My thoughts on war coverage throughout the media.

In regards to the most recent video we watched in class, which took a look at how politics and war are intertwined with professional football, I caught my self feeling just downright disgusted, in a sense, at our nations methods in war and the way it's viewed in such a positive outlook. I've never been comfortable with the way it is promoted so positively through all these different platforms such as video games, strategically placed advertising, and especially in the news. I've also started to ponder how legitimate all this flashy war coverage really is, and what exactly we're taking in from it

Recently, in my NEWS 108 class we watched a film on how coverage of war through various mediums has evolved over the years, and man... the days of the un-biased embedded reporting of Ernie Pyle, or Edward Murrow are far from gone. Sure, the mediums have evolved over time and I understand that, but war coverage is so glamorized today with over embellished news reports consisting of flashy attractive graphics and embedded journalists attempting to cover the story first handedly, but in reality, do we really know what's going on? I mean, okay sure...they do their news cast from the middle of Iraq with all the sounds of bombs and artillery fire in the back ground, reporting on some new battle, or seizure, or death, or bombing of some town, but why? What were the logistics in engaging this battle? What was the reasoning behind bombing this town?  If you stop and think about it, there's never really an in depth report on what the hell is going on over there...

After learning of how Pat Tillman (who I believe to be one of the most patriotic citizens ever, to my knowledge at least) started opposing the war, calling it "illegal" and "wrong," if I remember correctly, I started thinking that this couldn't of been the first person to think that. Surely, if embedded journalists are over there "reporting" they'd take note of that right? What exactly was he seeing that made him think that? Why wasn't there any investigation in to what it was that made him oppose what our country  is fighting for?

Corporate media, I feel, is more focused on the "what" as opposed to the "why."It sometimes seems their sights are more set on capturing the most entertaining story, and that fact alone is just so disturbing.  War coverage across the mediums has become nothing short of a form of entertainment opposed to a form of news. I mean, think about it. David Petraeus is portrayed in the media in the same way that other popular celebrities are, before and after he got caught spooning with his biographer.

And if war generals are the new A-list celebrities, I don't want to live on this planet anymore.