Trust and Confidence in Wartime between Commanders and the Media: Are They Related to Field Press Censorship.

摘要

Drew Middleton, senior military correspondent for the New York Times, has written that relationships between commanders and the media in World War II were marked by mutual trust and confidence, because of the imposition of censorship. The central hypothesis (H1) was that military officers would be more trusting of the media in a censorship environment, with null hypothesis (H0) that censorship would have no affect on attitudes. Two sample groups of Army generals and colonels were tested by attitude response survey (75%) return, with half asked to respond as if they were in a censorship imposed war theater. Data was objectively and subjectively analyzed. H1 was supported and H0 was rejected. Open-eneded comments revealed an overall distrust of the media with bitterness over median performance in Vietnam. Many showed a respect for First Amendment ideals, but favored imposing censorship in wartime. Most respondents indicated that total honesty with the press is always best, but some acknowledged that the military occasionally tries to deceive the media for its own purposes. (Author)