{"id":1586,"date":"2026-03-06T16:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/1586\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T16:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:54:10","slug":"criticism-of-media-coverage-of-us-casualties-has-long-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/1586\/","title":{"rendered":"Criticism of media coverage of US casualties has long history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remarks by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> that the American press emphasizes U.S. casualties in the Iran war<\/a> because it \u201cwants to make the president look bad\u201d are a reminder of something that has endured across many decades and conflicts: the tension and trepidation about news that reminds Americans of the human cost of war.<\/p>\n

During his Pentagon briefing<\/a> on the war on Wednesday, Hegseth bashed \u201cfake news\u201d while addressing the six U.S. Army reservists killed in an Iranian attack<\/a> on an operations center in Kuwait.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it\u2019s front-page news,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cI get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality. The terms of this war will be set by us at every step.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt<\/a>, when questioned about the remark by CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins at her own news conference later, doubled down. \u201cYou take every single thing this administration says and try to use it to make the president look bad,\u201d Leavitt said. \u201cThat\u2019s an objective fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Memories of night after night of graphic images beamed into homes through a then-recent invention \u2014 television \u2014 were hard to shake for those who lived through the Vietnam War in the 1960s. Many believed the cumulative impact of seeing that suffering night after night turned Americans from supporters to skeptics.<\/p>\n

Such vivid, intimate scenes of military action by Americans haven\u2019t been seen to that extent since, a legacy still in place with the war that President Donald Trump<\/a> and Hegseth are waging right now on behalf of the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many presidents, the lesson seemed to be: Don\u2019t allow the realities of war into people\u2019s living rooms if you can help it,\u201d said Timothy Naftali, senior research scholar at Columbia University\u2019s School of International and Public Affairs.<\/p>\n

Coverage of war \u2014 and access to it \u2014 have changed<\/p>\n

Today, the images the public sees of warfare can resemble a video game \u2014 explosions seen lighting up the sky from afar \u2014 with the pain much more private.<\/p>\n

Generations ago during World War II, journalists were embedded with the military, and many became household names \u2014 reporters Ernie Pyle and Walter Cronkite, photographers Robert Capa and Margaret Bourke-White. Those were the days before television, however.<\/p>\n

Vietnam was arguably the most accessible American war for reporters. Journalists stationed in the country sent back a steady stream of death and destruction.<\/p>\n

Cronkite, by then a CBS-TV anchorman of the most popular evening news program in the U.S., reported from Vietnam in 1968 and concluded the only rational way out was a negotiated peace. \u201cIf I\u2019ve lost Cronkite,\u201d President Lyndon Johnson said, \u201cI\u2019ve lost Middle America.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the Gulf War in 1991, President George H.W. Bush was angered by split-screen television images that showed the coffins of U.S. service members being returned to the United States while he, apparently unaware of the timing, was joking with reporters about another subject at the White House. The Pentagon banned coverage of these ceremonies, saying it was to protect the privacy of family members of the dead, although critics said it was to avoid showing pictures of coffins.<\/p>\n

That ban, with a few exceptions, stayed in place until it was lifted<\/a> by President Barack Obama in 2009.<\/p>\n

Reporters who approached the battlefield in wars fought by the U.S. military in the 2000s were likely to have their movements restricted, if they were allowed at all. Jessica Donati, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and Reuters who covered the war in Afghanistan, wrote for the Modern War Institute in 2021 that \u201cit\u2019s easier these days for journalists in Afghanistan to embed with the Taliban than with the U.S. military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporting on casualties predates Trump\u2019s presidency<\/p>\n

The nature of this war \u2014 fought thousands of miles from the American homeland and not yet on the ground in Iran \u2014 has limited the number of American casualties and thus made them more newsworthy. Several journalists have pointed out that reporting about military casualties predates Trump\u2019s presidency. Hegseth\u2019s statement \u201cis a warped way of looking at the world,\u201d said CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper. \u201cAhistorical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe news media covers fallen service members because they have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tribute. It\u2019s an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

There has been relatively little coverage from the ground in Iran. A CNN team led by Frederik Pleitgen on Thursday became the first journalists from a U.S.-based television network to enter the country, and he spent the day racing across the country to Tehran.<\/p>\n

Dan Lamothe, military affairs reporter for The Washington Post, posted on social media that Hegseth\u2019s comments won\u2019t stop him from continuing to cover the casualties of war \u2014 as has been done under presidents of both major political parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese efforts haven\u2019t always been perfect,\u201d Lamothe wrote. \u201cBut they\u2019ve highlighted sacrifices by American servicemembers and their families, and shortcomings that sometimes allowed these deaths to happen. We\u2019ll continue to do so. It\u2019s too important to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Robert H. Reid was a top editor at Stars and Stripes between 2014 and 2025, he found that the newspaper\u2019s audience, primarily service members, wanted more than raw numbers when Americans were killed in military action. They wanted to know details about the lives of the people who served \u2014 where they grew up, who they left behind, what their passions were, he said.<\/p>\n

In 10 or 20 years, many of these people will be forgotten by all but those who loved them. But for what they gave for their country, they deserve recognition for their lives, said Reid, an Associated Press international correspondent for most of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public needs to know that war is not a video game,\u201d Naftali said. \u201cIt affects people.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to show Obama lifted the Pentagon ban in 2009, not 2019.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

David Bauder writes about the media for the AP. Follow him at http:\/\/x.com\/dbauder<\/a> and https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/dbauder.bsky.social<\/a>.<\/p>\n