The high stakes of war stress-tests every practice, tenant, ethos, and ethical code of journalism to the breaking point, making war journalism (herein, writing and photographs) a rich ground for studying meaning-making through the social authority of journalism. Pairing framing theory with social construction of knowledge as theoretical lenses, this research performed discourse and visual analyses on an exhaustive collection of The New York Times’—the newspaper that prides itself on publishing all the news [and meaning] that’s fit to print—articles and photographs from the February 29, 2020, public announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from a two-decade war in Afghanistan to the August 31, 2021, close of the withdrawal. Examining 475 articles with 1,412 accompanying photographs, this research discovered 13 consistent voices contending for 10 reified meanings. This dissertation contributes to the literature on journalistic authority, war journalism, and war photojournalism through thorough examination of NYT narrative and visual construction of the withdrawal.