Enemy Image

Last updated
Enemy Image
Directed byMark Daniels
Written byMark Daniels
Produced by
  • Benedicte Massiet
  • Christine Le Goff
Narrated by Jessy Joe Walsh
Cinematography
  • John Hazard
  • Ned Burgess
Edited by
  • Catherine Peix
  • Pascal Vernier
Production
companies
Release date
Running time
93 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageEnglish

Enemy Image is a 2005 documentary film by Mark Daniels about the portrayal of warfare in television news. [1] [2] [3] Narrated by Jessy Joe Walsh, the film includes archive footage of Peter Jennings, Morley Safer, Jon Alpert, Dan Rather, and Bernard Birnbaum in their news reporting on the various conflicts.

Contents

Synopsis

The film makes note of how the invasion of Iraq lasted 800 hours but produced over 20,000 hours of video, and focuses initially on the Vietnam War as the first war ever televised "live". During this war the American government allowed reporters onto the battlefield with little supervision or control. The documentary follows the way The Pentagon learned from this experience to control access by journalists to battle areas in subsequent wars, through the Invasion of Grenada (where journalists were excluded completely) to the first Gulf War, where news packages were provided by the military, to the embedded journalism of the Iraq War. The theme of the film is the progressive tightening of control by the US military on the contact journalists have with soldiers and civilians in the war zone, in order that (as the film says at the end) "never again will television raise the moral and political questions that face a people at war."

Screenings

The film premiered October 14, 2005 at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival, [4] and aired on Canadian television later in 2005. [5]

Reception

See also

Related Research Articles

Information warfare (IW) is a concept involving the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. Information warfare is the manipulation of information trusted by a target without the target's awareness so that the target will make decisions against their interest but in the interest of the one conducting information warfare. As a result, it is not clear when information warfare begins, ends, and how strong or destructive it is. Information warfare may involve the collection of tactical information, assurance(s) that one's information is valid, spreading of propaganda or disinformation to demoralize or manipulate the enemy and the public, undermining the quality of the opposing force's information and denial of information-collection opportunities to opposing forces. Information warfare is closely linked to psychological warfare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychological warfare</span> Information operations to assist military objectives

Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Minds", and propaganda. The term is used "to denote any action which is practiced mainly by psychological methods with the aim of evoking a planned psychological reaction in other people".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gulf War</span> 1990–1991 war between Iraq and American-led coalition forces

The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 39-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led Liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Baghdad (2003)</span> 2003 military invasion of Baghdad, Iraq by US-led Coalition forces

The Battle of Baghdad, also known as the Fall of Baghdad, was a military engagement that took place in Baghdad in early April 2003, as part of the invasion of Iraq.

On April 8, 2003, three locations in Baghdad housing journalists were fired upon by U.S. armed forces during 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing three journalists and wounding four.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media coverage of the Iraq War</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alhurra</span> US TV station broadcasting to the Arab world

Alhurra is a U.S. government-owned Arabic-language satellite TV channel that broadcasts news and current affairs programming to audiences in the Middle East and North Africa. Alhurra is funded by the U.S. government and is barred from broadcasting within the United States itself under the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act.

<i>Control Room</i> (film) 2004 American film by Jehane Noujaim

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rageh Omaar</span> Somali-born British journalist and writer

Rageh Omaar is a Somali-born British journalist and writer. He was a BBC world affairs correspondent, where he made his name reporting from Iraq. In September 2006, he moved to a new post at Al Jazeera English, where he presented the nightly weekday documentary series Witness until January 2010. The Rageh Omaar Report, first aired February 2010, is a one-hour, monthly investigative documentary in which he reports on international current affairs stories. From January 2013, he became a special correspondent and presenter for ITV News, reporting on a broad range of news stories, as well as producing special in-depth reports from all around the UK and further afield. A year after his appointment, Omaar was promoted to International Affairs Editor for ITV News. Since October 2015, alongside his duties as International Affairs Editor, he has been a Deputy Newscaster of ITV News at Ten. Since September 2017 Omaar has occasionally presented the ITV Lunchtime News including the ITV News London Lunchtime Bulletin and the ITV Evening News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curveball (informant)</span> Iraqi defector

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, known by the Defense Intelligence Agency cryptonym "Curveball", is a German citizen who defected from Iraq in 1999, claiming that he had worked as a chemical engineer at a plant that manufactured mobile biological weapon laboratories as part of an Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program. Alwan's allegations were subsequently shown to be false by the Iraq Survey Group's final report published in 2004.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embedded journalism</span> Practice of attaching journalists to military units

Embedded journalism refers to news reporters being attached to military units involved in armed conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and military personnel, it first came to be used in the media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The United States military responded to pressure from the country's news media who were disappointed by the level of access granted during the 1991 Gulf War and the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

Josh Rushing is an American broadcast journalist and photographer. He is a correspondent for the Emmy-winning documentary series, Fault Lines, on Al Jazeera English. He is also a former officer of the United States Marine Corps (USMC).

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DoD News Channel was a television channel broadcasting military news and information for the 2.6 million members of the U.S. Armed Forces. It was widely available in the United States as a standalone television channel, or as part of programming on local PEG cable television channels. It could be viewed FTA in most Central and Western European countries, Africa, the Americas and most of Asia via satellite, and globally via the Internet. DoD News Channel was free, in the public domain, and accessible 24/7 to all U.S. cable and satellite providers.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychological operations (United States)</span> Military unit

Psychological operations (PSYOP) are operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.

<i>War Feels Like War</i> 2004 television film

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentagon military analyst program</span>

The Pentagon military analyst program was a propaganda campaign of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that was launched in early 2002 by then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke. The goal of the operation is "to spread the administration's talking points on Iraq by briefing retired commanders for network and cable television appearances," where they have been presented as independent analysts; a Pentagon spokesman said the Pentagon's intent is to keep the American people informed about the so-called War on Terrorism by providing prominent military analysts with factual information and frequent, direct access to key military officials. The Times article suggests that the analysts had undisclosed financial conflicts of interest and were given special access as a reward for promoting the administration's point of view. On 28 April 2008, the Pentagon ended the operation. A DoD Inspector General investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of the DoD.

The Persian Gulf War, codenamed Operation Desert Storm and commonly referred to as the Gulf War, was a war waged by a United Nations-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait. Media coverage of the Gulf War was significant for many reasons including CNN's live reporting from a Baghdad hotel, alternative and international coverage, and the use of images.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abby Martin</span> American citizen journalist

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References

  1. Mascarenhas, Alan (August 16, 2005). "The Cutting Edge: Enemy Image". Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  2. Carlyon, Patrick (August 16, 2005). "Full metal straitjacket". Vol. 123, no. 6483. Newsweek. p. 79. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  3. staff (August 10, 2005). "TV programs worth watching: Enemy Image (SBS 8.30pm Tuesday) is this week's Cutting Edge documentary". The Guardian . Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  4. Hernandez, Eugene (October 21, 2005). "Exploring Factual Film and TV at Sheffield's International Doc Fest". Indiewire . Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  5. "Enemy Image" airing schedule at the CBC website