During the Vietnam War, the media observed a strict, self-imposed censorship which downplayed the savage nature of that war. Members of the media absolutely refused to question administration policy--at least until very late in the war, when most Americans supported withdrawal anyway. The reasons ranged from fear of offending the parents of soldiers to conservatism among the network brass. But after Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, a more cynical press emerged--one that was unwilling to cotton to the government's requests for non-critical reporting.

The power of the television news industry to influence American public opinion is vastly overstated, regardless of the biases which inevitably creep into any reporting. Hallin quoted one survey which placed the percentage of Americans who watch any TV news--national or local--at one-third for any given day. Only half watch at least one news broadcast in any given month. Certainly the TV news audience increases during a war, but huge audiences rarely formed during the eight years of media attention given to the Vietnam War. For many, the war was just another story.

And the idea that the Vietnam War era would have seen fewer protests without television coverage is ludicrous. Harry S. Truman left office with incredibly high negative ratings in the wake of hundreds of protests against the Korean War. The urban riots of the Civil War were certainly not the result of media coverage.

But the press cannot ignore its own mistakes in reporting the war.

In 1966, Michael J. Arlen '52 wrote in his book The Living-Room War (which coined the common phrase) that television coverage of Vietnam "all sounded very safe and institutional, and rather like a rerun." Arlen chronicled a history of rigged enemy casualty figures, over-statements about the effectiveness of "search-and-destroy missions" and air raids, and lies by senior administration officials about the need for more troops. All the while, this information went unquestioned by TV news. The military's war had become the media's war.

WARS ARE NOT won and lost on the television screen. Members of the media have been trying to prove this to the American military for years, and they should continue to insist that their coverage of Vietnam did not prevent the U.S. from winning that war. Combatting unnecessary censorship in the Gulf and in future conflicts should not involve turning to Vietnam as the perfect example of an uncensored war. This only makes the press's accusations as absurd as the military's.