The battle between the military and the press will escalate during the next few months during the war on terrorism and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, said Mark Popovich, a journalism professor at Ball State University.

"The public today does not have to depend on American media for their war information," Popovich said. "We can point our Web browsers to newspapers and cable news networks from all over the world to receive more information than we are getting from the U.S. media.

"I think that the government forgets that Americans aren't stupid," he said. "I just hope the American public understands that our reporters are often getting their only information from the military."

The American media has played a major role in shaping both political and public perceptions of military operations over the last 40 years. Daily television coverage of the carnage in Vietnam was instrumental in turning the American public against the war.

Popovich said American military learned to control the media during its operations in Granada, when reporters were kept away from the front lines.

The military expanded its control of media operations during the Gulf War in 1991, restricting travel in war zones and leaving reporters begging for fresh information from public information officers and generals far from where the fighting was taking place.

"The role of the media in this country during times of war is to gather and present the facts of the war," Popovich said. "The fact that the government is controlling all access and information is problematic in a free society like ours. That leaves the media to carping about how their rights to cover the war are being controlled by the government."

At the same time, the government has a right to restrict information that is sensitive to our national interests," he said. "So, the adversarial relationship between the media and the military will continue with the American media and the public becoming the losers in the information wars."

By Marc Ransford, Communications Manager

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Popovich at mpopovic@bsu.eduor (765) 285-8702.)