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Creative Commons Downtown Baghdad under U.S.military bombardment starting March 19, 2003. |
The movie Shock and Awe, directed by Rob Reiner, is based on real characters and real events during the run-up to the U.S. government's illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003.
For more than a year, the administration of President George W. Bush relentlessly made its case for launching a war of aggression against one of the oldest nations on the planet. The government could not have won over the public's approval without the American press as its mouthpiece, megaphone and cheerleader.
— Describe press behavior depicted in the movie, comparing and contrasting the performance of the main characters in the Knight Ridder newsroom and members of the press at other news organizations.
— Describe the conflict that naturally arises between the press and government in such a pre-war period.
— Describe the conflict between the Knight Ridder journalists and others journalists, and just about everyone else, in covering the government's justifications for the Iraq War.
— If the Kight Ridder journalists are the heroes in this script, why should that be so in the eyes of journalists today? in the eyes of the general public at large?
— Can you think of any parallels between the period/events in the movie and today? What tensions might there be between the press and the government today that echo the period in the movie? How should journalists in the current moment behave when bounced off the events depicted in the movie? Isn't hindsight 20/20?
Two funny-but-not-funny video clips:
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