the enemy, but the remembrance of the deaths that happen in our unjustified battles overseas is not one to mention. 

We are told the war in Iraq is going well. We are told that Afghanistan is a safer place now. Both countries are on the "road to democracy", we are told. 

The media does not tell us how many deaths in Iraq there really are, but according to the BBC, "the British government was advised against publicly criticizing a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis have died, due to the war." Rarely are we reminded of the 3,244 American deaths in Iraq -- our government would not want us to think of the (American) human costs in the war in Iraq or any war for that matter.

In terms of reporting war, many journalists have opted for a freelance journalism career in order to avoid the biased reporting they are told to write. But when it comes to war, it is simple, as Howard Zinn said, "all wars are wars against civilians." When a pilot pushes the button to drop a bomb over a town for whatever military reasons involved, he absolutely knows there will be innocent civilians whose lives will be reduced to ashes and a corpse. But we are not told this either.

The role of the press in times of war can either cover up the atrocities of war or choose to provide information. We cannot ignore history or the past illustrations of war despite the altruistic role of the government. Countless people have died and they at least deserve our remembrance.

Hammad, a communication junior, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu