SUMMER 2001 $8 M IN THIS ISSUE EDIA MEDIA STUDIES War reporters “find themselves caught up in an environment where rocket-

propelled grenades have replaced swords, and cell phones have replaced telexes. S It’s a new world for war correspondents—one in which new rules and new TUDIES technology often clash with past conventions and ideals.” —  .  OURNAL J J OURNAL RECENT ISSUES OF MEDIA STUDIES JOURNAL

The First Amendment, Fall  The 45 words of the First Amendment—unchanged since ratification in 1791—give Americans the right to freely express ourselves through speech, faith, petition, assembly and the written word. While the public generally supports these freedoms, its commitment some-

times wavers because of concern about violence, racism, children’s exposure to controversial Front Lines and Deadlines content and other issues. The challenge is to apply the First Amendment’s fundamental free- doms when original intent runs headlong into new technology and shifting societal interests.

Courage, Spring/Summer  > If history is usually written about the winners, stories of courage are usually written about the 12 famous. Yet some of the bravest actions of journalists are unknown—obscured by the passage of time, hidden by veils of anonymity or buried by systematic repression. This issue aims to correct that imbalance by telling the tales of the not so familiar, those who worked on the mar- gins of popularity, who blazed new but solitary paths or who left fleeting legacies. Their lives and their work are a reminder that tests of integrity usually occur far from the spotlight. 73361 64950 08 Campaign 2000, Winter  The campaign of 2000 was preceded by other elections when spin, invective, scandal and deficient reporting sometimes seemed to overwhelm the best in American journalism and Front Lines and Deadlines American democracy. In the belief that foresight is better than hindsight, our writers injected informed analysis and suggestions into presidential and congressional races at the start. By perspectives on war reporting understanding where the currents of the time have taken journalism and politics, the news ❖ media will be better able to navigate a desirable course in the future. Harold M. Evans, Tad Bartimus, Edith M. Lederer, Jacqueline E. Sharkey

After the Fall, Fall    on the long view ❖ George C. Wilson, James Kitfield, Jane Kirtley, The changes that swept Central and Eastern Europe in 1989 passed with relatively little blood- Robert Sims, Peter S. Prichard, Patrick J. Sloyan, Derald Everhart shed, and if history had ended then there would be cause for easy optimism. But in the endur- ❖ ing battles with censors and would-be censors that bedevil emerging democracies, new ques- on the pen and the sword Tom Gjelten, Judy Woodruff on right and wrong tions appear. Not only is there much for journalists to cover, in some places the fate of journal- Timothy J. Kenny, Donatella Lorch, Gary Knight, Susan Moeller on the price paid ism is still an open question. This issue explores not just the epic events of 1989 but the new ❖ stories that emerged in that region in the 1990s.

T HE F REEDOM F ORUM MEDIA STUDIES JOURNAL

FRONT LINES AND DEADLINES PERSPECTIVES ON WAR REPORTING M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL Volume , Number , Summer 

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Vice President/Publications M AURICE R. FLIESS Editorial Director C HRISTY M UMFORD J ERDING Contributing Editor D ON ROSS Copy Editors M ARY A. ANDERSON J EAN PATMAN Designer M EREDITH S. PECK Photo Research C HARLOTTE F ULLERTON K AREN W YATT I NDIRA W ILLIAMS

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COVER PHOTO: Israeli soldiers during riot on West Bank, Sept. ,  (SHARON ABBADY/BLACK STAR) The Freedom Forum, based in Arlington, Va., is a nonpartisan, international foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. The foundation focuses on four main priorities: the Newseum, First Amendment issues, newsroom diversity and world press freedom. The Freedom Forum funds two independent affiliates — the Newseum, the interactive museum of news in Arlington; and the First Amendment Center, with offices at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and in New York City and Arlington. Other operating offices are in Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London and Cocoa Beach, Fla. The Freedom Forum was established in 1991 under the direction of Founder Allen H. Neuharth as successor to a foundation started in 1935 by newspaper publisher Frank E. Gannett. The Freedom Forum is not affiliated with Gannett Co., does not solicit or accept financial contributions, and does not accept unsolicited funding requests. Its work is sup- ported by income from an endowment now worth about $1 billion in diversified assets.

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THE FREEDOM FORUM BOARD OF TRUSTEES

C HARLES L. OVERBY Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

PETER S. PRICHARD President

H ARRY W. B ROOKS M ADELYN P. J ENNINGS M ALCOLM R. KIRSCHENBAUM B ETTE B AO LORD B RIAN M ULRONEY J AN N EUHARTH W ILL N ORTON J R . J OSEFINA A. SALAS-PORRAS J OHN S EIGENTHALER PAUL S IMON M ARK T RAHANT J UDY C. WOODRUFF

A LLEN H. NEUHARTH Founder

❖ Contents

FRONT LINES AND DEADLINES PERSPECTIVES ON WAR REPORTING Preface [ xi ]

THE LONG VIEW The Combat Correspondent H AROLD M. EVANS “In the 21st century, communication is so transformed that we are at the dawn of a new era where the war correspondent yields ground to the ordinary citizen. Today, people may speak directly to others by e-mail and the Internet ... unfiltered by journalist, editor or censor. ... [But] I don’t believe they will ever supplant the professional correspondent and the authority of a recognized news organization.” [2] Bullets and Bathrooms T AD B ARTIMUS “Women journalists no longer have to plead or finagle their way into combat coverage just because of their gender. They have proved—to soldiers, editors, each other and themselves— that they can go everywhere and do everything.” [8] From Telex to Satellite E DITH M. LEDERER “All these advances have made it theoretically possible to file copy to a home base at any time from almost anywhere—a jungle, a desert, a ship or a foxhole—even at the height of a battle. But while the new technology can deliver the news almost instantly, the basics of news gathering in times of conflict have changed very little.” [16]

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ iv ] Contents

War, Censorship and the First Amendment J ACQUELINE E. SHARKEY “Understanding the news-management model that emerged at the end of the 20th century is important for several reasons. First, the government still uses some of its techniques to influence military coverage. Second, pre-censorship is another form of prior restraint. ... Finally, renewed discussions about military-news management are crucial at a time when the United States is increasingly involved in multinational operations.” [20]

THE PEN AND THE SWORD Media-Military Relations: No Worse, No Better G EORGE C. WILSON “Consider the long-term consequences of this elimination of the middleman, the reporter. ... What looms ahead, then, is the prospect that the government will take a more direct route to the public, via the Internet, to win the war for people’s minds. As a result, government information—or propaganda—will have less of what is generally healthy filtering by the press.” [26] It Takes Two to Make a Team F RANK A UKOFER “The military, at the very top levels ... seriously embraced the message that the nation’s men and women in uniform needed to make their case to the American people, and that the best way to do it was through the traditional news media—despite the risks inherent in the scrutiny of a free press. ... Meanwhile, virtually no response came from news organizations.” [32] Lessons From Kosovo J AMES K ITFIELD “As the military-media clash over coverage of Kosovo revealed, changes in the nature and technology of both the journalistic and military professions seem likely to widen the cultural divide in the future. By many measures journalism is becoming more chaotic and the military more controlling.” [34]

S UMMER 2001 [ v ] F RONT L INES AND D EADLINES

Enough Is Enough J ANE K IRTLEY “Experience has shown that the military, given the opportunity, will do everything possible to use the media as instruments of propaganda, to shape public opinion and to garner support. This is perfectly understandable, but it is inimical to a free press and a free people. It is up to the press to resist, and it must.” [40] War Without Witnesses R OBERT S IMS “Journalists must recognize the importance to the military, and to the country, of protecting the lives of service men and women. Reporters and news organizations must develop responsible ways to do that, in tandem with the military. If they cannot confront this issue and develop procedures that work for them and for the military, they can expect the military to do it for them. They can expect a war without witnesses.” [46] Basic Training P ETER S. PRICHARD “The reality is that among journalists, knowledge of the military and respect for its abilities have declined markedly since the demise of the draft. ... The public is often ignorant of the military’s skills and accomplishments, and so are journalists. As a result, the news media are not covering a very big story with the knowledge and sophistication it deserves.” [52]

VOICE FROM THE FRONT: Battle Impressions J AMES C REELMAN “The thing that fascinated me was a drop of blood which hung on the end of a dead man’s nose. His lips were drawn back from his teeth and he seemed to be laughing, and there on the end of his pinched nose was a great bright drop of blood.” [57]

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ vi ] Contents

The Real War P ATRICK J. SLOYAN “Desert Storm marked the occasion when the world’s most powerful media barons gave up their constitutional right to report on U.S. troops in battle without government-imposed censorship. None of the wire service, newspaper or broadcasting executives was happy with President Bush’s controls, but none challenged their legality, either.” [58] Reporting on the Warriors D ERALD E VERHART “Because of [The Stars and Stripes’] status within its ‘community,’ some overzealous public affairs officers and commanders believe that the newspaper’s primary mission should be to promote morale among the troops. ... Fighting that mind set is a constant in the workaday world of Stripes reporters and editors—and the subject of many complaints.” [64]

VOICE FROM THE FRONT: Hatred to Stay R ELMA M ORIN “Hidden in the hills a mile off the road to Seoul, there is a village of twenty-four mud-stone huts with thatched roofs. … Even before the North Korean military invasion last June, nine of the men in the village were Communists. ... They killed some of their neighbors and caused others to be put in jail.” [70]

RIGHT AND WRONG Finding the Right ‘Moral Attitude’ T OM G JELTEN “We have faith that good journalism intrinsically serves the public interest. But we need to think more carefully about the responsibilities we have—individually and professionally— when we find ourselves in places where war crimes are occurring and where our actions as journalists and as people could change the course of events.” [72]

S UMMER 2001 [ vii ] F RONT L INES AND D EADLINES

VOICE FROM THE FRONT: War From a Helicopter D AVID H ALBERSTAM “This enemy was angry and defiant, and at first a little scared as well—until he saw me and spit at me. The commander slapped his face very hard and said something in Vietnamese. Later I was told that the captain had said to the prisoner, ‘The Americans are very kind. They do not kill, and they are always telling us not to kill you, but I am not so kind and I will kill you. You will see.’” [77] Beware of Thugs, Warlords and P.R. Agents T OM G JELTEN “As we recognize the impact of our war coverage, we ... will find that interested parties want to influence our reporting. All those involved in a war have stakes in portrayals advancing their particular interests, and the fragmentation of armed conflict in the post-Cold War era dramat- ically raises those stakes. War correspondents must keep all these competing agendas in mind and guard against the related pressures.” [78] We Owe the World J UDY C. WOODRUFF “We who are journalists or managers of newspaper and television empires have an obligation to help people in the ‘have’ part of the world stay informed about the ‘have nots.’ We have an obligation to tell them about ethnic, racial and territorial disputes that could fester or have consequences for other parts of this planet, which, after all, is a place of limited resources.” [84]

THE PRICE PAID In the Bleeding Fields T IMOTHY J. KENNY “Most people in the business today risk little and lead lives of quiet, if interesting, middle-class comfort. Then there are the others—the ones who take the chances the rest of us can’t or won’t. ... They have felt the wrath of mobs, choked on clouds of tear gas and seen comrades lying dead in pools of blood.” [90]

