War Coverage with a Beat

You wouldn't know it now, but in the early days of the war with Iraq, some of the best and most balanced coverage on television was on MTV.

Yes, that's right, Music Television.

It's true that MTV has dialed down and almost eliminated its war coverage in recent weeks, returning to its party-all-the-time spring break programming. However, in the weeks leading up to the war, MTV's coverage of 11th-hour diplomacy was extensive and detailed. Even through the first week of the war, MTV continued to provide detailed coverage of events at home and around the world.

At first glance, it seems the war couldn't have come at a worse time for MTV, which was getting ready to dive into its legendary spring break coverage from Miami. Scheduled programs with titles like Full Body Search Miami and a "hot or not" contest on Miami's South Beach were scrapped. Those programs are usually sponsor-heavy with some of advertising's heaviest hitters including Pepsi, Sony, Virgin Mobile and major movie studios.

In place of scheduled programming, MTV stuck to a diet of music videos and educational news packages and specials -- and advertisers hung in there. News programs, which could have been termed "Iraq 101," explained the issues, ideas and personalities making headlines; subjects ranged from a brief bio of Saddam Hussein to a history of the United Nations and a definition of the Geneva Conventions. This war-related programming aired during MTV's afternoon prime-time schedule as well as in the evening hours when cable channels and broadcast networks were also airing news reports about the war.

It was a smart decision. According to an MTV poll conducted in early March, more than 60 percent of MTV viewers favored military action against Iraq. The poll coincided with MTV News reporter Gideon Yago's trip to Kuwait for a documentary series about the Marine Corps and young people living in Kuwait and Iraq. (Never one to shy away from making their reporters the focus, MTV titled the series Gideon's Journeys in Kuwait.) An earlier poll, conducted in January, reported that 67 percent of MTV viewers had at least one family member in the military.

The 25-year-old Yago spent time with the 5th Marines "Grizzly Brigade" in the Kuwaiti desert, discovering that in terms of age, at least, the military is composed largely of MTV's target demographic. In one scene, as he walked into a tent to chat with the Marines, he was shocked to see that most of them were close to his age or younger. As the camera panned across soldiers wearing headphones and nodding along to the music, Yago marveled out loud about their youth.

"Almost all of the Marines we talked to are combat virgins, outside of the scores of kills they may have racked up playing video games," he told viewers. "They are young: 74 percent of the Corps is 22 or younger, many are married, engaged or have children, and they believe strongly in their training and in each other."

The Marines crowded around Yago. He asked who their favorite rappers are, and they asked if they could shout out to friends at home. Sitting in a bunker, surrounded by soldiers, Yago was right at home talking music and sports. His reports helped MTV viewers better understand the experiences of their peers stationed in the Middle East.

Back in New York, long-time MTV news anchor John Norris replaced Carson Daly as MTV's most ubiquitous on-air presence. In the run-up to the war, Norris, at MTV's Times Square studio, interviewed Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle in Washington about the pros and cons of invading Iraq.

Norris also went to the United Nations for a sit-down interview with U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix. In another segment, Norris spoke with his MTV counterpart in France, and they discussed the frayed relations between the two countries. This hands-across-the-water approach was unseen on any other broadcast or cable network.

But while the network's news teams may have been forging bridges, the music side was forced to take a quieter, no-offense-intended approach. MTV Europe issued a memo March 20 that said, "Obviously, there will be heightened public sensitivity to representations of war, soldiers, bombing, destruction of buildings and public unrest at home. The ITC Programme Code requires us not to broadcast material which offends against good taste or is offensive to public feeling. We therefore recommend that videos featuring the following are not shown at the moment." The memo cited war, soldiers, war planes, bombs, missiles, riots and social unrest, executions and "other obviously sensitive material." The list also included videos with the words bomb, missile, war or "other sensitive words in the artist or song title."

MTV USA may have issued a similar statement, but it hasn't surfaced. However, hip-hop artist Michael Franti said during a March 27 interview with the radio program Democracy Now! that his record company received a mass e-mail from MTV stating that no videos could be shown that mentioned bombing or war.

In the States, a fair amount of self-censorship made news as well. Madonna voluntarily pulled her own video to "American Life," lest she appear unpatriotic. And in the wake of the Dixie Chicks' fiasco in London, artists are being careful to tread on the side of public opinion, lest they be dropped from radio playlists across the nation -- as the Chicks were from hundreds of country music stations. Even alternative bands such as Electric Six, whose song "Gay Bar" includes nuclear war references, have voluntarily pulled new videos with war imagery. The song's release date has been pushed back and a new video is being filmed.

Make no mistake, MTV is not going to become a key source of news outside the music world anytime soon. It is still all about defining what's hip and making money from advertisers trying to reach teens and college students with disposable incomes. But a controversial war involving a large portion of its demographic was something MTV News could not ignore. Fortunately, viewers were well served by all the attention.

Frances Katz is a freelance writer who has written about media and technology for The Boston Herald, Cowles Media Daily and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The New York Post, Wired, Money and TV Guide.