Yep, the Gulf War was definitely a game changer. Admittedly "fascinating" as you know you were actually watching it happen, but it was still easy to distance yourself because, of course, you weren't there but that just made it easier to sort of trick your brain into thinking it's a video game or a movie.
ETA: The Munich Massacre was more or less played out in real time on TV as it was happening during the live broadcast of an Olympics with the world watching as TV cameramen and sportscasters became "war time" correspondents 20 some years before the Gulf War.
Having near real-time access makes these things so much more difficult to navigate, I imagine, than it did when there was a delay for communication relays.