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ viii ] Contents

VOICE FROM THE FRONT: ‘This One Is Captain Waskow’ E RNIE P YLE “He sat there for a full five minutes holding the [captain’s] dead hand ... and looking intently into the dead face. And he never uttered a sound all the time he sat there. Finally he put the hand down. He reached up and gently straightened the points of the captain’s shirt collar, and then he sort of rearranged the tattered edges of his uniform around the wound, and then he got up and walked away down the road in the moonlight, all alone.” [96] Surviving the Five Ds D ONATELLA L ORCH “The stories I covered dug deep into my heart and soul. They filled me with awe when I witnessed the courage of some of the people I met. They filled me with anger over the corruption and greed of others. I became intimately acquainted with fear, desperation, cynicism and total vulnerability. They remain my companions today.” [98] Up Close and Deadly G ARY K NIGHT “The days of newspeople as bystanders are over. They more often are seen as participants and treated as such. This just increases the danger for photographers, who are often closer to the belligerents than other journalists. ... They can use myriad methods to feel more secure, but photographing a conflict at any level can exact a heavy price. Knowing that is a heavy burden.” [104] Compassion Fatigue S USAN M OELLER “Compassion fatigue can set in when we believe the media are just crassly playing on our sympathies. Rarely does pity, for example, provoke a response long-lived enough to jump-start Americans into caring about a country or region beyond an immediate disaster. One feels pity for only so long before feeling tempted to consider the person or situation merely pitiful.” [108]

S UMMER 2001 [ ix ] F RONT L INES AND D EADLINES

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

P ETER A RNETT, FRANK B OLDEN, WALTER C RONKITE, E D B RADLEY, JANINE DI G IOVANNI “I’d seen what had happened to the gliders in Normandy, and it was terrible. I really had no desire at all to go in by glider. But the mere thought of what they’d say about me at the 101st Airborne—what they’d say, my colleagues, when I came whimpering back to London—was enough to put me on that glider.” — Walter Cronkite [114]

REVIEW ESSAY Adversaries or Antagonists? J ERRY W. F RIEDHEIM “What are the best books for young journalists and military officers to read and mull—and for older editors and security officials to recall and review? And what should they seek there? Lessons from past conflicts that, though dated, hold insight for the next war.” [120]

For Further Reading [125]

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ x ] Preface FRONT LINES AND DEADLINES PERSPECTIVES ON WAR REPORTING

    “  ,”   up bathrooms for it. I at historical aspects of war reporting. M Floyd Gibbons lost an eye because Journalist and author Harold M. Evans, of it. who was guest curator for the “War Stories” Chris Morris drove through a hail of bul- exhibit, outlines the accomplishments and lets for it. personalities of famous and not-so-famous Robert Capa, Dickey Chapelle and many war correspondents. Columnist Tad Bar- others died for it. timus documents women’s struggles to It is war reporting, the most challenging break into the ranks of combat reporters. assignment a journalist can ever have. Those Edith M. Lederer of The Associated Press correspondents understood that war has all reflects on how war reporting has changed the ingredients that make great stories— from Vietnam to today. Journalism profes- drama, intrigue, suffering, glory, defeat, life, sor Jacqueline E. Sharkey reveals how mili- death. From heroism in battle to the mun- tary censorship has affected war reporting. dane daily routines of soldiering, readers “The Pen and the Sword” covers the hang on every word when their country is often contentious but mutually beneficial engaged in conflict. relationship between the news media and The Newseum in Arlington, Va., is exam- the military. Defense correspondent George ining war reporting with its May-Novem- C. Wilson has good news and bad news: ber 2001 exhibit, “War Stories.” The exhibit The relationship has not gotten worse, but takes visitors to the front lines through neither has it improved. Journalist Frank accounts of the lives of the men and women Aukofer notes that the reaction to his 1995 who have reported some of the epic events media-military report, “America’s Team: of history. The Odd Couple,” came overwhelmingly The “War Stories” exhibit inspired—and from the military; the news media were provided material for—this issue of Media largely indifferent. National Journal’s James Studies Journal, “Front Lines and Dead- Kitfield offers lessons drawn from media lines: Perspectives on War Reporting.” The and military missteps during the war in essays explore such topics as censorship, Kosovo. Journalism professor and First secrecy, media-military relations and the Amendment expert Jane Kirtley urges jour- risks many journalists take in combat nalists to fight the military’s insistence on zones. wartime secrecy, while former assistant sec-

S UMMER 2001 [ xi ] P REFACE retary of defense for public affairs Robert Timothy J. Kenny salutes journalists who Sims argues that the media must respect the have died covering war. Newsweek’s Donatella need for secrecy or face even greater cover- Lorch reveals her personal struggles after cov- age restrictions. Former USA TODAY editor ering violence in Africa. Photographer Gary Peter S. Prichard notes that fewer and fewer Knight explains the special dangers photo- journalists have previous military service journalists face in capturing images of war. and speculates about how this may affect Author and professor Susan Moeller warns coverage. Newsday reporter Patrick J. Sloyan that the public can easily become inured to criticizes military leaders who “shredded” graphic images of wartime atrocities. the First Amendment by restricting cover- The concluding essay by Jerry W. Fried- age of the Persian Gulf War. Editor Derald heim, whose career has included stops on Everhart explains the unique challenges either side, reviews some of the literature on faced by The Stars and Stripes as it strives to the media-military relationship. cover the military for the military. For the “War Stories” exhibit, Newseum In “Right and Wrong,” two essayists look staff interviewed dozens of battle-tested at ethical issues for war correspondents. journalists. “In Their Own Words” features National Public Radio’s Tom Gjelten helps edited excerpts from interviews with Peter reporters strike a balance between the need Arnett, Frank Bolden, Walter Cronkite, Ed for journalistic objectivity and the urge to Bradley and Janine di Giovanni. take moral action “in the face of evil.” Gjel- This issue also features original reporting ten also offers some rules for reporters cov- from some legends of journalism. Pieces ering today’s more complicated confrontations. from Ernie Pyle, James Creelman, David CNN’s Judy C. Woodruff urges more and Halberstam and Relma Morin remind us better coverage of international conflicts, even what great war reportage is all about. when U.S. interests are not readily apparent. We would like to thank the Newseum Writers in “The Price Paid” examine the staff for providing guidance, materials, professional and personal costs of report- resources and assistance with this issue. ing from the front lines. The Newseum’s —  

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ xii ] UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, TUFTS UNIVERSITY Edward R. Murrow, center, interviews U.S. Army Air Forces personnel during World War II. THE LONG VIEW

Whoever the chronicler, we have an eternal and compelling curiosity about war—wars in which our own survival is at stake and wars long past. —  . 

❖ Harold M. Evans on the war correspondent Tad Bartimus on women covering wars Edith M. Lederer on how covering conflict has changed Jacqueline E. Sharkey on military censorship ❖

S UMMER 2001 [ 1 ] NATIONAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHIVES, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION The Battle of Little Bighorn, 1876, as drawn by Red Horse THE COMBAT CORRESPONDENT A look at war reporting, from Caesar’s commentaries to cell phones

H AROLD M. EVANS

    - frightened our soldiers, who were quite sion’s success, but the scene on the unaccustomed to battles of this kind, with Hbeach was desperate. The ships the result that they did not show the same could not get close enough to put the sol- alacrity and enthusiasm as they usually did diers ashore. Hands full and weighed down on dry land.” by the heavy burden of their weapons, the The candor may strike an odd note. In soldiers had to simultaneously jump from the mythology of war, our men are never the ships, get a footing in chest-deep waves beset by elemental fear, still less paralyzed by and fight the enemy who, standing unen- it. The lexicon of defeat, if admitted, is of cumbered on dry and familiar ground, gallant retreats against overwhelming odds. could so easily kill and maim the invaders. But the war correspondent writing the story The war correspondent reporting the of the battle on that beach was uninhibited. scene in those terms observed: “These perils He faced none of the frustrations and

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 2 ] Harold M. Evans: The Combat Correspondent dilemmas of the modern war correspondent with [Lt. Col. George] Custer and will be at because he took part in the battle himself, as the death.” And indeed he did die with the the commanding general of the invasion of dashing officer who had disobeyed orders Britain in the year 55 B.C. and allowed the reporter to ride along with Julius Caesar is one of a very long line of the 7th Cavalry. Our idea of how every man soldiers who reported their own campaigns with Custer perished comes from individual firsthand. Thucydides’ History of the Pelo- oral accounts retold by Sioux and Cheyenne ponnesian War was informed by his experi- warriors, father to son to grandson, vividly ence in command of the supplemented by 41 pic- Greek fleet at Thasos in 424 tographs drawn by Red B.C. and his defeat by the Harold M. Evans Horse, a Miniconjou Lakota Spartan general Brasidas. The is an editor and author of chief at the battle. professional, independent war The American Century Whoever the chronicler, we correspondent—the unarmed who served as guest have an eternal and com- civilian whose pen is sup- pelling curiosity about war— curator for the “War posed to be mightier than the wars in which our own sword—does not arrive on Stories” exhibit at the survival is at stake and wars the scene until the Crimean Newseum in Arlington, Va. long past. So much heroism; War (1853-55) in the persons so much folly; so many bril- of William “Billy” Howard liant moves; so many blunders; Russell of The Times of London, Edwin so many might-have-beens. In a current con- Lawrence Godkin of the London Daily News flict we fret about loved ones, but in all war and G.L. Gruneisen of the Morning Post in reports we share vicariously in the terrible London. So it is as well to acknowledge excitement of combat. We exult in victories, that, from time immemorial, “amateurs” but we want to know whether the cause is have satisfied our perennial appetite for just, the means proportionate to the end, and news of war—in oral history, in poem and the execution honorable. We relish front-line song, in legend and myth, in drawing and drama, but we expect to be advised if a painting and tapestry. decent patriotism is exploited. Do the Viet We know how English axmen cut down Cong represent a nationalist rebellion or the Norman armored knights at the Battle international communist aggression? Do we of Hastings in 1066, and how King Harold really have vital national interests in sending died on Senlac Hill with an arrow in his eye, 500,000 U.S. troops into battle to eject Iraq because it is all recorded on the Bayeux from Kuwait? The arguments go on long Tapestry. Mark Kellogg, a Western free- after the battlefield has been cleared of its lance newspaper reporter, set out to tell us dead. what happened on the morning of June 26, For the modern war correspondent, the 1876, on a hill at Little Bighorn in Mon- imponderables are more numerous and the tana. “By the time this reaches you we will canvas broader than it was for battle partici- have met and fought the red devils with pants like Caesar. Those soldier-reporters what result remains to be seen,” he wrote were more exposed to risk than the profes- from Rosebud Creek the day before. “I go sional correspondent, but in reporting they

