Does the News Media ( specifically the TV media) influence war? Do un-named sources in the pentagon influence policy, more than sound military principles? It seems to me, that the recent Operation Iraqi Freedom was veiwed as a debacle with the ambush of a Repair company and the US was losing the conflict. Also in the first Gulf War the print press asked CNN not to broadcast their interviews with the military becuase they looked like they didn't know military cababilities or limitations. Does the news media expect perfection in the most imperfect environments?

The key to any military operation is secrecy. With that in mind, there should be a limit on the amount of leeway given to media, especially civilian news agencies. Combat correspondents of World War II knew these. Media can help win or lose battles as far as divulging secrets, especially when talking about debacles and losses. Back in WW2, there weren't any TV sets yet so it was easy to control the media. But with TV cameras and sattelite boradcasting, viewers get a front-row seat on the action an they form opinions based on what they see on TV.

If one goes back a ways, you can find that the media has always had an impact. It started the American Revolution, influenced the changing of Generals in the Union Army during the American Civil War, as well as getting Lincoln re-elected (winning of Battle of Atlanta), sparked the entire Spanish American War and all the "bananna wars" of the 1900-1920's era. Since then, well Just look at Viet Nam and later...my God day to day activities brought into the living room

In all honesty, I can not comment on my "opinion" of what I think of the media and what they have done to "screw-up" operations in the last 2 or three conflicts (Desert Storm, Afghanistan , and the present coflicct) as Jim has admonished us not to stand on our soap boxes and rant and rave. Let's just say as a retired Major from the US Armor Corps.... I am not amused

All I can say about this is at times the media greatly overexaggerates situations by reporting them out of proportion to the surrounding events/operations. Not only that but to the media it doesnt matter what the story is but if it will bring in viewers they will report it.

Hoever like blaster said, it would probably be best to avoid topics such as this without inflammatory comments and political rants to get us in trouble with Jim

Our media outlets are filled with people who would like nothing more than to continue to shovel dirt on President Bush and his decision to go to war. Every American soldier KIA is a tragedy - but IS IT NEWS WORTHY?

Imagine the headlines from WWII - 12,000 dead, 50,000 wounded in fighting on Saipan. Thousands dead, tens of thousands wounded in landings at Normandy. Saipan was a 6 months campaign, the landings on Normandy were 1 day. Yet the deaths and injuries were sizable as compared to OIF.

To date American has sustained less than 550 KIA's in Iraq. This includes the war and the aftermath. Those 550 brave men and women served this country and gave the last full measure of devotion to this country to paraphrase Lincoln.

Yet, when one soldier dies the media reports its in the headlines, as one of the first news items on the nightly news - not because its news worthy but because it reinforces the premise that President Bush was wrong to go into Iraq.

It's sad that these brave soldiers should be used in this disgraceful manner to fruther a political agenda...