In the end, the television companies and networks have been repeatedly attacked by politicians that they caused the failure of the war. However, the television networks did not transmit only the combat footage they also transmitted the anti-war movement footage. Television companies were well aware of that and were also well aware that if it bleeds it leads, so the pictures and the coverage which got back to the US were often more dramatic than was the reality, and thus the public opinion might have been shaped by the news that was not necessarily true. For the first time in the human history were people so directly confronted with the atrocities and events of the war and could thus feel the atmosphere of the conflict even if they were miles away in their homes in the United States. Showing people in their living rooms the vivid pictures of what was going on in Vietnam meant a turning point in the perception of war conflicts. Also, since the sixties marked a boom of the television, it was only natural that the Vietnam War was covered not only by the printed press, but also by the television. The Vietnam War is also referred to as “The First Television War” or as “The Living Room War”, thanks to the wide media and television coverage of the events both in Asia as well as in the United States.
It is more than true when it comes to the Vietnam War. It is also no news that media have been manipulating information. It is no news that mass media and television in particular have been shaping public opinion.
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