Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 128
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Popular Culture Review
Reporters labelled the Korean conflict as censorship with no
war, and then called Viet Nam the war with no censorship. Film
was the primary medium of coverage in these battles, which was
known to the public as "the living room war." The carnage was
brought into America's homes on the evening television newscasts,
which became the public's primary source of information in the mid
1960s. Although these full color depictions of war and its
accompanying gore were quite graphic, they were delayed by at least
24 hours for technical and transportation reasons.
It was not until the recent Persian Gulf hostilities that the
horrors of war were brought in real time to over 100 countries and
millions of viewers, and this war has brought more unprecedented
events into American homes. The first two reports of intense aerial
activity came from ABC radio's Jon Bascom in Saudi Arabia and
ABC-TV's Gary Shepard in Baghdad. The reporters were, in effect,
declaring the war had begun. The Christian 66