Message Control

Before the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in March 2003, Iraqis' piimary news source was state-run broadcasting. The government had

After Saddam's ouster in March 2003, the U.S. military lifted the ban. Dishes began sprouting from rooftops, and televisions hummed with Western and Arabic newscasts. Naturally, the biggest story was the United States' invasion and its future plans-real and rumored.

Freedom or information may be a democratic cornerstone, but the U.S. government has long believed that skeptical Middle Eastern media outlets obstruct its policy goals. So the military planned to circumvent them. It commandeered the state broadcasting system, renamed it the Iraqi Media Network, and dispatched Iraqi journalists to report, under American management, on the occupation. But the state apparatus functioned on land-based antennae. Satellite broadcasting, after all, had been prohibited. As a result, the U.S. occupiers' mission was reported largely by outsiders, while American officials tried to reach Iraqis over rabbit ears.