By: (AP) The war in Iraq is only six days old, but Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that 24-hour television coverage might leave the impression it's been dragging on for weeks.
Watching the war unfold in real time can also skew the public's overall perception of how the war is shaping up, Rumsfeld said in defense of the U.S.-led invasion's record against suggestions that it had gone too slowly or been more difficult than it should have been.
"If you think about the difference, in World War II, there was no television," Rumsfeld said. (And no Internet either.) "People had radios. People would go to the movies because the beginning of the movie would be a 15-minute preview of what took place, not the day before or the minute before or the hour before or what was taking place at that moment, but it was a summary of the week's news of World War II."
The decision to attach more than 600 journalists with military units also is making it more difficult for the Pentagon to control media coverage of the war.
"What we're seeing is every second, another slice of what's actually happening out there," Rumsfeld said. "It is a breathtaking sight to see it. It tends to be all accurate, but not in an overall context."
Despite some setbacks from Iraqi resistance, Rumsfeld said the invasion is on track. U.S. and British forces have penetrated hundreds of miles into Iraq in a matter of days and were now closing in on Baghdad.
"And it is -- it was 1 o'clock Friday that the air war began," he reminded reporters.
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