War.com

[grafficane]

I was reading an online article called "The Inside Edge" by Carlos Watson and he was discussing how, if Vietnam was our first television war, then the current Iraq war (stuff the "Mission Accomplished" bullshit, the war is still going on; it was never over) is our first Internet war. Our traditional press may have initially been, more or less, co-opted by the Bush administration, but they are starting to wake up. People online, however, have had no trouble circumventing the Bush net. We all now have access to professional reporting and layman reporting (such as the Baghdad blog by a fellow whose name I don't recall), ranging from news outlets all over the world. No longer do we just read the American press for our war news. We can now access Sky News in England or, from the same place, UK Independent. We can even see what the other side thinks by accessing Al Jaszeera's site. The war is still televised, but thanks to cable and satellite TV, we can get more information than what was previous spoon-fed to us. Of course, the warhawks have their own news feeders like Fox News and NewsMax, just to name a couple. I wonder how close this election would be if it weren't for the Internet. Would we even have known about the current faux pas news, the Iraqi prison abuse? Would we have known about the execution of Nick Berg without the terrorists putting the video up on that website?
Sometimes, though, it does feel like there's far too much to absorb and you have to pick and choose. Perhaps this is what is leading to the incredible divisiveness in our country--having to choose where we hear about what is happening out there in the world. Perhaps people are taking their news only from places where they feel most comfortable. And in doing so, only hear one viewpoint.