The Gulf War (1990-1991) was a conflict between Iraq and 30 nations led by the United States in order to liberate Kuwait. For the first time people all over the world were able to watch live pictures of the war in real time, as it was happening. In the United States, the "big three" network anchors led the news coverage of the war: ABC's Peter Jennings, CBS's Dan Rather, and NBC's Tom Brokaw were anchoring their evening newscasts when air strikes began on January 16, 1991.
Despite this war being highly televised, the press was very restricted in its access of information. U.S. policy regarding media freedom was much more restrictive during the Gulf War than it has been during the previous war the U.S. had been involved in, The Vietnam War. In 1990, the United States Department of Defense (DOD) implemented press pools so they could control and monitor the press during the Gulf War. The competition into the press pools was intense and if a publication wasn't a member of the pool, they were unable to gain access to the warzones and could not fully cover the war.
The policy had been spelled out in a Pentagon document entitled Annex Foxtrot. Most of the press information came from briefings organized by the military. Only selected journalists were allowed to visit the front lines or conduct interviews with soldiers. Those visits were always conducted in the presence of officers, and were subject to both prior approval by the military and censorship afterward. This was ostensibly to protect sensitive information from being revealed to Iraq. This policy was heavily influenced by the military's experience with the Vietnam War, in which public opposition within the United States grew throughout the course of the war. Furthermore, the DOD determined where pool member were able to travel and what stories they would be able to report on and journalists had to remain with escorts at all times. Although most reporters accepted the fact that a pool was necessary, many were frustrated by the military's slowness in transporting pool members to troubled areas. Once there, a military escort accompanied journalists.
This media pool system used in 1991 was criticized for restricting journalists and their stories too severely. Hundreds of journalists from news organizations throughout the world covered the front from Saudi Arabia, but only about 100 were chosen to make up the official military press pool, with less than 20 allowed to accompany military officials at any one time.
The DOD ground rules signed by all journalists prohibited reporting that would in any way endanger the troops. A journalist needed military approval before attempting any story. Once the piece was completed, the story and pictures were subject to U.S. and allied military censorship. Although there was no stated prohibition against showing wounded or killed soldiers, photographers were carefully monitored on the battlefield in an effort to prevent images of bodies or the wounded from reaching the public. The concern was that seeing such pictures might dissuade Americans from supporting the war.
With all of this being said, while doing some research related to media coverage during the Gulf War, I came across this interesting article from the Media Monitor, that partially compares the media coverage during Desert Storm (The Gulf War) to that of Iraqi Freedom (the current Iraq War). This article came as a surprise to me in some ways but not in other. What did surprise me was that Operation Iraqi Freedom received less press than Operation Desert Storm. One would think that the strict press pool that was employed during the Gulf War would have held back and/or hindered the amount of press that the war was given and that the freedom of the press during Iraqi Freedom would have brought that much more opportunity for coverage. Perhaps though, for reasons unknown to me, there was not as much interest in coverage for Iraqi Freedom, though I do not suspect that that was the case.
Two things though, did not surprise me in the least after learning about the press pools and their restrictions and reading this article. The first was related to the embedding program with the media that was so prominent and popular during Iraqi Freedom. This allowed much more media coverage of on-the-ground combat operations but also for many more visuals showing both military and civilian casualties. These images were not allowed to be shown, for the most part, during the Gulf War because of the restrictions placed on the media by the military. The second thing that was not surprising to me was the fact that the networks were less supportive of the military during Iraqi Freedom than the Gulf War. Of course it would make perfect sense that the press during Desert Storm would support the military in any way they could and with any decision made because they wanted to get into not only the press pool, but also be able to actually get the stories approved by the military and published. This is why there was little to any non-supportive media of the military during the Gulf war. As I said above, there has been much more freedom of press during Iraqi Freedom and such, much more opportunity for negative or non-supportive military press.
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