9/11 Package

Framing the War:

I understand the criticism of journalists in the years after 9/11, when it framed the war as "the war on terror." I see how that can look like it's a mouthpiece for the White House — which coined the term — but I ask: What were the journalists supposed to do regarding this framing? Were the major papers supposed to meet up and decide to call this invasion of Iraq something else? Were they supposed to not call it anything specific in general articles? I think once this term caught steam, there was nothing to do to stop it, and that's evidenced by Katie Couric calling it "the war on terror" in 2006.

By collectively calling something it "the war on terror," it's immediately staking sides to the war, the journalists and the rest of America on one side, and the terrorists and the rest of Iraq on the other. Journalists are supposed to remain objective, sure, but unless we wanted to call it World War 3 — which would surely sensationalize things — I can't see how we expect the collective media to do anything different in this situation.

Ignoring the lessons of 9/11:

Bob Jensen is a good professor an the go-to libel expert here at UT, and by now we all know his contrarian tastes. This article is complicated, and multi-layered, and though Jensen is pointed and direct, it'd be wrong to assume he feels no sympathy for the victims of 9/11, which he mistakenly calls "a crime."

Of course these articles exist. I'd imagine, if the U.S. did nothing after 9/11, there'd be articles lambasting the president for sitting pat and essentially kneeling to the taliban.

Buying the War:

What I think this all boils down to is journalists getting lazy and going off on others' work, instead of better reporting, and the mainstream media being afraid to go against the grain. This is tough stuff, and it's something you can't be wrong about. Why were so many so wrong? It seems they were desperate to get some content pushed out — to take advantage of the demand for new news. This reflects poor journalism, from the top down.