American Politics Journal

The View from Europe
Stretching the Story
By Nicola Mitchell

October 5, 2001 -- LONDON (APJP) -- As the news of the terrible attacks on New York and Washington broke, people in London turned to the media for answers. With our eyes glued to the television set or the computer screen, we searched for any little development which would explain the events that were unfolding before us.

The 24-hour news cycle we now live in has seen many television outlets offering constant coverage of the attacks on America, losing phenomenal amounts of money in lost advertising revenue.

But now that the dust is settling and the world's leaders line up to fight a war on terrorism, the media is fast running out of answers, and it appears that their owners are now gearing up to wage a war of their –- the battle not only for new information, but to bring it to the public first.

As time has worn on, the whole news industry has desperately searched for new angles to the story. It is of course a story that 'has legs', yet the industry is now finding it harder to run with it.

Here in Britain we've gone from the human interest angle of the final phone calls of the doomed to an analysis of Osama bin Laden's handwriting which appeared on the front page of the Times of London, Rupert Murdoch's conservative and supposedly high-brow broadsheet.

It's a familiar problem: government officials understandably want to stay tight lipped about military operations, but the public want to know what is going on, and it is here that the battle begins.

The media is therefore forced to focus on any piece of information, no matter how small. In the early days of the tragedy this led to the reporting of incorrect information, such is the burden of the 24-hour news cycle, but now the balance has shifted -- there's a major news story unfolding right in front of us, but no-one can report anything.

Over here, many in the media are concerned that the Bush administration will employ the same policy towards the media that was used during the Gulf War -– give the media as little information as possible, a theory bolstered by the fact that the current Bush team contains many of the very same advisers employed by his father during that war.

This lack of information forces journalists to search for truth in other places. However, sometimes, as has been demonstrated here in Britain over the past few days, this search to find the truth can end up costing the ultimate price.

The disappearance of British journalist Yvonne Ridley in Afghanistan, accused of spying by the Taliban, and the death of journalist Martin O'Hagan, who was shot on his doorstep as a result of the continuing troubles facing Northern Ireland, has shown the dangers facing those who go in search of answers.

For now the British media is trying to amuse itself in other ways.

So far the tabloids have managed to create another Royal "scandal" for themselves, accompanied by the startling revelation on the front page of one of the national tabloids that the Queen has a crown wearing rubber duck in her bath.

Plus, the British political party conference season is in full swing. In fact, reports over here suggest Blair's speech at the Labour Party conference has been making waves in America, prompting Ari Fleischer to welcome the prime minister's speech and what he called "his firm commitment to combating terrorism."

So while we wait to see what the outcome of the US military strikes will be I can't help but wonder if the first casualty of the war against terrorism, that of the media, has already fallen.