Wars, Govts, Facts

Trump’s rage-posting on US media coverage of war shows why, in democracies, factual conflict reporting is so crucial  

While many Americans were watching the Oscars, their president was rage-posting “FIRED”. Not at his FCC chair, Brendan Carr, but those Carr is targeting. He’s threatening to revoke certain broadcasters’ licences, accusing them of “news distortion”. Trump’s post on Truth Social says he is “thrilled” at this mission. Because he’s cheesed off that despite winning a presidential election “IN A LANDSLIDE”, various newspapers and TV news channels continue to report on his actions, independently, and critically. He wants them to be charged with “TREASON”. In US, this is a crime punishable by death. It is also very, very narrowly defined, as “levying war” against US, or aiding its enemies. Basically, Trump is doing classic dictators’ math, which is to equate fidelity to him as loyalty to the nation.

Except, obviously, democracies are different. US’s First Amendment is about ensuring that power stays accountable to the people, rather than the other way around. This is no less so in times of war. War involves life-and-death decisions made by govts on behalf of citizens. Denying them info about these decisions, robs their consent of meaning. In Israel, there is high public support for the Iran war. But there is also heavy censorship of filming, photographing, or otherwise reporting Iranian missile impacts. Yes, today’s wars are taking place in the age of social media and AI. Yes, these are information wars, as much as anything else. And what Trump’s post does is to basically admit that, right now, Iran is doing pretty well in the information war. That’s quite something to concede, and quite a comment on all of America’s human and tech resources.

Indian news TV channels, for their part, are processing Iran war reportage through a spectacle max machine. Facts and speculation are churned through a Dhurandhar-style amplifier. But these are only one element in our diverse, pluralistic mediascape. Overall health of the marketplace of ideas, is what matters. Serious journos can get things wrong in the fog of war (these will get corrected by other journos). But so can commanders-in-chief. Remember Trump saying, “In ​the first hour it was over.” Whether it is possibly an American strike hitting an Iranian girls’ school, or US air force refuelling planes getting hit, American press is doing its job, in digging beyond their govt’s denials. It’s a critical job. Look back at the Iraq war press coverage. It wasn’t the coverage that defied govt narratives, but that deferred to these, which later proved to have failed the public. A free press matters more than ever at precisely those moments, when power is most tempted to not admit reality.

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