pRIMrose
03-05-2003, 06:14 AM
Michael Kelly
Townhall.com
March 5, 2003
KUWAIT CITY--In a few days, the United States armed forces will attempt to discover if it is possible to successfully place about 500 journalists in military units (down to the company level) going into war. This experiment in what the military calls ``embedding" entails grafting what amounts to a presidential-campaign-sized press corps onto an army in combat. The question of whether this is going to work, or implode, is a matter of much conversation among the involved parties here.
On Monday, in the lobby area of the Hilton Resorts where the U.S. and British militaries have established the Coalition Press Information Center, two such parties were discussing, over cigarettes, a particular aspect of concern. Both were veterans of military-media relations: Max Blumenfeld, a major in the Army Reserves who is the chief of plans and operations for public affairs in the V Corps, and Alisha Ryu, who is a Nairobi-based correspondent with Voice of America.
Blumenfeld and Ryu were talking about what was going to happen in a basic situation of war reporting: A firefight, say, occurs at Point A, and cameramen and photographers rush to Points B through Z to cover it. Under the rules of embedment, this is not supposed to happen. Each cameramen and photographer, just as each reporter, is to be assigned to a specific unit, and is supposed to stay with that unit unless permitted to leave--and, anyway, none of the embedded journalists is permitted a vehicle, so as to enable them to run off to Point A from B through Z. In embedment theory, the cameraman attached to the unit engaged in the firefight is supposed to get the picture, and everyone not attached to that unit is supposed to stay where they belong and not get the picture.
As any White House press secretary can tell them, there is no #### quite so annoying as the #### of an infantilized media pack. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michaelkelly/mk20030305.shtml)
I hope they show more common sense in battle than they do every day here at home. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tqrolleyes.gif
Townhall.com
March 5, 2003
KUWAIT CITY--In a few days, the United States armed forces will attempt to discover if it is possible to successfully place about 500 journalists in military units (down to the company level) going into war. This experiment in what the military calls ``embedding" entails grafting what amounts to a presidential-campaign-sized press corps onto an army in combat. The question of whether this is going to work, or implode, is a matter of much conversation among the involved parties here.
On Monday, in the lobby area of the Hilton Resorts where the U.S. and British militaries have established the Coalition Press Information Center, two such parties were discussing, over cigarettes, a particular aspect of concern. Both were veterans of military-media relations: Max Blumenfeld, a major in the Army Reserves who is the chief of plans and operations for public affairs in the V Corps, and Alisha Ryu, who is a Nairobi-based correspondent with Voice of America.
Blumenfeld and Ryu were talking about what was going to happen in a basic situation of war reporting: A firefight, say, occurs at Point A, and cameramen and photographers rush to Points B through Z to cover it. Under the rules of embedment, this is not supposed to happen. Each cameramen and photographer, just as each reporter, is to be assigned to a specific unit, and is supposed to stay with that unit unless permitted to leave--and, anyway, none of the embedded journalists is permitted a vehicle, so as to enable them to run off to Point A from B through Z. In embedment theory, the cameraman attached to the unit engaged in the firefight is supposed to get the picture, and everyone not attached to that unit is supposed to stay where they belong and not get the picture.
As any White House press secretary can tell them, there is no #### quite so annoying as the #### of an infantilized media pack. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michaelkelly/mk20030305.shtml)
I hope they show more common sense in battle than they do every day here at home. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tqrolleyes.gif