Brad Messer Commentary
Wednesday, Mar. 26, 2003

Three examples of the fog of war.

First, dead people.
There's no controversy over showing dead Iraqis on American TV. Last Gulf War, you saw the Highway of Death with 10,000 dead Iraqis, in or near vehicles, burned up. A turkey shoot. Crispy critters. Don't act like you haven't heard those phrases.

Over the weekend, there were dead American soldiers on Iraqi TV. Americans got very righteous about this. Outraged that the barbarians would do such a horrible thing. When we show them dead, it is different, and permissible.

Two. Prisoners of war.
American television was in anguish over whether to show our five POWs— whereas our TV had been showing their POWs for days.

The third example isn't exactly the fog of war, but it is pretty fogged up. TV coverage.
A while back, Fox News arose and slew the ratings giant CNN. Whereupon the Clinton News Network pooh-poohed Fox as being more entertainment than news, with all those glitzy graphics all over the screen.

A few weeks ago, CNN decided to try to get ratings during the war by being the responsible, mature news source. How? Obviously by putting so many graphics on the screen that we can't even see our own tanks.

Three examples of the fog of war.

Brad Messer— commentary, KTSA.

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