Comparisons to Vietnam, which was the first television war and that brought us the previous day's events on the evening news, are common. And this whether you hope the new medium of communication will end an unjust war or whether you count on it to support the war in the face of a hostile MSM.
While this is a critical issue, it is hardly new to either this or the last century's wars.
When I worked for the University of Michigan, one of my jobs was to replace old worn out publications. One such publication was a British newspaper nicely bound. I can't remember which one, but what struck me was the similarity of the problems they discussed. In particular, I remember (and wish I'd saved) an article written during the Crimean War that decried the impact of the telegraph on public opinion. In particular, the article complained that the speed of the telegraph in bringing up-t0-date news to the public had diminished the public's attention span and basically led them to jump from report to report. I was amazed at this oh so very modern critique of war reporting, technology, and the public.
This article on the Crimean War of 150 years ago notes, rightly:
For the first time, improved technology allowed news to reach home very quickly, and the telegraph reports sent by William Russell, war correspondent of the Times of London enraged British public opinion to the exten[t] that the government of Lord Aberdeen fell, the first time the condition of the fighting men had aroused such emotions.
Fascinating. And that was real incompetence and poor equipment unlike the ridiculous charges aired today about the best trained, equipped, and led force in the history of our country.
The first wired war. Add photographs for the American Civil War. Add sensationalism with heavy competition for newspaper readers and profits for the Spanish-American War. Add silent film for World War I. Add talking movies for World War II [UPDATE: and radio]. Add taped television for Vietnam. Add 24-hour cable news for Desert Storm. Add the Internet for Kosovo. Add blogs for Afghanistan and Iraq. Each step up overwhelmed the sensory inputs of a public used to the prior modes of communication. And each provided new challenges for coping with public perceptions.
As the public gets used to each step up in speed and impact, the impact will wear off. And then when the next leap occurs, we will long for the good old days when the Internet allowed us to leisurely analyze the events of war and draw reasoned conclusions.
There is little new under the sun.
