At least twice in one century media coverage of human rights abuses have stirred emotions and helped justify American decisions to go to war. In the late 1890's "yellow journalism" reporting on Spanish executions and forced relocation of civilian populations during the Cuban war for independence opened the door for the American war against Spain. One hundred years later media coverage of Serb atrocities in Bosnia and Kosovo opened the way for NATO's 1999 bombing in the former Yugoslavia, to be followed by the 2003 American "liberation" of Iraq from Saddam Hussein's human rights abuses. In 1898 human rights reporting justified a war which opened the door to American empire in Cuba and the Philippines. Today's human rights reporting sometimes helps justify war and peacekeeping operations by American forces or international coalitions. "How did we get here?" GATEWAY TO WAR?: THE ROOTS IN HISTORY In the war with Iraq American "on-team" media integrated many classic American themes -- from lofty idealistic human rights crusades, to ruthless Indian fighting to crafty "realpolitik." This essay traces contending ideologies which guide American global power -- and shape news coverage of it. Provides an historical context to the current emphasis on overseas human rights news reporting. Traces roots in the 19th century, especially "yellow journalism," summarizes the impact of World War II and the holocaust. It also explores the explosion of human rights reporting and awards boosted by the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the human rights policies of the Carter years. Download "e-book" in .pdf CREELMAN IN CUBA: "YELLOW" SEEDS OF WAR A case study of how "yellow journalists" exposed the brutalities of the pacification campaign conducted by Spanish authorities in the late 1890's. The emotional coverage opened the way for America's war with Spain after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor. Spanish abuses became a rallying cry justifying American empire in Cuba and the Philippines. Atrocities in Cuba foreshadowed a coming century of guerrilla war - and issues around how journalists would cover it. Britain's turn of the century war against the Boers in southern Africa, partisan wars in World War II, and America's war against Vietnamese communists all too often made academic the niceties of the Geneva Conventions. Download "e-book" in .pdf
Copyright ©1999 Frederic A. Moritz All Rights Reserved Citation Permitted Only With Credit
