ABSTRACT
This strategy vis-a-vis the press was developed with even greater success during the December 1989 US invasion of Panama. The invasion was scheduled to take place during the Christmas season, coincidentally also overshadowed by the civil war in Romania and the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu. Journalists were kept as far away from the conflict as possible. Experienced reporters were concerned with the extent of military censorship, which was far greater than was necessary to prevent the leakage of sensitive military information. Censorship was used to eliminate information that might create a negative picture of US soldiers. Norman Schwarzkopf was pleased to describe how press agencies were deceived into contributing to the disinformation on Iraq. The only Norwegian journalist who reported the war from within Iraq said that the reporting from the war was a catastrophe, that the mass media had itself to blame, and that the media were drawn into propaganda service for the Pentagon.
