Imagine if World War II were covered like Iraq is being covered.
Most people today seem to think that after D-Day the Americans just stormed
into Germany and the war was over. Far from it. Instead, for the first
couple of months the Americans and British got stuck in "Hedgerow" country in
northern France. A stalemate was largely the result as it took considerable time
for the Americans to break out.
But imagine if CNN were covering that. You'd have interviews with nominal
Axis allies. No doubt the Vichy French would have weighed in on the
"unilateralism of the Americans, British, and Canadians". Words like Quagmire,
Stalemate, mounting losses would have no doubt been sprinkled in for good
measure.
By December 1944, 6 months later, the Western allies were making good
progress. Of course, that's when the battle of the bulge occurred. I don't even
want to contemplate how CNN and its ilk would have covered that.