S UMMER 2001 [ 3 ] T HE L ONG V IEW had a simpler task. They had access, by def- the Russians. Lt. Charles Naysmith of the inition. They were their own censors. They East India Company’s Bombay Artillery had no worry that their messages and histo- covered the fighting for The Times, but he ries would inadvertently cost lives because was thought to have no sense of urgency; communication was so slow and restricted. perhaps his first priority was staying alive. They could take their time in reporting, The frustrated Times manager rebuked the they had no competition, and their eyewit- foreign editor: “I wish you would impress ness accounts were idiosyncratic. upon Naysmith with all your eloquence the absolute necessity of writing   ,   From time as often as he can and sending Iand maturation of the letters without delay.” The unarmed professional war immemorial, letters took more than a week correspondent had four mid- “amateurs” have to arrive anyway, coming by wives: Democracy. Timeli- horse and steamer. The ness. Scale. Speed. satisfied our appointment of a stocky Democracy, nurtured by perennial Irishman, William Howard nearly universal suffrage and Russell, was the trailblazing popular education, meant appetite for result, and the term “war cor- governments increasingly had news of war. respondent” was apt because to justify the blood, tears, toil Times editor John Delane had and sweat of going to war. Russell write him letters. The advent of total war widened those risks Scale became the third midwife as bigger, beyond the combatants to every man, longer and more far-flung wars required woman and child in the nation. Newspapers more trained observers and better coordina- naturally played on the notion that only tion of their efforts. independent reporting would satisfy the Speed cut communication time, in turn popular appetite. That war stories sold more increasing competition among publishers newspapers than anything else only demon- and editors for reporters who were cunning strates that high-mindedness and commer- in the means of transmission and the eva- cial gain are not always in conflict. sion of bureaucracy. Curiously, in the 21st Governments, for their part, became willing century, communication is so transformed to give reporters battlefield access because that we are at the dawn of a new era where they presumed the journalists would wave the war correspondent yields ground to the the flag. ordinary citizen. Today, people may speak Timeliness, the second midwife, first was directly to others by e-mail and the Internet, recognized by The Times of London. The reporting their own experiences—unfiltered newspaper abandoned the traditional prac- by journalist, editor or censor. tice of relying on letters from junior officers During the 1999 Kosovo war, a Web site at the battlefront when its readers clamored organized by the Institute for War and Peace to know what was happening day by day in Reporting attracted contributions from the Crimean peninsula where England, with ordinary citizens. Later, when NATO occu- France and the Ottoman Turks, was fighting pied Kosovo, the same nonpartisan Web site

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 4 ] Harold M. Evans: The Combat Correspondent

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION Ernie Pyle, center, with enlisted men, Anzio, Italy, 1944 was open to Serbs, reporting attacks on reporting, The First Casualty, pinned these them by returning Kosovars. Such Web-site adjectives on the reporters’ chests: ignorant, and e-mail reports might enrich war cover- dishonest, unethical, inaccurate, partisan age, but their openness also means they can and inflammatory. be easily manipulated. I don’t believe they The nonprofessionals’ record was better. will ever supplant the professional corre- In the Napoleonic Wars, soldiers and sailors spondent and the authority of a recognized penned brilliant firsthand accounts of the news organization in the way the reporter battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo. Caesar supplanted the literate soldier. had as good an eye for a story as any tabloid reporter. And thus the scene at Omaha    Beach on D-Day is eerily reminiscent of his Pexploded with the U.S. Civil War. As in account of the Roman landing in 55 B.C. all things, America went for mass produc- At Normandy 2,000 years later, men carry- tion. Southern newspapers still relied heav- ing 66 pounds of equipment had to jump ily on telegrams and letters from serving into water that not only was deep but laced officers, but at least 500 reporters covered with booby traps and mines; many drowned. the war for the North—after a fashion. Those who made it to the beach—mostly to Phillip Knightley, author of a history of war the wrong sectors, for which they had not

S UMMER 2001 [ 5 ] T HE L ONG V IEW been trained—curled up in the sand behind most of the amphibious tanks and guns the seawall, pinned down by intense were swamped and sank in heavy seas, or machine-gun, rifle, mortar and artillery fire that among the 2,500 Americans dead at from the sheer cliffs above. Gen. Omar the end of the first day were 40 percent of Bradley’s beachhead, like Caesar’s, would the combat engineers. The much-loved have been lost but for inspired leadership. Ernie Pyle, who footslogged with the grunts “Get the hell off this damn beach and go kill in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and the some Germans,” screamed Col. Charles Pacific, was laconic: “Our men were pinned Canham at an officer taking down for a while, but finally refuge in a pillbox. “Get your they stood up and went ass out of there and show Web-site and through, and so we took that some leadership.” e-mail reports beach and accomplished our We owe such scenes to post- landing.” war writers who attempted to might enrich The cryptic reticence is reconstruct Omaha Beach. At war coverage, explicable, but historian Max the time, the reality of the but their Hastings’ 1984 reconstruc- landing, its full horror, its tion of D-Day well summed blunders and the awesome openness also up the consequence of the nature of its heroism, did not means they landing’s coverage at the time: come through. There were “Few Europeans and Ameri- 558 accredited print and radio can be easily cans of the postwar genera- correspondents for the five manipulated. tion have grasped just how Normandy beaches, but the intense were the early [Nor- arena was vast and chaotic. mandy] battles.” The reporters were restricted by censorship The folk memory is of an effort of fearless as well as by German soldiers doing their superiority. Steven Spielberg’s epic film, damnedest to nail anything that moved. “Saving Private Ryan,” finally did some- Censors went on the beaches with the thing to redress this notion. His portrayal of reporters, checking that none of them wrote the landings is impressionistic, but it is a or radioed dispatches that would help the masterpiece of cinematic art. It evokes the enemy or dismay people at home. ordeal of the men on the beach, making The correspondents filed 700,000 words their achievement all the more memorable. on the first day. Radio transmitted into liv- “Saving Private Ryan” is very like Stephen ing rooms the sound of gunfire and men’s Crane’s “The Red Badge of Courage.” Spiel- cheers and ships’ whistles and planes’ berg was unconcerned with the larger pic- engines. The reports were all very exciting, ture or the logistics—with the essential pith but they did not encourage readers and lis- of war reporting—just as Crane was uncon- teners to imagine men in a funk. Nor did cerned with “Stonewall” Jackson’s tactics in they report that infantry landed with the woods at Chancellorsville where his sol- weapons inferior to the Germans’ in every dier-coward had his epiphany. category except artillery, or that the U.S. Works of such artistic imagination give us Navy launched assault craft so far out that a sense of the emotions and chaos of the

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 6 ] Harold M. Evans: The Combat Correspondent battlefield. They answer the questions Walt cers’ orders, persuasions, encouragements Whitman posed so poetically: – the devils fully roused in human What history, I say, can ever give – for hearts – the strong shout, Charge, men who can know – the mad, determin’d charge – the flash of naked sword, and tussle of the armies, in all their separate rolling flame and smoke? large and small squads – as this – each Those who answer Whitman’s cry today steep’d from crown to toe in desperate, find themselves caught up in an environ- mortal purports? Who know the con- ment where rocket-propelled grenades have flict, hand-to-hand – the many conflicts replaced swords, and cell phones have in the dark, those shadowy-tangled, replaced telexes. It’s a new world for war flashing moon beam’d woods – the correspondents, as we shall see in the pages writhing groups and squads – the cries, ahead—one in which new rules and new the din, the cracking guns and pistols – technology often clash with past conven- the distant cannon – the cheers and tions and ideals. calls and threats and awful music of the This essay is adapted from “War Stories” by Harold M. oaths – the indescribable mix – the offi- Evans, © 2001 Newseum.

S UMMER 2001 [ 7 ] CULIVER PICTURES Photographer Margaret Bourke-White, 1945 BULLETS AND BATHROOMS Women had to contend with sexism in the military to win recognition as war correspondents.

T AD B ARTIMUS

     1951 and shot back, “There is no shortage thing. of bushes in Korea.” IWomen, the men said, couldn’t go to Correspondent Gloria Emerson heard it war because there was no proper place for in Vietnam and wrote, “Women reporters them to relieve themselves discreetly. That who go into the field make professional was The Big Excuse. Army officers nervous, for these men must Photographer Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle immediately explain that no, repeat, no toi- heard it in 1941 and replied, “I’m sure the lets exist for us.” 14th Infantry has solved much tougher Women covering wars don’t worry about problems than that.” such things. Female journalists, like their Reporter Marguerite Higgins heard it in male counterparts, worry about getting the

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 8 ] Tad Bartimus: Bullets and Bathrooms facts right, getting the story out, beating the few literary exceptions included Greek poet- competition and surviving to tell another ess Sappho’s version of the Trojan War in the tale. We are resourceful or we wouldn’t be in sixth century B.C. and Margaret Fuller’s this business. We don’t march in ideological first-person account of the French bom- lockstep. We don’t want extra attention. We bardment of Rome in 1849 for the New expect to carry our own gear and to pull our York Tribune. By 1900 the U.S. Census own weight. Many of us do not believe recorded only 2,193 women among 30,098 women bring any special gifts to the job, full-time journalists. An ambitious, idealis- although gender unquestion- tic girl who wanted a report- ably offers different perspec- ing adventure, especially on tives and can be both a help Tad Bartimus the front lines, had few role and a hindrance, depending on writes the nationally models. the circumstance. syndicated column Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, The influx of women into “Among Friends,” for the sheer force of her hon- journalism in the last half- est prose, became one. Severely distributed by United century has helped to dispel injured near Reims in Octo- some of the patronizing sex- Feature Syndicate. She ber 1918 when a companion ism and overprotection that pre- was a correspondent for picked up an unexploded vented many qualified females The Associated Press in grenade, Sergeant wrote: from photographing and report- Vietnam from 1973-74 A stunning report, a blind- ing on previous wars. ing flash, and I am precip- and also covered conflicts Women editors who’ve itated down the bank, worked their way up from in Northern Ireland and hearing, it seems, as I go street reporting now routinely Latin America. the Lieutenant’s shriek of send women to cover every- horror: ‘My arm, my arm thing. It’s commonplace to see has been carried away!’ … front-page bylines and nightly news stand- I become an impotent, aching creature, ups from women reporting from Kosovo, full of unpleasant holes, lost in a corner Chechnya, the Middle East and a dozen of devastated France infinitely remote other hot spots around the globe. from every one I care for. … When CNN’s Christiane Amanpour The surgeon is bending over my became the first female superstar of televised wounds now, shaking his head. … combat during the Persian Gulf War, she I am getting ether in large quantities. kicked over the last barrier between women Sensation of vibration—of waves beat- journalists and the front lines. There she ing, and through it voices very clear: was, with the whole world watching— Who is she? smart, brave, competent, doing her job in a A journalist. professional manner. The Spanish Civil War was a crucible for some of the most eloquent women writers     - of a generation. Playwright Lillian Hellman A ing was almost exclusively a male pro- made radio broadcasts urging U.S. support fession. Men were the fighters, after all. The for the Republicans. Free-lancer Frances

