The Military and the Media in Perspective: Finding the Necessary Balance

• Author: James P. Terry
• Position: Colonel, United States Marine Corps (Ret.)
• Pages: 187-195

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The Military and the Media in Perspective:

Finding the Necessary Balance

James P. Terry*

In reviewing the recent events in Iraq and the War on Terrorism vis-a-vis the

media, the one obvious question asked by all Americans today, including those

in military service, is who do the media represent. Do they represent the voice of

the American people, or do they represent adefined elite concerned with achange

in the political landscape in the United States?

Recent Background to Current Contentiousness

Two recent incidents, Ibelieve, are indicative of the current unease between the

military and the media and force us to reflect on who and what the media repre-

sents in their reporting on military activities. In early 2005, Newsweek, owned by

the Washington Post Company, published astory by Michael Ishikoff claiming

that acopy of the Koran had been flushed down atoilet by an American interroga-

tor at Guantanamo, Cuba, in front of Muslim interviewees. When evidence was

produced that showed it to be false, Newsweek belatedly retracted the story but only

after much damage to the US military's image occurred in those countries with

whom we must cooperate in the War on Terrorism. 1More importantly, the rioting

that followed resulted in 16 deaths in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Newsweek,

*Colonel, United States Marine Corps (Ret.).