Now that the elections are over in the US and Iraq, American television networks are itching for ways to bring the Iraq War into the country's living room. Fox did a television pilot, a reality show that was too close to the real thing for many. Twenty four young men and women joined the Army's Third Battalion, endured 10 weeks basic training, and patrolled Tikrit with regular army soliders. The winner would be someone who didn't get killed or wounded, who has killed or wounded an insurgent, and who got high marks for military savvy. At the end of the two-weeks "shooting" for the show, two participants had been killed and five had been wounded, two seriously. This outcome did not deter Fox which thought it had a winner. Reported pressure from the White House prompted Fox to close the show. Fox denies any pressure, adding that the "reality of this war is just too harsh for prime time" (The network is being sued by the families of the dead and wounded for reckless endangerment and a willful disregard for the safety of the participants). The network refused to comment on the suit, noting that that had signed waivers from all participants.
The actual winner who had bagged five insurgent is furious, according to reports, and is also suing the network. The families of the dead insurgents want reparations.
How the media treats war while the country is at war has received a lot of attention in acedemic circles. Jason Hogue (prounounced Hogg), Professor of MilitaryCulture at Sussex University, UK, suggests the Bush administration has done more to hide the imagery of war than any government in the last 100 years. "All leaders try to suppress war imagery," Hogue notes. "Churchill did it, Hitler did it, Johnson tried in Vietnam. Some of this is legitimate of course with perhaps World War II the best example. I can think of little widespread, overt criticsm of that war while it was being fought. But Bush won't even let America see the dead come home. Thus we have all bombast and no grieving."
"Remember that Norman Mailer's NAKED and the DEAD was not published until 1948 and it reality showed the idiocy of war and the element of luck. Much later
CATCH-22 was published, and even that fiction covered the presumed end of the war. It's just hard to joke about war. The TV sitcom HOGAN'S HEROES was aired some twenty years after the end of WWII and still received some critcism. The German Colonel Klink was about as far from a ruthless Nazi as you could imagine and was the butt of most jokes."
"MASH, the tv show fictionalzed the war in Korea, which was far enough away and less a part of the popular imagaination. MASH was a very good show that captured, in a sense, what many soldiers felt about the Vietnam War."
"Fiction, whether in books or on television, takes a little longer to see the light. The problem now is that the reality show has taken over the networks in America, Europe and now Asia and the need for programming is immense. Fox, which was basically a parrot of the Bush Administration, had long discussed the Irag War as if it were antiseptic. This suited their bias and election coverage. Now, due to failing ratings, the network needs to make a buck off terrorism and the war. They have already launched 24, which is a very harsh look at Muslims and terrorists--pretty much the same things is what the programs wants us to believe. Fox and the other networks are eager to bring the war home as a reality show but absolutely adverse to showing the grim and muderous side of this American venture on the regular news shows."
"Fox's legal woes has not stopped it or the other networks from looking for other angles. ABC is considering a show based on special-ops troops that every week will put themselves in harm's way to hunt down and kill terrorists who all look like Osma bin laden. Basically, bin laden will be killed every week.
"CBS has a script for an actual scavenger hunt that will take place in the most unstable regions of Iraq. The idea is to find discarded military hardware that can then be sold on the black market. The proceeds will be used to buy the freedom of captured Americans In one unedited episode participants just hung around outside the various Halliburton distribution points and picked up articles that fell off trucks."
"NBC in its effort to attract women will offer something like Desperate Housewives Meet GI JOE. The idea is for a group of beautiful women to travel to relatively safe places in Iraq--perhaps Basra in the south--with the objective of coaxing military men away from their posts on the promise of sex and a good time. The woman who first collects a company--about 20 men, wins. The men will be featured on nude calendars and the women will pose for PLAYBOY. The women will wear veils."
"Comedy Central has decided to save on production costs and simply read from and enact scenes from CATCH-22. The first character portrayed will be Milo Minderbinder, a serviceman who makes millions of dollars selling equipment to the military, while his friends are being killed due to lack of armor and the like. Another will be Major Major Major, who was promoted through the ranks only because of his name. He doesn't answer any questions about military operations and only schedules meetings when he is out. Another character will be the military command in the US that keeps changing the rules of engagement. Just when an flyer has completed his mission and scheduled to come home, the military sends him back into action."
"The protagonist in CATCH-22 is Yossarian who, fed up with the military Catch-22, decides to row back to New York on a raft. Comedy Central has declined offers from commercial sponsors to underwrite this Great Escape."
"Fox has called Yoasarian a coward, stating he should be ashamed of himself. The network has threatened to retell CATCH-22 at its own expense from a patriotic Republican point of view. When asked about the young man Snowden bleeding to death in an American bomber, a spokeman said: "War is hell."
"And Snowden was cold and dying at 30,000 feet."