S UMMER 2001 [ 9 ] T HE L ONG V IEW

Davis sent a “mail column” to small news- the book, The Face of War. Hemingway papers back home and eventually wrote her married another war correspondent, Mary way into a full-time job with the London Welsh, who gave up her career in 1946 to Daily Mail covering Gen. Francisco Franco’s please him. victory. But Martha Gellhorn’s reporting of Like Gellhorn and Welsh (hired by Lon- the Spanish Civil War for Collier’s magazine don newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook to set the standard for narrative front-line report for his Daily Express), some renowned journalism for years to come: women correspondents were linked to At first the shells went over: famous men, and that reflected you could hear the thud as Some renowned glory initially added to their they left the Fascists’ guns, a cachet. But most women war sort of groaning cough; then women corre- correspondents earned their you heard them fluttering spondents were stellar careers by putting work toward you. As they came ahead of romance, and many closer the sound went faster linked to famous stayed single or were divorced. and straighter and sharper men, and that Syndicated columnist Dorothy and then, very fast, you Thompson was writer Sinclair heard the great booming reflected glory Lewis’ wife from 1928 until noise when they hit. ... initially added 1942. Life magazine photogra- An old woman, with a to their cachet. pher Margaret Bourke-White shawl over her shoulders, was married to writer Erskine holding a terrified thin lit- Caldwell, but they parted dur- tle boy by the hand, runs out into the ing World War II. square. You know what she is thinking: Shelley Smith married Life photographer she is thinking she must get the child Carl Mydans, and together they became the home, you are always safer in your own magazine’s first roving correspondent team, place, with the things you know. … first in Europe in 1939 and then in China She is in the middle of the square the following year. They were interned by when the next one comes. the Japanese in Manila, then Shanghai, A small piece of twisted steel, hot and until they were repatriated in 1943 and very sharp, sprays off from the shell; it returned to Europe. Theirs was a rare mar- takes the little boy in the throat. The riage that endured. old woman stands there, holding the hand of the dead child, looking at him      stupidly, not saying anything. … At Thistorian as the “largest single event in their left, at the side of the square, is a human history” provided plenty of oppor- huge brilliant sign which says: Get out tunity for ambitious women reporters and of Madrid.” photographers to find great stories and Gellhorn met Ernest Hemingway in Spain make their careers. and they married in 1940. Their union Bourke-White was already well-known lasted just five years; her front-line reporting when World War II made her arguably the continued for another 50 and is collected in most famous female journalist in the world.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 10 ] Tad Bartimus: Bullets and Bathrooms

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION Marguerite Higgins covering the Korean War, 1950

She was a skilled industrial photographer for She wore red shoes and a red hair-bow to Fortune when publisher Henry Luce chose a rare interview with Joseph Stalin, then her photo of Montana’s Fort Peck dam for worked all night in a U.S. Embassy bath- Life’s first cover. She became not only a great room to print her historic pictures. She news shooter but a very lucky one, too. She charmed President Roosevelt’s emissary, was in Moscow with five cameras, 22 lenses, Harry Hopkins, into personally carrying the 3,000 flashbulbs and four portable develop- photos back to the United States the next ing tanks when the Germans attacked the morning. Soviet Union in 1941. Sleeping on her hotel All war correspondents need curiosity balcony to photograph Red Square during and a sense of fearlessness; it also helps to air raids, she wrote: have friends in high places. When the ship “I would start up to see the square below carrying Bourke-White from England to dancing with fireflies as the shrapnel tinkled North Africa was torpedoed, she took only down on the pavement. But as soon as the her cameras in the lifeboat. After her rescue, sound grew soft, I would be back in slum- Maj. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, who’d led the ber on the marble ledge, my cameras, set for first bombing raid on Tokyo and was then time exposures, still recording any streaks of commander of the 12th Air Force, loaned light that might flash through the sky.” her some of his clothes and personally

S UMMER 2001 [ 11 ] T HE L ONG V IEW

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION Correspondents, from left, Virginia Irwin of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Marjorie Avery of the Detroit Free Press and Judy Darden of the New York Sun write dispatches from Normandy, France, 1944. authorized her to fly on a bombing mis- cial privileges by openly having an affair sion—a rare privilege for male reporters and with a tall, handsome Army Air Forces gen- unheard-of for females. eral who commanded a bomb group. She Accompanying Bourke-White’s seven- dismissed the sniping by saying, “You can page Life spread was her glamorous “one do one of two things: Put your mind on picture is worth a thousand words” self- your work, or worry about what people are portrait. Shown wearing a sheepskin-lined, saying about you. The two do not mix.” high-altitude flight suit, and standing before Elegant, bohemian Lee Miller—protégé a B-17 in North Africa in 1943, she was of magazine publisher Condé Nast, pupil described in the magazine as “the first and lover of Man Ray, star of a Jean Cocteau woman ever to fly with a U.S. combat crew film before she was 25—took a circuitous over enemy soil.” Twenty years later that path to war-correspondent fame. A Vogue same picture, spotted in an old magazine in model in her teens, she became a successful my grandmother’s attic, made me exclaim, portrait photographer in New York City, and “I want to do that!” Pablo Picasso had just painted her portrait in the south of France when Germany invaded      Poland. Returning to London, British Vogue Wwartime, gossip follows. Bourke- hired her to photograph the blitz. She subse- White fueled rumors that she received spe- quently collaborated with CBS newsman

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 12 ] Tad Bartimus: Bullets and Bathrooms

Edward R. Murrow on the book Grim Higgins traveled there, but the U.S. com- Glory: Pictures of Britain Under Fire. mander expelled her because, he said, “This In post-D-Day France, her acute “eye” is just not the type of war where women established her reputation for photography ought to be running around the front lines.” that was both artistic and technically excel- The Herald Tribune editorialized that lent. She covered U.S. service women at a “newspaper women today are willing to Paris fashion show, surrendering German assume the risk and in our opinion should officers, the venerated writer Colette and not be discriminated against. We hope the Alsace campaign. After [Higgins] will be allowed to photographing Hitler’s apart- continue her work.” Gen. ment in Munich, she liked it “Of course GIs Douglas MacArthur soon so much that she moved in; whistle and rescinded the banishment, one of the most famous pic- and Higgins returned imme- tures of Miller captures her wolf-call as you diately from Tokyo. taking a bath in the Führer’s jeep past a con- “At the actual war front,” tub. voy on the road. Higgins wrote, “a woman has Miller, Bourke-White, Mar- equal competitive opportuni- guerite Higgins of the New York But when the ties. Essentially it comes down Herald Tribune, Helen Kirk- shelling and to being in the combat area at patrick of the Chicago Daily the crucial time and having News and Sigrid Schultz of the shooting starts, the stamina to do the jeeping Chicago Tribune all reported nobody pays any and hiking necessary to get from Buchenwald the day where you can file your story. Gen. George S. Patton made attention. I … “Of course GIs whistle and neighboring German civilians can probably hit wolf-call as you jeep past a tour the Nazi death camp. a ditch as fast as convoy on the road. But when The ranks of women war the shelling and shooting correspondents had swelled any man.” starts, nobody pays any atten- after the Normandy invasion, — Marguerite Higgins tion. I … can probably hit a and by the war’s end Ameri- ditch as fast as any man.” can readers were familiar with In 1951 Higgins won nearly the bylines of Ruth Cowan of The Associ- 50 journalism prizes and awards, including ated Press, Lee Carson of International the George Polk Memorial Award, the Over- News Service, Iris Carpenter of The Boston seas Press Club citation for “courage, Globe, Catherine Coyne of The Boston Her- integrity and enterprise,” and the Pulitzer ald, Marjorie Avery of the Detroit Free Press Prize, which she shared with fellow corre- and a dozen others. spondents Keyes Beech, Homer Bigart and Higgins had felt cheated by coming late three others. She was the first woman to win to the war in 1944, though she stayed on in the Pulitzer for chronicling combat. Other Germany to cover the Nuremberg war tri- female newspaper reporters chose her als, the Berlin blockade and the subsequent Woman of the Year. airlift. When fighting broke out in Korea, Higgins died 14 years later of a rare trop-

S UMMER 2001 [ 13 ] T HE L ONG V IEW ical illness following her 10th reporting trip communist forces, imprisoned and released. to Vietnam and is buried at Arlington Gloria Emerson arrived for The New York National Cemetery. Times in 1970 and left two years later, writ- ing: “Nothing is simple here for the Ameri-       cans or the South Vietnamese. The blame and Twe all stand on the shoulders of the the guilt, the guilt and the blame, and always women who’ve come before us. So it was the surprise that it turned out as miserably as with the approximately 270 women from this, covers us all.” Her book about the war, around the world who were Winners and Losers, was hailed accredited as war correspon- for its “passion and furious dents to the Military Assis- Women journ- honesty.” tance Command, Vietnam. alists have By the early 1970s nearly Some came for a few days, every news organization in others stayed for years, flying proved—to sol- Saigon had a woman on its into Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut diers, editors, staff. Edith M. Lederer of airport with one-way tickets each other and The Associated Press and on commercial airliners. It was Tracy Wood of United Press easy to cover the war; all you themselves— International were fierce com- needed were a couple of letters that they can go petitors during the final Ameri- of reference on letterhead, a can withdrawal and prisoner- mug shot and a few forms. everywhere and of-war releases. Laura Palmer, Action was everywhere, mili- do everything. who arrived as a free-lancer, tary transport plentiful. landed radio reporting jobs Among the early female with both ABC and NBC. arrivals were, again, Gellhorn and Higgins; Vietnam became the place where an Chapelle, who’d been with the Marines at unknown “stringer” who was in the right Iwo Jima; Beverly Deepe, Elaine Shepard, place at the right time could get on the cover Anne Merick, Ann Bryan Mariano, Susan of Newsweek or the front page of The Wash- Sheehan, Frances FitzGerald, Helen “Patches” ington Post. A single photograph or datelined Musgrove, Denby Fawcett, Elizabeth Pond, lead launched many a career. Georgie Ann Geyer, Philippa Schuyler, Unlike World War II’s Bourke-White and Jurate Kazickas and Frenchwomen Suzanne Miller, and Korea’s Higgins, no female jour- Labin, Michele Ray and Catherine Leroy. nalists became superstars in Vietnam. Rather, Chapelle died on Nov. 4, 1965, when she a few dozen highly competent women pho- encountered a booby trap while on patrol tographers and correspondents found steady with the Marines. She was 47. Higgins died work covering a new kind of war where the two months later, at the age of 45. On May front lines could be the market where you 9, 1967, Schuyler was killed when the heli- bought your vegetables or the theater where copter in which she was riding crashed into you went to a Saturday night movie. It was Danang Bay. She was 35. a guerrilla war that offered combat, and sto- Kazickas and Leroy were both wounded; ries, in urban streets as well as in distant Leroy, Ray and Kate Webb were captured by paddies and highlands.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 14 ] Tad Bartimus: Bullets and Bathrooms

   changed my life,” Denby Fawcett wrote 30 W were no longer anomalies in Vietnam, years later, “I have difficulty answering because Cambodia and Laos, and when the war ended Vietnam is my life. If you pinch my skin, Viet- their careers continued. That was the major nam is there. If I rub my eyes, Vietnam is difference between them and their World underneath. … Vietnam is everything brave War II sisters, who couldn’t “take a job away about me and everything that is still uncertain.” from a man” when they returned to work on When Fawcett’s daughter, Brett Jones, a newspaper. Many women who covered Viet- announced she was going to Kosovo, it was nam are still in journalism and, like Lederer, hard for her role-model mother to protest, have gone on to datelines in other wars. so she cheered her child on. But get them together in a room—as Women journalists no longer have to happened last year at a seminar organized by plead or finagle their way into combat cov- Christine Martin, dean of the Perley Isaac erage just because of their gender. They have Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia proved—to soldiers, editors, each other and University—and many of these women will themselves—that they can go everywhere say their Vietnam experience was a high- and do everything. light of their lives. And hardly anybody talks about bath- “When people ask me how Vietnam rooms anymore.

