2003 ENTERTAINMENT: TV GOES TO WAR AND BRINGS IT HOME NEWS ROLE DIFFERENT IN IRAQ THAN VIETNAM.Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer While TV news fueled public opposition to the Vietnam War Opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began slowly and in small numbers in 1964 on various college campuses in the United States. This happened during a time of unprecedented student activism reinforced in numbers by the demographically significant baby boomers, but , in 2003 it probably contributed to Americans' support for the campaign to oust Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (born April 28, 1937, Tikrit, Iraq—died Dec. 30, 2006, Baghdad) President of Iraq (1979–2003). He joined the Ba'th Party in 1957. Following participation in a failed attempt to assassinate Iraqi Pres. , beginning with frequent sound bites of President George W. Bush pressing for war in Iraq. Pentagon-trained ``embedded'' reporters and camera crews, and those who worked without such protection, brought the war home in a much different form from the filmed dispatches of 30-plus years ago. TV graphics made heavy use of stars and stripes Stars and Stripes nickname for the U.S. flag. [Am. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 8567] See : America , NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. bannered reports with the Pentagon's own euphemism - ``Operation Iraqi Freedom'' - and Fox News edited scenes of U.S. missiles lighting up Baghdad and set them to music. Viewers mourned NBC correspondent David Bloom, who died in the field from a blood clot blood clot n. A semisolid, gelatinous mass of coagulated blood that consists of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets in a fibrin network. . They saw a live feed of a CNN CNN or Cable News Network Subsidiary company of Turner Broadcasting Systems. It was created by Ted Turner in 1980 to present 24-hour live news broadcasts, using satellites to transmit reports from news bureaus around the world. crew under fire as it ventured without military cover into Tikrit. Geraldo Rivera made news himself when his credentials were revoked because he gave too much information on Fox News about his unit's location. As the year drew to a close, there were fewer on-scene reports and, in another contrast to Vietnam, no footage of soldiers' body bags coming home. Michael Jackson began and ended the year in the spotlight, but not because of his music. Having returned to the good graces of the entertainment establishment 10 years after being accused of child molestation Child molestation is a crime involving a range of indecent or sexual activities between an adult and a child, usually under the age of 14. In psychiatric terms, these acts are sometimes known as pedophilia. , Jackson admitted in a TV interview that he still slept in the same bed with young boys, though he insisted there was nothing sexual about it. The British production attracted a whopping 27 million viewers to ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. on Feb. 6, prompting NBC and Fox to whip up Jackson specials of their own. Jackson made news again last month as deputies searched his Neverland Ranch and he turned himself in under suspicion of sexually molesting a child, which he has denied. Little bits of information or innuendo innuendo n. from Latin innuere, "to nod toward." In law it means "an indirect hint." "Innuendo" is used in lawsuits for defamation (libel or slander), usually to show that the party suing was the person about whom the nasty statements were made or why the comments about the case continue to fill Court TV and tabloid telecasts and will spread in '04 as it hits the court system. Where have all the young men gone? Nielsen Media Research defended its audience measurements as networks and advertisers wondered why a large number of 18- to 34-year-old men disappeared from the TV universe. Nielsen last month reported that the demographic's prime-time viewing is off 7.7 percent from last year, and young men are spending 4 1/2 minutes less per day in watching the tube. Whether the blame rests on video games and DVDs or a shorter attention span among young men, companies selling everything from sodas and beers to movies and cars want them back, and they want them back now! The miniseries ``The Reagans,'' produced for CBS' November sweeps schedule, stirred supporters of the former president to speak out against the project before seeing it. The filmmakers defended the film's factual content, but CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. chairman Leslie Moonves opted out of airing it, complaining that even after several edits by the network, it was not balanced by CBS' standards. In the end it was much ado about little. In its Nov. 30 premiere on Showtime, about a half-million households tuned into ``The Reagans,'' making it the most-watched original film on the pay network in two years. But that audience was far smaller than CBS would have attracted on a bad night. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Michael Kelly, editor at large for The Atlantic Monthly, was the first American journalist to die while covering the Iraq war. Associated Press |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion