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Originally posted by transplant99@Sep 29 2004, 05:51 PM
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Reporters are now assigned (the term the government likes to use is the more friendly "buddied up") to units and live and eat with these guys. They not only gain a level of familiarity with the unit but also begin to fall into line with what the unit says and does. Its an interesting strategy that the military has used and has been very effective in getting out the story that the government wants in this regard. To add to the complexity of this, because the reporters are assigned to aunit the military gets to review all information to be released and has to approve everything to be broadcast, for security reasons. You only see the information that they want you to see
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Pure and utter BS. Prove it man. Sure DURING the march across the desert from Kuwait and other points, reporters were "imbedded" with units...its the first time we were able to watch whatever happened live and in color. Since the declaration of "major conflicts" ending...reporters are allowed to go where ever they wish.
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The American military also had concerns about embedded media, in this case calling the Iraq project a "limited success" while recommending a review to see if it should be employed again in the future.
This was written immediately after the war but contained a prescient warning:
What if there was more nationalistic spirit in the hearts of the people of Iraq and a majority of the population fought us block-by-block? This is evidenced by the "Chicken Little" reporting in the media when the Division and 3d ID paused in the attack up Highways 1, 8 and 9. Visions of Vietnam danced in reporters' heads. According to many pundits in the press we were bogged down, stopped cold by the Fedayeen. Nothing could have been further than the truth. The myth was quickly dispelled by our success against the Ba'ath Party and paramilitary fighters, but never forget how quickly the press jumped on the bandwagon of doom and gloom.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cf...=15&ItemID=4751
We should also remember that embeds were on the other side as well.
The lowest journalistic moment of the war might have come when the BBC's Ragah Omar told an anchor back in London that it couldn't be possible the Americans were at the gates of Baghdad, that the Iraqi's must have some grand counterattack planned to wipe them out!! Talk about Stockholm Syndrome.
By the way, this is on the front page of the New York Daily News today. Was the government controlling this story?
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-203326c.html
Cowperson