S UMMER 2001 [ 15 ] COURTESY MALCOLM BROWNE AP correspondent Malcolm Browne walks through the Vietnamese countryside, 1972. FROM TELEX TO SATELLITE The technology changes but not the mission.

E DITH M. LEDERER

     showed up at the post office and telecom- Phnom Penh in May 1973, desperately munications building where he had a small Itrying to find the censor who had gone cubbyhole. on a break and wasn’t in any of his usual eat- We argued about a few changes he wanted ing or drinking haunts. to make in my copy before approving it. The The last U.S. combat troops had left phone lines to Tokyo, Hong Kong and Vietnam just over a month earlier, and the Saigon were bad that night, so I sat down at “hot war” had shifted to Cambodia. Phnom the telex and started punching telex tape— Penh was virtually surrounded and short of quite rapidly, I might add, because I’d had a food. Waves of U.S. B-52 bombers attacked lot of practice. I fed the tape through the day and night across the Mekong River. telex machine, and off my story went to Amid electricity shortages, a 10 p.m. curfew Tokyo and ultimately to New York. loomed. Finally, just as I was about to give Writing the story had been easy. Filing it up on filing my story that night, the censor had consumed more than four hours, not

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 16 ] Edith M. Lederer: From Telex to Satellite unusual in wartime Cambodia. In Israel, however, I confronted another The only way around the censor was to kind of censorship for the first time. find a “pigeon”—someone reliable who was Reporters and photographers in Vietnam leaving the country and would carry a story had virtually free access to the war. If there or film to the outside world, where the AP was space on a U.S. military helicopter, you would pick it up and transmit it. We tried could get on and fly to any battle zone. You this with features, analyses and stories that could also get in a jeep and drive anywhere, we knew would never get past the censor. which could be very risky and led to many The television networks did reporters’ and photographers’ the same. deaths. Transportation was much When a month earlier I had Edith M. Lederer more difficult in Cambodia, gone to Phnom Penh for the joined The Associated where the news media got air first time, I realized what free- Press in 1966 and has transport only if the govern- dom we’d had in Vietnam: since covered many wars ment wanted an event covered. There was no censorship, and The sole limits upon driving, and conflicts. Currently in the AP Saigon Bureau we however, were those imposed had our own slow-speed tele- she is the AP’s chief by one’s own sense of risk. type and operators to key in United Nations The Israeli government, by our copy and transmit photos. correspondent. contrast, required all mem- It was an era of typewriters bers of the media to have a and black-and-white film, of military escort. Generally, cumbersome radio and television equip- escorts were reservists called up to active ment. But even 1960s and ’70s technology duty. Some were very easygoing about was enough to make Vietnam the first war in where you could go. Others were not. which timely stories and pictures came One day I was with several colleagues nightly to U.S. television screens and daily watching a tank battle in the Sinai Desert. to U.S. newspapers. Charles Mohr of The New York Times, whom I later learned was a World War II military     , buff, recognized that the Israelis were using Min the summer of 1973, I was sent to tactics employed at El Alamein, Egypt, in another “hot” war—this time in the Middle World War II. When Mohr began talking East. I arrived in Tel Aviv days after the about the tactics, our military escort Egyptians had crossed the Suez Canal on accused him of breaching Israeli military Yom Kippur, the Jews’ holiest day of the intelligence—and I don’t think that story year, and again confronted censors. The got out immediately. Israeli military censor had to approve all military-related stories and film from the        country, a practice that continues today. TAfghanistan, six months after the Soviet The big difference was that the AP had a invasion in December 1979. This was direct line to send copy from its offices to Moscow’s Vietnam, and the government in the censor; after clearance we could transmit Kabul had stopped issuing visas to journal- it directly to New York. ists. I got into the country masquerading as

S UMMER 2001 [ 17 ] T HE L ONG V IEW a rug buyer (and actually bought about 100 ling media access to the soldiers who poured kilim rugs for a friend’s store in New York). into Saudi Arabia after the invasion. Fur- Because filing stories by telex or telephone ther, when the Persian Gulf War began in was impossible, I used several “pigeons” to January 1991, the military allowed coverage carry stories to New Delhi, India, where the only by small media pools. AP picked them up. I wrote a long series on The Pentagon had been roundly criti- the war—after I left Afghanistan. cized for barring the press from accompany- Computers first appeared in U.S. news- ing U.S. forces during the 1983 Grenada rooms in the early 1970s but didn’t really hit invasion. The protest led to new ground the battlefield until the 1980s. Even then, rules, including a “security review” of all sto- filing by computer often proved impossible. ries and photos before transmission, to Reporters frequently used computers as lit- guard against the release of sensitive infor- tle more than fancy typewriters. When I mation. The rules remained in effect during returned to Afghanistan in 1989 to cover the Gulf War. the civil war in the wake of the Soviet pull- I was in the Air Force combat pool, at the out, I had to file by telex, and well into the largest U.S. air base in Saudi Arabia, when 1990s telex remained the primary means of warplanes took off to bomb Iraq. Although transmitting stories from Third World the pool wasn’t supposed to file until the hotspots in Asia and Africa. next day, the deputy base commander led us The advent of mobile phones in the late to a secret telephone. I dictated the story to 1980s made filing easier, provided the user the AP bureau in Dhahran, where the main was someplace where the signal could be media operation was based. Happily, the picked up. On assignment in Northern Ire- military cleared it almost immediately. land in 1988, I was at an Irish Republican Just before the ground war began in late Army funeral when a Protestant gunman February, U.S. military commander Gen. ran through the cemetery firing a pistol and Norman Schwarzkopf ordered a news black- throwing grenades at the Catholic mourners. out, preventing a great deal of pool coverage. I dove for cover behind a tombstone but But the Air Force pool ignored the blackout, managed to dictate a story via mobile phone, and the Marine Corps—once it became my face almost in the dirt. The phones were clear that the U.S.-led coalition forces would quite new then, and other reporters offered quickly liberate Kuwait and rout the me a lot of money to use it, but I refused. Iraqis—allowed its pool to file reports. After all, competition is competition, and Meanwhile, the reporters, photographers the phone certainly gave the AP a scoop. and TV crews not in the pools made a mad dash—often with heavy satellite equipment        in tow—to get into Kuwait City, and they B1990, electronic devices had become were the first on the scene to report the smaller and more common. Portable satel- coalition’s victory. lite dishes had arrived as well, making filing considerably easier.      - Yet in a sharp departure from Vietnam Bnian war began in 1992, the news media policy, the U.S. military insisted on control- relied mainly on satellites to file stories, pho-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 18 ] Edith M. Lederer: From Telex to Satellite

DENNIS BRACK/BLACK STAR Persian Gulf War pool reporters question a Kuwaiti, foreground, who escaped Iraqi occupation. tos and TV footage, though the equipment deliver the news almost instantly, the basics was still heavy and difficult to transport. of news gathering in times of conflict have Filing was faster when NATO started its changed very little. 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 to end Journalists will always encounter obsta- the Yugoslav crackdown on ethnic Albani- cles, such as difficulties getting entry visas ans in Kosovo. Portable satellite telephones from reluctant governments or finding reli- and digital cameras ruled the day. Light- able translators and guides to good intelli- weight, portable video cameras that can be gence (so you don’t find yourself in the powered by a car battery are now available. middle of an ambush or being robbed, or All these advances have made it theoreti- worse, at a roadblock). Even the most tech- cally possible to file copy to a home base at savvy reporters and photographers still must any time from almost anywhere—a jungle, a go into the field and take the necessary risks desert, a ship or a foxhole—even at the height to see events firsthand and to report them of a battle. But while the new technology can accurately and fairly.

S UMMER 2001 [ 19 ] CORBIS Washington Post pressman checks the first edition after the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing publication of the Pentagon Papers.

WAR, CENSORSHIP AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT The military has replaced outright control of war reporting with “news management” techniques.

J ACQUELINE E. SHARKEY

   - U.S. Army Center of Military History. tion, the American government’s During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln’s Fwide-ranging efforts to control infor- administration allowed journalists to accom- mation about military operations date back pany the troops but suppressed newspapers to the Revolutionary War. for security violations. When he led the Continental Army, During World Wars I and II, U.S. mili- George Washington sometimes exaggerated tary officials censored journalists’ reports British losses to sustain Colonists’ morale, from the field while the government estab- according to William M. Hammond of the lished “information” offices at home to pro-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 20 ] Jacqueline E. Sharkey: War, Censorship and the First Amendment duce stories and pictures that would foster sorship, but it turned out to be just another support for the conflicts. factor the Defense Department and its civil- In Vietnam, journalists had battlefield ian leaders considered while devising a strat- access while following Pentagon ground egy for future combat coverage. rules. The military used its Saigon brief- In the 1980s and ’90s they developed a ings—known as the “Five O’Clock Fol- new model for controlling information. First lies”—to put a positive spin on information. used during the 1983 invasion of Grenada, The Vietnam conflict also led to govern- then during the conflicts in Panama and the ment efforts to exercise prior Persian Gulf, the model com- restraint. When The New York Jacqueline E. Sharkey, bined “pre-censorship”—pre- Times began publishing classi- venting reporters from reaching a University of Arizona fied information about the the field—with other news- conflict in 1971, the Nixon journalism professor, management techniques that administration went to court is the author of allowed the government to to prevent further publication Under Fire—U.S. control content and spin. of what became known as the Military Restrictions on Chief among these tech- Pentagon Papers. But the U.S. niques were televised briefings the Media from Grenada Supreme Court, in its 6-3 deci- that enabled the White House sion in New York Times Co. v. to the Persian Gulf. and Pentagon to circumvent United States, declared that First the press and present their ver- Amendment values overrode national security sion of events directly to the American peo- arguments. Justice Hugo Black’s opinion said: ple. Dick Cheney, who was defense secretary In the First Amendment, the Founding during two of these conflicts, said in a 1995 Fathers gave the free press the protec- taped interview that he and Joint Chiefs of tion it must have to fulfill its essential Staff Chairman Gen. Colin Powell developed role in our democracy. The press was to the briefings because the “information func- serve the governed, not the governors. tion was extraordinarily important. I did not The Government’s power to censor the have a lot of confidence that I could leave press was abolished so that the press that to the press.” would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was pro-   - tected so that it could bare the secrets of U management model that emerged at government and inform the people. ... the end of the 20th century is important for And paramount among the responsibil- several reasons. ities of a free press is the duty to pre- First, the government still uses some of its vent any part of the Government from techniques to influence military coverage. deceiving the people and sending them Second, pre-censorship is another form of off to distant lands to die of foreign prior restraint, once used by the British to con- fevers and foreign shot and shell. trol the Colonial press. Prior restraint ended in the Colonies in 1721 and re-emerged in full      force 250 years later in the Pentagon Papers Sdecisive victory in the battle against cen- case. The U.S. government engages in pre-

S UMMER 2001 [ 21 ] T HE L ONG V IEW publication censorship whenever it limits bat-      tlefield access, and it is impossible to justify Iaccess, the Pentagon’s news-management when operational security or troop safety is model included these techniques: not at stake. Sanitizing visual images of war Finally, renewed discussions about military During the Persian Gulf War, U.S. mili- news management are crucial at a time when the tary briefers repeatedly showed images of laser- United States is increasingly involved in multi- guided bombs unerringly hitting their targets. national operations with organizations like The Pentagon said during the first week that NATO, whose other members have restrictive Air Force missions had an 80 percent success press laws and no First Amendment tradition. rate but did not tell journalists until after the The military’s impetus for developing a war that only 8.8 percent of the 84,200 tons new model for controlling combat coverage of bombs dropped had precision-guidance grew out of the Vietnam War. Some military mechanisms. Former Pentagon analyst Pierre officers believed negative press coverage con- Sprey later told a House committee that for tributed to the U.S. defeat. This perception every bomb that hit a target, “there were persisted even after military historians and maybe 70 or 75 misses that nobody was academics showed that the American people showing,” for a success rate of less than 1.5 turned against the war not because of the percent. This revealed “just how shameless the news media but because of rising U.S. casu- censoring of the results for the guided alties and the lack of political leadership. weapons was during the war,” Sprey testified. Yet the useful news-management model Concealing information that would that U.S. officials found in 1982 came out embarrass the U.S. government of a far different conflict: Britain’s war with The Pentagon did not want to disclose that Argentina over the Falkland Islands (Malv- planning for the invasion of Grenada was so inas). The British military controlled the hurried that some troops were given tourist press by limiting the number of journalists maps. In Panama, the Pentagon was reluctant who accompanied the troops, regulating to correct its statement that U.S. troops found their trips to the battlefield and reviewing 50 kilos of cocaine in a building used by Gen. their news reports before transmitting them. Manuel Noriega, even after lab tests showed The result was overwhelmingly positive cov- the substance was farina, cornmeal and lard. erage and a political victory for Margaret Misleading the news media about military Thatcher’s government. mistakes That the U.S. military focused on a British During the Grenada invasion the Penta- press-management strategy is ironic and gon did not reveal that U.S. planes mistakenly chilling. Britain’s restrictions on the Colo- had bombed a mental hospital until journal- nial press—which included punishments ists discovered the incident by interviewing for printing truthful criticism of the govern- medical personnel on the island. After the ment—were one reason the First Amend- Gulf War, the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. ment was created. Britain today still has press Merrill McPeak, said U.S. forces “made some regulations that are anathema to the idea that mistakes about what we bombed.” He declined a government “shall make no law” abridging to elaborate, saying his recommendation to dis- freedom of the press. close errors “got turned around, quite frankly.”

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 22 ] Jacqueline E. Sharkey: War, Censorship and the First Amendment

Misleading the news media about military War for Newsweek—said the briefings were a successes “very carefully orchestrated snow job” and “a During the Grenada invasion Defense duplicate of the ‘Five O’Clock Follies.’” Secretary Caspar Weinberger announced that Defense Department personnel who pre- the operation to rescue hundreds of U.S. sented misleading information at the brief- medical students had been “extremely skill- ings may have violated the Pentagon’s fully done.” After the invasion, then-Maj. Gen. Principles of Information. The principles, Norman Schwarzkopf, a deputy commander reissued by Cheney following criticism of of the Grenada operation, said the Panama press restrictions, Pentagon intelligence had been stated that the Defense Depart- so poor that when U.S. troops Shortly after ment will provide “a free flow arrived they did not even know the Gulf War of general and military infor- the medical school had two mation ... without censorship campuses. ended, a poll or propaganda” and that “infor- During the Gulf War the indicated that mation will not be classified Pentagon referred repeatedly to four out of or otherwise withheld to pro- the success of the Tomahawk tect the government from crit- missile. In its final report to five Americans icism or embarrassment.” Congress more than a year after thought military Some in Congress were so the war, the Defense Depart- concerned about whether law- ment said the missile had a “98 restrictions makers and the public were percent launch success rate.” on news getting the facts from the This meant only that the mis- reports were a Gulf War that in February sile had left its launcher and 1991 the Senate Governmen- achieved level flight. The report good idea. tal Affairs Committee held declined to estimate how many hearings on the Pentagon’s targets the Tomahawk hit, say- media policies. Military pub- ing this figure was “much more difficult to lic affairs officers who had served in Viet- determine.” nam testified that the military had gone Using Pentagon briefings to undermine beyond what was needed to protect oper- the role of the press ational security and troop safety. But The Pentagon’s Lt. Gen. Thomas Kelly, a Defense Secretary Cheney declined to make briefer during the Panama and Gulf opera- major changes in the press rules. One rea- tions, called televised briefings “the most son: The American people strongly sup- significant part of the whole operation” ported them. because “the American people were getting Shortly after the Gulf War ended, a poll their information from the government, not by the Times Mirror Center for the People from the press.” & the Press indicated that four out of five Cheney stated he didn’t want to distort Americans thought military restrictions on information, but Col. David H. Hack- news reports were a good idea. worth—a highly decorated soldier who served The press bears part of the responsibility. in Korea and Vietnam and covered the Gulf Although the media protested the Grenada,

S UMMER 2001 [ 23 ] T HE L ONG V IEW

Panama and Persian Gulf restrictions, they still little cost. Military officers “must counsel our used the information and visuals the Penta- political leaders and alert the American pub- gon provided. When the military announced lic that there is no such thing as a ‘splendid the pool and security-review system for the Gulf little war.’ … War is death and destruction. conflict, news organizations initially protested, The American way of war is particularly vio- but some soon began fighting among them- lent, deadly and dreadful. … We should have selves for pool slots. made the realities of war obvious to the Some news media engaged in self-censor- American people,” Weyand wrote. ship, declining to appropriately cover dissent- Over the past 20 years much of the press ing voices or to fully show the human cost of has failed to show Americans that reality. war. When one photograph of a charred Iraqi “Too often the press has gone along with corpse on the “Highway to Hell” arrived at censorship” and “hasn’t always been a very The Associated Press, editors decided it was good guardian of the First Amendment,” “a little too graphic” to transmit. noted Jeffery A. Smith, author of War and Press Initial coverage of the Gulf conflict was so Freedom—The Problem of Prerogative Power. enthusiastic that Pentagon officials feared a Journalists and media analysts have loss of public support if a ground war resulted warned that pre-censorship endangers in heavy casualties. The White House and democracy in several ways. Legendary CBS Defense Department started what then- anchorman Walter Cronkite told a Senate Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public committee investigating media restrictions Affairs Pete Williams called “euphoria con- during the Gulf War that pre-censorship trol.” Gen. Powell warned the Senate Armed was “totally unsatisfactory” because “his- Services Committee that “ground combat is tory begins to be distorted with every sec- nasty business. It is not nice and sanitized and ond that passes after it occurs. With every clean as a video game, such as nice gun-cam- retelling of the story by witnesses, the story era footage”—neglecting to mention that changes.” Pentagon briefings repeatedly showed this Cronkite said he “would rather have the footage. post-censorship” because journalists at least In negotiations after the war, the news could be on the scene to obtain information media obtained some concessions about the public would need to make long-term rules for future coverage, but efforts to con- decisions about policy and policy makers, trol information and images continued from even if that information couldn’t be released Somalia to the Balkans. immediately. One irony is that the news-management As constitutional scholar Smith said in an policies, developed in response to the Viet- interview last year, the First Amendment nam War, were the opposite of what some was created because the founders believed top military officers had recommended after “government officials were not the people to the U.S. defeat. trust with the control of information,” and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Fred C. Weyand the press should make “the ultimate choice” wrote that the military should never again go about what people learn of military opera- along with civilian leaders’ attempts to make tions. A press denied access to the battlefield war look as if it were a policy alternative with cannot make that choice.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 24 ] DENNIS BRACK/DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE/TIMEPIX A CNN camera crew interviews a U.S. soldier after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, 1990. THE PEN AND THE SWORD

The prospect of an army of government spinners talking electronically and directly to hundreds of news outlets ... scares the hell out of me. We need walking, talking, thinking and challenging reporters to keep track of a place that has the power to blow up the planet. —  . 

❖ George C. Wilson on media-military relations James Kitfield on lessons from Kosovo Jane Kirtley on the public’s right to know Robert Sims on military secrecy Peter S. Prichard on journalists’ military service Patrick J. Sloyan on the failure of press pools Derald Everhart on the role of the military press ❖

S UMMER 2001 [ 25 ] DAVID GREEDY/LIAISON U.S. Brig. Gen. Kenneth Quinland talks with reporters in Debelde, Kosovo, 2001. MEDIA-MILITARY RELATIONS: NO WORSE, NO BETTER But one scenario for the future is alarming.

G EORGE C. WILSON

      First the good news: about what has happened to media- • Since that odd couple, Frank Aukofer of Tmilitary relations since a journalist the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Vice and a military officer took look at them in a Adm. William P. Lawrence, wrote their 1995 study, “America’s Team: The Odd Cou- book, the relationship has not worsened. ple. A Report on the Relationship Between • The press corps covering national defense the Military and the Media.” The long-term is the best in Washington, D.C., in terms outlook, however, is downright scary for those of understanding its subject matter and fearing radical change in the ways the press poking into dark corners. One of the Pen- gathers news and the government dispenses it. tagon’s own, Bryan Whitman, deputy

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 26 ] George C. Wilson: Media-Military Relations: No Worse, No Better

director for defense information, said, “I covers defense for The Associated Press in would give the Pentagon press corps an A- Washington and thus potentially has the minus and our own information officers most readers. “I really don’t share what might something less.” be the conventional wisdom that relations are • Major newspapers and television networks bad or that there is a serious problem,” he still spend millions of dollars covering the said. “I think for the most part my relations military-industrial complex with experienced, with all the services in the Pentagon are expensive reporters, even in peacetime. pretty good.” • A number of military leaders Burns’ views fit with Aukofer are realizing that they are in and Lawrence’s conclusion George C. Wilson, a war for people’s minds, not that the media and military territory, and therefore need to a former chief defense “have learned that coopera- explain themselves through correspondent for The tion serves the interest of each the news media to win. Washington Post, is now a as well as serving the Ameri- Now, the bad news: writer for National Journal, can people.” Thomas Ricks of • Since Aukofer and Lawrence a newsweekly on politics The Washington Post said the wrote their book, the relationship in the field is par- and government. media-military relationship ticularly good. has not improved, either. However, the defense press • The proliferation of competing outlets for is no more monolithic than the Pentagon. military news—think Internet—has Burns and Ricks represent the dominant broadened the “go with what you’ve got” viewpoint, but dissenters exist, too. David attitude and spurred sensationalism, Wood of Newhouse News Service, who which in turn has cost the press credibility spends much of his time with troops, said with an already suspicious military estab- media-military relationships in the field lishment. “have gone into the toilet in the last six • While the quality of defense reporters months,” but he could not explain why. remains high, the quality of the military’s As a wire-service reporter, Burns reports information officers has declined. the top of the news, leaving him little time • Government control and spin, à la the Per- to go vertical. Reporters for specialized pub- sian Gulf War, is still very much with us. lications such as Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine, insider newsletters     and Army Times Publishing Co.’s family of Tof interviews with a wide spectrum of privately owned military newspapers do go journalists and information officers as well vertical and often run into layers of resist- as my own observations as a chronicler of ance as they try to get to the core of a story. the military for 40 years, both in Washing- David Fulghum of Aviation Week, for exam- ton and in hot spots from Vietnam to ple, said the typical Air Force information Bosnia. officer today neither knows nor cares about “About the same,” replied Robert Burns the guts of what his or her own service does. when asked to compare today’s media-mili- Further, he said, that officer feels no sense of tary relationship with that of 1995. Burns mission to help reporters tell the Air Force

