Page 399 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| Pres dent al Stagecraft and M l ta nment

PrEsiDEnT Bush anD ThE ToP gun FLighT
One of the best illustrations of presidential stagecraft during the war in Iraq
came after “major combat operations” were over. This dramatic visual event
was staged in real time and performed by President George W. Bush. The
president garnered much media attention when, dressed in a military flight
suit in the cockpit of a fighter jet, he flew the plane and made a successful
landing onto the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Lincoln. He was welcomed by the
military personnel who had just returned from Iraq. In front of a banner that
hung from the ship’s upper deck proclaiming “Mission Accomplished,” Presi-
dent Bush told the country that the successful invasion of Iraq was over. The
White House said the flight on the jet fighter was necessary because the car-
rier was too far out to sea to be reached by helicopter. In fact, a few columnists
and alternative news sources reported that the ship was so close that it had to
be turned around to prevent television cameras from catching the San Diego
coastline in the background. More importantly, as history would show, the in-
vasion of Iraq was just the beginning of a long, drawn-out conflict that would
cost many more Iraqi and American lives. In hindsight, this incident has come
to symbolically underscore a lack of military planning for a clear exit strategy
from the country.
The stage-managed event was reported as news, and some television per-
sonalities, most notably Robert Novak, pointed out how well the flight suit fit
the president. However, independent video editors revealed that the dramatic
landing was virtually identical to visual sequences in the popular Tom Cruise
film of 1986, Top Gun (see “Hollywood Victory,” distributed by Paper Tiger
Television, New York). Mainstream commercial broadcasters made few critical
comments that might have exposed the flight’s choreography, and question its
message and purpose, most likely because such production values and fictional
referencing have become standard features in commercial media’s program-
ming design.

mErging nEws anD EnTErTainmEnT

After the September 11, 2001, attacks on America, the Pentagon met with
media industry producers and directors and requested that Hollywood join
the fight against terrorism. The military and the media collaborated on such
films and television programs as Behind Enemy Lines and ABC’s Profiles from
the Front Line. This direct request from the White House formalized what was
already an ongoing relationship between the film industry and the Department
of Defense. Film scripts must be given the stamp of approval from the military,
and the Pentagon is quite selective in choosing which movies it officially en-
dorses with access to bases and ultra-high-tech weaponry. The films of Jerry
Bruckheimer are popular with the Pentagon, and posters of his films hang on
the walls there. Pearl Harbor got mixed reviews from critics, but its patriotic
themes passed muster with the Department of Defense, and it was well supplied
by the military.