In his book Breaking
the News: How the media undermine American Democracy, James Fallows asks
the question “Why do Americans mistrust the news media”?
I believe the reason stems in part from their flawed
coverage of the Vietnam War. The group of Americans known as the silent
majority worked hard 8 to 12 hours a day, went home and watched to the news
reporters sensationalize the Vietnam War and the antiwar protestors on TV.
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| Courtesy National Archives |
Nixon’s landslide election victory, despite tons of Nixon
bashing in the US media, demonstrates that the media was out of touch with
mainstream America. Why then did the silent majority remain silent?
Most Americans[i]
disagreed with the opinions of the liberal media. But after working 40 to 60
hours a week they were too tired to spend the weekend marching or picketing in
support of the administration’s policy in Vietnam. Most of the protestors were
either cutting class or protesting between classes. Many were outside
(non-student) agitators who made their living inciting political activism.
So, guess who got the headlines?
To be fair, the statement, “Sixty million workers stayed at
home yesterday evening and discussed their support for the Nixon
Administration’s Vietnam War policy with friends and family members” does not
make interesting news copy.
But the real problem lies in the antiwar, anti-America bias
endorsed by the US media.
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| Courtesy Life Magazine |
For instance, ruthlessness and cruelty were reported, or not, depending upon who perpetrated
the atrocity. Take the example of the murder of about 350 civilians by a
company of Americans in the village of My Lai. The incident received years of
consistent, often daily, news coverage. Yet the systematic slaughter of 7600
civilians and government officials by the Viet Cong received little more than a
picture spread in Life Magazine following one of the funerals.
Lt. William Calley, the leader of the perpetrators was tried
and convicted for the killings. The media speculated
that the orders came from higher up and complained that his commanders did not
get indicted. The VC murdered thousands under orders, they had huge lists of anti
communists to be dragged from their homes, tortured and executed. Mass graves
filled with hundreds of people, buried alive with their hands and feet bound,
were uncovered and virtually ignored by the US media.
A search[ii]
of Time Life archives for Hue massacres shows one single article, 842 words
written on October 31st 1969[iii]
about the Hue massacres. The same search
also pulls up a 5204-word article about the My Lai massacre[iv],
even though My Lai was not part of the search criteria. Notice how that bias
lingers even 41 years after the signing of the Paris Accords.
Are you kidding me! 7600 dead only merits one single small
article in Time Magazine. At least Life Magazine did some pictures ... of flag
draped coffins.
Emmy award winning ABC news correspondent, Jack (Sandbag)
Smith, stated, “‘The networks have never given a complete picture of the war.’
With respect to Khe Sanh, Americans were never told about the bravery of South
Vietnamese fighting by America’s side, or that the ‘Viet Cong[v]
casualties were 100 times ours. We just showed pictures day after day of Americans
getting the hell kicked out of them. That was enough to tear America apart’”[vi]
[i] 74% according to a 1972 poll, see Nixon,
[iii] World: The
Massacre of Hue, Time October 31st 1969
[iv] The Nation: The
Clamor Over Calley: Who Shares the Guilt? Time, April 12, 1971
[v]
Actually it was the NVA that were slaughtered
while trying to take Khe Sanh, but the point is still the same.
[vi] Robbins, J. S. (2010), This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet offensive. New York: Encounter
Books, p. 250.
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