S UMMER 2001 [ 27 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD story in depth. Fulghum said the situation Weimaraner (it’s hard for an officer to look developed as the best and brightest left the bad in Navy blues)—intelligent and well Air Force public affairs community. behaved but insistent on being properly Frank Wolfe of Defense Daily, who delves approached. The Air Force would be the into military procurement and research, said French poodle with a rhinestone collar that civilian and military officials in those areas avoids the cold and wet and doesn’t fancy seem to feel no obligation to explain what pulling a sled but can do lots of tricks if he they do and why to specialty reporters feels like it. The Marine Corps would be the including himself. “It’s really husky that is proud of pulling tough,” he said. a heavy sled through a blizzard Tobias Naegele, executive The distinct and will go all out to help— editor of Army Times Publish- culture that has but only if he trusts you. ing Co., said he was astounded Similarly, each news gather- that Army public affairs lead- developed in ing organization—each reporter, ers today see no need to build each of the for that matter—has a different a bridge to the Army Times, culture shaping the kind of which focuses on their service armed services defense news it seeks. Bill and goes into the homes and shapes the Gertz of The Washington Times, offices of Army personnel. media-military for instance, regularly scoops Every reporter interviewed for the rest of us by working the this piece, both print and elec- relationship. intelligence community. Ken- tronic, gave the Army’s infor- neth Bacon, who just finished mation shop the poorest a six-year tour as the Penta- ratings among the armed forces. gon’s top spokesman, gives Gertz’s stories Those interviewed also agreed universally high marks and contends that if they that the Defense Department—civilian and appeared in either The Washington Post or military alike—is a top-down organization The New York Times they would trigger gov- in which the minions take their cues from, ernment investigations. and often surpass, the king. If a defense sec- retary, general or admiral stiff-arms the     press, his subordinates are apt to do the P change the cultures of the military and same thing—and then some. the media. When I first started covering the Pentagon, at the beginning of the Vietnam     War, print reporters were running around the I culture that has developed in each of the Pentagon, often coatless. They dominated armed services shapes the media-military official briefings with sharp questions. TV relationship. If I had to liken each service to correspondents were the occasional visitors in a dog breed, the Army would be the family suits who knew little about soldiers and Airedale—a great companion in the woods, weapons. TV reporting on the military came but he messes on the living room carpet and of age during the Vietnam War and has been can’t understand why he keeps getting getting better, by and large, ever since. spanked. The Navy would be the sleek One practitioner who exemplifies this

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 28 ] George C. Wilson: Media-Military Relations: No Worse, No Better

HESOON YIM/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Former Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon switch in roles and the changed culture existent these days,” McIntyre said. “Part of between print and electronic media is Jamie that is that they have a chief of staff [Gen. McIntyre, CNN’s longest-serving military Eric K. Shinseki] who, to say it generously, affairs correspondent. He reminds me of the is media-shy. Some would say he doesn’t print reporters of the Vietnam era as he really like the media, and that sort of trick- races around the Pentagon in rumpled les down to subordinates, including those khakis and with fire in his eyes. And like the designated to deal with the media.” When print reporters of yore, he has no trouble the Army grounded its fleet of Apache heli- selling his editors on defense stories, even copters, it “went through a concerted effort those with no bang-bang. McIntyre repre- to bury that story. No heads-up. Nobody sents the CNN factor at the Pentagon—a called at home,” said McIntyre. The Army factor that the whole military establishment instead waited until 9:30 p.m. on the Friday has learned to reckon with, like it or not. of a holiday weekend to slip an announce- Influential people around the world see and ment under news-cubicle doors at the Pen- hear McIntyre, which makes him and his tagon. And of course no one was in those CNN colleagues major players in the cubicles. “Their strategy was that if we media-military relationship. release it now and don’t tell anybody about “Army public affairs seems to be non- it,” McIntyre said, “come Tuesday (Monday

S UMMER 2001 [ 29 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD was a holiday) we can then say, ‘Well yes. tion in their view, but it was the combination They’ve been grounded, but some of them of Brussels (NATO headquarters) and Wash- have been fixed and returned to duty.’ The ington trying to brief simultaneously that objective was to ameliorate the effect of this partially skewed it. Brussels was much worse negative story. in trying to spin it than even Washington “I find out about it after the weekend, go was, in my opinion. … down to Army public affairs and read them “[Army European commander Gen.] Wes the riot act: ‘This is unacceptable; how can Clark was bucking everybody: ‘You want to you do this? This is a cover-up. know about this air war? Talk How can you look yourself in to me.’ That was the attitude the mirror when you go home The government [he] had in Brussels. He and say you did a good job has a harder wouldn’t let any of his com- when you deliberately buried manders talk to me, even when the story?’ They had some time justifying I went there. ... I couldn’t talk story about how it wasn’t to the public to anybody. I did talk to sev- approved. Two weeks later modern-day eral of them, but it had to be they ground the Apaches off the record and at their again and do the same thing. wars where peril. Is that better or is that They release it at 7 o’clock at democratic worse than the Persian Gulf night instead of 9:30. It’s War? disingenuous. principles—not “Relations between the “And when we ask about it, tangibles like oil media and the Pentagon … they try to tell us the Apaches or territory—are over the last five years … have aren’t grounded. ‘They’re just not declined or deteriorated, under a safety review.’ Are they at stake. but I think they continue to flying? ‘No they’re not flying, be sometimes constructive but they’re not grounded.’ and sometimes constrained When you have to drag the truth out of and often antagonistic,” McWethy said. somebody, you don’t feel like you’re being Dana Priest of The Washington Post, who dealt with straight.” wrote a prize-winning series about theater commanders titled “The Proconsuls,” was ’     among the reporters who told me that a A the Pentagon off and on since 1979. growing number of military leaders “have “The air war over Kosovo,” he said, “was a absorbed the lesson of the last 20 years that long, sustained period where we were looking you cannot ignore the public and, in fact, for answers, and the Pentagon provided the can make your case to the public through answers on an almost-daily basis. We found the press.” She added that defense secretaries out later that it was distorting the facts. Does frequently “forget that lesson, partly because that mean [military officials] were guilty of of their close ties to the White House and its lying or only putting the best face forward? I political agenda and determination to con- don’t know. I’m sure they felt they were put- trol the agenda.” Priest said the press was ting a lot of information out, good informa- both “spun and complicit in the spinning”

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 30 ] George C. Wilson: Media-Military Relations: No Worse, No Better during the Kosovo campaign “by not asking ing from newspapers of all sizes—and the enough questions about the methodology.” Pentagon’s electronic responses “are elimi- Former Pentagon spokesman Bacon, when nating the middleman,” the reporter walking asked about the points made by McWethy, the halls of the Pentagon. The speed of that Priest and others, said he and other briefers Internet questioning and answering—gen- cautioned time after time that their Kosovo erated both by the technology and the inten- bombing reports were preliminary. When a sified competitiveness in which reporters Pentagon briefer warned that bombers insist they “need information before we’re might have hit a decoy, not a tank, no ready to announce it”—“heightens the tension reporter passed that on to the public, he and increases the friction” between the media added. The press, Bacon said, paid inordi- and defense establishments, Whitman said. nate attention to bombs that missed targets Consider the long-term consequences of and “reveled in cheap shots that completely this elimination of the middleman, the distorted the coverage” of what he regarded reporter. “Let’s face it, the media are a filter as a very successful air campaign. Bacon as well as an avenue. The Internet allows us agreed that the government has a harder to reach more customers” without going time justifying to the public modern-day through that filter, Whitman said. What wars where democratic principles—not tan- looms ahead, then, is the prospect that the gibles like oil or territory—are at stake. “Is government will take a more direct route to it right to risk American lives to defend the public, via the Internet, to win the war Kosovars? Public officials have to do a better for people’s minds. As a result, government job of answering such questions,” he said. information—or propaganda—will have less of what is generally healthy filtering by    , the press. L Bacon and others in the government’s Will the paperless society be followed by military information network see a revolu- a reporterless society in which no reporters tion in the way the news media gather slip covertly into Pentagon offices to inter- defense information and the government dis- view officials who know what’s really going penses it. Bacon said the current corps of on? I don’t know about most people, but the Pentagon reporters might well be the last of prospect of an army of government spinners its kind because the Internet is galloping in to talking electronically and directly to hun- take its place. His sense is that young people dreds of news outlets and one-man com- get most of their information off computer mentators—some responsible and some screens, not TV screens or printed pages. not—scares the hell out of me. We need The Pentagon’s Whitman said questions walking, talking, thinking and challenging coming into the Defense Department elec- reporters to keep track of a place that has tronically from all over the world—includ- the power to blow up the planet.

