MEDIA CENSORSHIP

MEDIA - Censorship by the Press
T.F. Boggs
www.boredsoldier.blogspot.com


As G. K. Chesterton said almost 100 years ago,
“We do not need a censorship of the press. We
have a censorship by the press."

This new millennium has been fraught with
misrepresentations by the press. Talk to any
soldier and you will hear the same. How many
countless milblogs and soldiers have told you
the truth is not being reported by the MSM?
How has the current administration’s support
for war been hampered by faulty reporting and
blatant disregard for the truth? Why has the
media been allowed to run roughshod upon the
great Americans who sacrifice so much for our
Constitution?

Those who make sport out of cutting innocent
people’s heads off are wrong. Those who use
real torture (not like the games that took
place in Abu Gharib) and mutilate bodies, by
doing such things as sticking people’s genitals
in their mouths, are wrong. Those who murder
Iraqis simply because they cook our food or cut
our hair are wrong. Those who use their religion
as a reason to try and take over the world are
wrong. Nothing gray about any of those statements,
only black and white.

The media perpetuates ignorance among the American
population by only reporting bad news, because they
are ignorant of the subject matter they report on.
How many ex-veterans are working in the MSM right
now? Take away Oliver North and who are you left
with? I wonder why the major news organizations
don’t hire more military correspondents?

I am not against showing death and destruction on
TV but at the same time there should also be
stories about growth and reconstruction. A nation
is being rebuilt in Iraq and people are getting
on with their lives but you would never know that
from what you read in American newspapers or watch
on American TV.

If the MSM were truly objective we would hear from
people all over the spectrum concerning the important
issues of the day.

The news would sound something like “It was a typical
day in Iraq today. In Ramadi there were several
clashes between soldiers and terrorists leaving 20
terrorists dead and one soldier severely wounded.
Mosul continues to get safer and safer each day and
is gaining a lot of support from surrounding villages.
Overall Iraq looked very much like a country dealing
with rebuilding itself from the ground up. However,
anyone who has been in Iraq from day one knows that
despite occasional setbacks Iraq has improved leaps
and bounds from the days of Saddam. The people of
Iraq realize that life is tough now but they are
thankful they will never have to live under the
oppressive rule of a tyrant like Saddam Hussein.”

We don’t need uninformed beauties with their hair
blowing in the wind telling us what has been scripted
for them to say by others. We don’t need editors
ripping the guts out of any good story up for print
because it doesn’t fit their agenda. It is not that
the media always seeks to suppress the truth, they
are just often times unqualified to give it to you.


T. F. Boggs is a a 24-year-old sargeant
in the Army Reserves, voluntarily on his second
deployment to Iraq, in Mosul.