Film Structure

The film will be structured into four major sections: "Countdown to War," "The Editorial Process," "Echoing White House Claims," and finally "The Pitfalls of Television Journalism."

COUNTDOWN TO WAR
The first section will vividly show how the television news media treated war as inevitable event by early November. CBS had already labeled their Iraq segments "Showdown with Saddam," NBC named them "Countdown: Iraq" and ABC chose the more cautionary ""Road to War?"
The UN weapons inspection process was only viewed as a potential tripwire for war, and reporters became impatient as to when the war was finally going to begin.
Reports were increasingly filled with dramatic rhetoric, images of tanks slashing through the desert dunes, troops practicing urban warfare, updates on the latest and greatest military technology, and even how trained dolphins and sea lions were used to protect Naval ships.

EDITORIAL PROCESS
The potential war with Iraq was the biggest story for all three networks for the five months leading up to the war. The question then becomes, "What did the broadcasts cover?" and "What did they fail to cover?" The next section analyzes the character of the coverage and describes the editorial behavior of the newscasts.
The media did cover some skeptical viewpoints and anti-war demonstrations, but the amount of coverage was not nearly proportional to percentage of polled Americans who preferred a diplomatic solution.
By analyzing how the coverage was dominated by beat reporting from the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and the inspections in Iraq, then it can be demonstrated how the media is driven more by an institutional and economic bias rather than either a conservative or liberal media bias.

ECHOING WHITE HOUSE CLAIMS
The next section will analyze how the persuasion tactics listed above often went unchallenged and were eventually incorporated into the media's coverage. This will be the largest and most important section to illustrate how the media served as an echo chamber.
The specific PR tactics and propaganda goals will be juxtaposed with how the media uncritically repeated many of the desired messages.

PITFALLS OF TELEVISION JOURNALISM
The final section will discuss the pitfalls of television journalism. The television news is a reactionary force that often blindly reports the day-to-day actions of the official governmental newsmakers.
The media disproportionately limited cautionary expert viewpoints, and as a result eliminated nearly all of the long-term and skeptical perspectives.
A survey of pre-war coverage shows an overwhelming amount of soft journalism puff pieces, and an incredible lack of real investigative reporting. This allowed the Bush Administration to stay on message and free to influence public opinion with very little opposition.