A decade ago while the United States government made noisy preparations to go to war against Saddam Hussein, it was also purposefully planning another war—on the constitutional freedoms of the US media during Operation Desert Storm. Today, we’ll continue our conversation on wartime propaganda and the US media. Our guest is John MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author of “Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War.” Today we look at how the networks “design war.”

Unlike ABC reporters in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has given full access to men they can trust: Hollywood’s Jerry Bruckheimer who collaborated with the Pentagon on the blockbuster Black Hawk Down, and Bertram van Munster, the man behind the reality TV show “Cops.” ABC will air their new series called “Profiles from the Frontline.”

Guest:

• John “Rick” MacArthur, author of the “Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War” and publisher of Harper’s Magazine