Which Way, L.A.?

Californians and Local Media on the War in Iraq

Not everybody relies on non-stop cable TV to get news of the war in Iraq. Even some viewers say that when they want perspective, they read the newspapers. Others, of course, don-t watch TV at all. Still, in the age of 24/7 TV coverage, newspapers must work hard just to keep up. Unlike the first Gulf War, the Pentagon has -embedded- reporters who see everything on the field of battle. But to do such correspondents turn into cheerleaders and purveyors of -one-source journalism-? We look at the roles of censorship and perspective with the foreign editor of the Los Angeles Times and freelance correspondent Reese Ehrlich, author of Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn-t Tell You. Making News: Bush Administration Drops Fight on Oil Drilling Last Friday, Governor Davis said, -the law is on our side- but the Bush administration has fought us every step of the way.- He was talking about an ongoing dispute over oil drilling off the California coast. Today, Interior Secretary Gale Norton gave him what he wanted when she announced that she won-t take the case to the US Supreme Court. The Wall Street Journal-s Jim Carlton has more on the decision. Reporter's Notebook: Interpreting Public Opinion during Wartime The second front of any war is the battle for public opinion at home. In the first few days of the war in Iraq, there have been more public opinion polls than during all of World War II. What do such surveys really show? Mark Baldassare, director of research for the Public Policy Institute of California, considers the difficulty of accurately gauging public perception during wartime.