Poder político y censura: la relación del establishment estadounidense con la información en los conflictos militares ultramarinos del siglo XX

Abstract

The relationship between the political and military powers and the mass media in the United States has changed as quickly as during the 20th Century evolved the techniques and the press coverage of events. The military censorship began during the Secession War in the United States (1861-1865). Later on the control circle was well wide open since the Spanish-American War in Cuba and Puerto Rico (1895-1898) until it was steadely locked in the Gulf War (1991) and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks against the Trade World Center and the Pentagon (9/11/2001). What started as an open subject in the Spanish-American War, —the non-existent censorship— changed sinuousely through the relations of the U.S.A. political and military powers with its own mass media. From that point, It went from the rise of propaganda in the first World War to the whole symbiosis registered in the Second World. War. Further on the evolution followed whith the first recorded divisions at the end of that same World War and during the military conflict in Corea aswell, originating a permanent quarrel between the media and the military and political establishments due to the Vietnam War coverage, and ending in the new closure of the circle with the nearly total control imposed by the Pentagon on the media from the very begining of the 1991 Gulf War against Irak.