Now war is declared - and battle gone down
It’s about time. Today, the Boston Globe reports that NBC will begin to call the situation in Iraq a civil war, contrary to the White House spin of the past several years that it isn’t. The Globe credited “some media analysts” as drawing a comparison between this and the moment where CBS anchor Walter Cronkite declared that we were losing Vietnam.
Frankly, its about time that someone has stepped up to challenge the Bush administration on their use of vocabulary. Words are very important in the framing of things and spinning the news, and the Bush spin has long been to refuse to call the escalating violence, the death squads and the civil unrest a “civil war,” despite clear evidence to the contrary. NBC deserves accolades.
Interestingly, they announced the policy on the Today Show, which reminds me of an academic paper I recently read about the effect of soft news. It is entitled the “Oprah Effect” and can be found here. The impact of a Today Show announcement, rather than their flagship evening newscast to make such a bold announcement is certainly interesting, and perhaps telling of the decline in importance of the evening news, especially in the passing of the anchor chair to an entire new generation on all three networks.
Anyway, something to think about.
Frankly, its about time that someone has stepped up to challenge the Bush administration on their use of vocabulary. Words are very important in the framing of things and spinning the news, and the Bush spin has long been to refuse to call the escalating violence, the death squads and the civil unrest a “civil war,” despite clear evidence to the contrary. NBC deserves accolades.
Interestingly, they announced the policy on the Today Show, which reminds me of an academic paper I recently read about the effect of soft news. It is entitled the “Oprah Effect” and can be found here. The impact of a Today Show announcement, rather than their flagship evening newscast to make such a bold announcement is certainly interesting, and perhaps telling of the decline in importance of the evening news, especially in the passing of the anchor chair to an entire new generation on all three networks.
Anyway, something to think about.
