The Orchestration Of The Persian Gulf War

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“The orchestration of the Gulf war was a glaring expression of what the situationists call the spectacle — the development of modern society to the point where images dominate life” -Ken Knabb. The Gulf war began on August 2, 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait and bombed Kuwait’s capital, Kuwait City, to stop them from over-producing oil. Middle Eastern countries got power from the West, including the United States, to intervene with Iraq’s invasion. The United Nations passed a proposition that if by January 15, 1991 Iraq still hadn’t surrendered, other forces could intervene. On January 12, 1991, congress allowed President George H.W Bush the ability to wage war. By January 17, 1991 America began an air assault to disable Iraq’s communications …show more content…

An anonymous freelance researcher showed that even separate major media networks had different death tolls. (Smith OPERATION CENSORED WAR) FOX news, a predominantly right wing network, the same as then President George H.W Bush, showed only one Iraqi soldier being run over by a tank. (Smith) FOX’s censorship was likely done to keep republicans oblivious to the hundreds of civilian death during the war, and to keep them in support of Operation Desert Storm. On the other hand, the Cable News Network, CNN, opted not to censor the “Mile of Death” in which the total death count is unsure, but a confirmed 350 Iraqians perished. (Smith) Seeing as CNN’s personal views were far off from then President George H.W Bush, media networks were doing whatever the wanted to support their personal view. This shows that major media networks such as FOX and CNN would censor anything that happened that didn’t agree with their personal views. Examples such as this were the reason why the American public were too misinformed during the Gulf War. Another example of censorship during the Gulf War came from a reporter for NBC who was in Iraq and Kuwait reporting overseas for the channel. When he resigned from NBC years after he reported the Gulf War, he came forward to say “Reporters in the Gulf were …show more content…

The Government used major media networks, such as CNN and Fox, to gather support for the war by tactics of manipulation and censorship. Furthermore, a Justice Department investigation into possible bribery and fraud, which could equal or exceed the teapot dome scandal, has been left inconclusive, and was the top censored story of 1991. (Gulf War issues top censored news list) Although this information was censored, and the majority of the public did not know this, it has caused a massive distrust in media. Over the years, more and more people have come to realize that the media puppets what the government claims, getting public support for most everything that the government wants to do. “ The Gulf War, is a carefully managed effort in controlling and managing the news.” -Jeff