S UMMER 2001 [ 31 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD

IT TAKES TWO TO MAKE A TEAM

F RANK A UKOFER

    - matic with the presence of the admiral, a hero W lished “America’s Team: The Odd who spent six years as a prisoner of war in Couple” in 1995, the reaction was immediate North Vietnam and was the senior officer at and disjointed. The military embraced it; the the “Hanoi Hilton,” where Sen. John McCain media ignored it. also was imprisoned. In the years that followed, The Freedom Not surprisingly, I found a great deal of Forum First Amendment Center at Vander- skepticism among my audiences, which typi- bilt University in Nashville, Tenn., shipped cally consisted of military officers ranking more than 15,000 copies of ❖ from captain to colonel (in the study of the military- the Navy, from lieutenant to Frank Aukofer media relationship, which I captain) along with a smatter- co-authored with retired Vice is the retired Washington ing of academy students. Sur- Adm. William P. Lawrence. bureau chief of the prisingly, however, I found an The overwhelming majority Milwaukee Journal eagerness to learn about the of those copies went to the workings of the news media Sentinel. military. and a willingness to be per- Within weeks of the publi- ❖ suaded that newspeople could cation, the invitations to speak and discuss be patriots, too, and that not every reporter the report started rolling in from military was out to win a Pulitzer Prize or a Peabody organizations. Over the course of more than Award at the expense of the military. five years, I delivered speeches, moderated My overwhelming impression was that the panel discussions, participated as a panel military, at the very top levels, had seriously member and led seminars on the subject. embraced the message that the nation’s men The venues were all military: the Army and and women in uniform needed to make their Navy war colleges, the Air University and War case to the American people, and that the best College, Marine Corps University, the Coast way to do it was through the traditional news Guard Academy and the U.S. Military Acad- media—despite the risks inherent in the emy, as well as countless public affairs confer- scrutiny of a free press. There was recognition ences sponsored by the Army National Guard that the military had a powerful, positive and other military organizations, both on and story to tell to a public largely ignorant of its off military installations and at the Pentagon. culture, and that it should accept whatever Unfortunately, Lawrence suffered a stroke warts might be unearthed along the way. only a month after the publication of “Amer- Because of the military’s chain of command, ica’s Team.” This meant I had to go it alone that message was filtering slowly down instead of being the junior partner in the through the officer corps and, in some cases, Lawrence-Aukofer Road Show. It also meant to the rank and file. I had to struggle to develop credibility with Meanwhile, virtually no response came the audiences, which would have been auto- from news organizations, despite our warn-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 32 ] Frank Aukofer: It Takes Two to Make a Team

ings in “America’s Team” that unless editors Now almost six years old, “America’s Team” and news directors planned for the future is dated. But many of its points are still valid, with their military counterparts, the media- and it still is in use. Lawrence (having resumed military relationship once again could be an active schedule) has advised the U.S. Naval dashed against the shoals of mistrust in the Academy on a new media course for mid- next big conflict. shipmen in which the book is the major text. There was some contact, but it was mainly As George C. Wilson, one of the premier from the larger news organizations—the tele- military reporters of our age, notes in the pre- vision networks, wire services and major ceding article, the military-media relationship newspapers—and they primarily were look- has stabilized, but problems remain. In my ing out for their own interests. The report mind, a major reason for that is simply sparked little or no reaction, as far as I could turnover. Reporters change beats, editors and determine, from professional organizations news directors move on, and military officers such as the American Society of Newspaper savvy about the media are transferred, pro- Editors, the Associated Press Managing Edi- moted and retired. Hence the flaws in the tors or the Radio-Television News Directors military-media relationship are not suscepti- Association. ble to an overall solution. Because of the con- A likely major reason is the unstructured stant substitution of new faces, as well as the nature of news organizations. They are inde- inherent differences between the missions of pendent, highly competitive and not inclined the “odd couple,” sustained effort is needed to to cooperate with one another—not even on maintain a working relationship that will something as important as making certain the benefit the American people by providing next war or military engagement is covered for their security as well as their enlighten- properly. ment.

S UMMER 2001 [ 33 ] THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/U.S. AIR FORCE/SENIOR AIRMAN JAMES N. FASO III F-15C Eagle jets prepare to receive fuel from KC-135R Stratotanker during Operation Allied Force in Yugoslavia, 1999. LESSONS FROM KOSOVO Bad things happen when the media and the military butt heads yet again.

J AMES K ITFIELD

 -- Force over Kosovo. media coverage, America went to Meanwhile, NATO and the Pentagon Dwar wearing blindfolds in 1999. managed, massaged and manipulated the Each day that spring, many hundreds of information released to the press, with an U.S. service members risked their lives in eye toward filling air time with the alliance’s combat against Serbian forces, yet the message of the day instead of filling in the American people were largely in the dark blanks for the voracious news media and an about the attacks launched, the targets cho- uninformed public. Some information that sen and the damage inflicted. Most of the leaked through the early blackout and into pilots’ names remain unknown to this day. the 24-hour media torrent, however, was Commanders were officially gagged, and genuinely harmful—inadvertently threaten- reporters were, for a time, barred from air ing the war effort and the lives of the Amer- bases participating in Operation Allied icans waging it.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 34 ] James Kitfield: Lessons from Kosovo

As another bruising chapter in a tumul- “We’re living in an age of 24-hour news tuous media-military relationship, Operation networks, all competing for scoops, and Allied Force suggests that in an age of instant that’s led to much less respect in the media communications, the problem may not be for protecting operational security,” said too little information but too much—glob- then-Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon ally broadcast too quickly to permit verifica- after the war in Kosovo ended. For instance, tion and reflection, and concentrated and during the early days of Allied Force, when exploited too cleverly by government and the Serbs had shot down the first U.S. F- military officials with an 117 stealth fighter, Bacon said agenda. that one 24-hour news chan- James Kitfield Pentagon officials deny ever nel was broadcasting fighter purposely misleading the is the national security takeoffs, potentially giving media, but they admit to and foreign affairs corre- Serb air defense gunners criti- clamping down on the infor- spondent for National cal warning. “I also don’t mation flow to an extraordi- Journal. He has written think the press understood nary degree during the early the absolute necessity we felt on defense, national weeks of Allied Force. Changes in terms of holding the in the nature of modern war- security and foreign alliance together. So this was a fare and the news business, policy issues for more new kind of war, and it they say, are altering the rules than a decade. offered new challenges, and of engagement between the I’m not sure either the press military and the press. or the Pentagon is yet up to For instance, wars increasingly fought by that challenge,” he said. alliances—such as Allied Force and Desert If Kosovo represented a new kind of war, Storm—have a much greater political com- however, many experts recognized an old ponent, making officials warier of straying and familiar pattern in the dysfunctional off message and inadvertently causing a media-military relationship. Once again a public backlash in a sensitive alliance coun- national emergency threw the two profes- try. Over-the-horizon warfare and fire-and- sions together, only to find that mutual dis- forget weapons concentrate information in trust and misunderstanding exacerbated the the hands of military officials and make it inherent tensions in their relationship. At much harder for the media to provide one point in the conflict, for instance, much “ground truth,” especially when U.S. of the national press corps—including The ground troops are not involved or kept off- New York Times, The Washington Post, The limits to the media. Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, The burgeoning number of 24-hour CNN and NBC News—wrote a collective cable and Internet outlets also has had a letter to the secretary of defense, complain- dramatic impact. Not only has this prolifer- ing bitterly about the wartime veil of ation increased the likelihood that leaked secrecy. information could compromise operational A close look at the historical currents, cul- security, but the increased media competi- tural dynamics and technological trends tion detracts from careful fact checking. driving the media-military relationship sug-

S UMMER 2001 [ 35 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD gests that the level of distrust and the cul- people who are comfortable questioning tural gap between these camps are substan- authority precisely because they see their tial. If the fissure widens to the extent that roles as speaking truth to power. The mili- the two sides once again stare at each other tary attracts and indoctrinates those who not only with misunderstanding but also naturally respect authority because the bat- with open disdain and disbelief—as cer- tlefield brooks neither dissent nor question- tainly happened during the Vietnam era and ing of orders. its aftermath—both professions will have Because journalists see themselves as both failed the American people. protecting society’s underdogs “I believe the relationship and serving as watchdogs of between the media and the In an age of the most powerful, they tend U.S. military in the interim instant commu- to be liberal on social issues. between Vietnam and Desert Given the tremendous risks to Storm became so bad that it nications, the life and even national survival was a threat to the well-being problem may inherent in its work, the mili- of our republic,” said Lt. Gen. not be too little tary is conservative by nature Bernard “Mick” Trainor. He and tends to attract those became one of the few veterans information but embracing conservative social to cross the media-military too much— views. chasm when he began a second Surveys and opinion polls career as a journalist and globally broad- suggest that since the 1970s columnist for The New York cast too quickly journalism has become even Times after leaving the Marine and exploited more liberal as a profession, Corps. “I also think the mili- while the military has become tary’s manipulation of the too cleverly. more conservative. In a 1996 media during Kosovo, and the Freedom Forum poll of 139 tightening of its grip on essen- Washington bureau chiefs tial information with this attitude of ‘We’ll and correspondents, for instance, 89 per- tell you what you need to know,’ was in cent said they voted for Bill Clinton in many ways a payback for what the military 1992, compared with only 7 percent who still believes the media did to it in Vietnam.” backed George Bush. According to the sur- vey, 50 percent of journalists identified     , themselves as Democrats, while only 4 per- Pmutual distrust arising from the Viet- cent said they were Republicans. nam War—coupled with the end of the Also since the end of the draft, the U.S. draft—the cultural gap in professional atti- military’s political orientation has by most tudes between the media and the military accounts shifted in the opposite direction. has steadily widened. Over the past quarter After several decades of self-selection, the century both professions attracted Ameri- all-volunteer force has become increasingly cans of vastly different natures and perspec- conservative. In a 1999 paper, “A Widening tives while nurturing and sharpening those Gap Between the Military and Civilian natural proclivities. Media careers entice Society,” Ole Holsti, professor of interna-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 36 ] James Kitfield: Lessons from Kosovo

PETER TURNLEY/BLACK STAR Members of the news media swarm a car of ethnic Albanian Kosovar refugees crossing the border into Macedonia, 1999. tional affairs and political science at Duke competition of 24-hour news cycles, have University, found that between 1976 and conspired to trample fundamental journal- 1999 the proportion of self-identified istic standards of objectivity and meticulous Republican military officers grew steadily— sourcing. Pentagon public affairs officers— from fewer than one in three to six of seven. the first line of contact between the media Only one officer in 20 was self-identified as and the military—often complain that “liberal” or “somewhat liberal.” instant analysis and a growing tilt toward negative and sensational news are combin-   -   ing to make the media less reliable partners A coverage of Kosovo revealed, changes in informing the public during times of war. in the nature and technology of both the “With the explosion of 24-hour news journalistic and military professions seem outlets, there’s greater pressure to report in likely to widen the cultural divide in the real time, before facts can be evaluated and future. By many measures journalism is confirmed. Then those often factually becoming more chaotic and the military incorrect stories are instantly dissected, ana- more controlling. lyzed and commented upon on the air,” said Media watchers long have worried that one senior military public affairs officer. an explosion of media outlets on cable TV Even reporters and producers caught up and the Internet, along with the cutthroat in a 24-hour news merry-go-round blame

S UMMER 2001 [ 37 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD the accelerated pace for problems affecting critical information that could help the the media-military relationship. The rush to press and public gauge the campaign’s level get stories out first and with a new twist, of effort, such as the numbers of aircraft sor- they say, erodes their ability to separate ties and bomb-damage assessments. Conse- rumor from fact and to supply the necessary quently, early headlines and reports bought nuance and background to put stories in into the military’s depiction of an ever- context. The Pentagon is also becoming intensifying blitz: “NATO Opens Broad more adept at manipulating the media pack Barrage Against Serbs” (March 25, 1999, and throwing it off the scent The New York Times); “Bomb- of critical stories. ing Spreads” (March 29, The “The incredible competi- NATO Washington Post); “NATO tive pressure of 24-hour news spokesman Planes Step Up Attack on Serb cycles is making reporters into Troops in Campaign’s 5th Day” speed bumps on the informa- Jamie Shea (March 29, Times); “NATO tion highway,” said Mark described how Builds Firepower for 24-Hour Brender, a Navy veteran and NATO deliber- Attacks” (March 30, Post). former long-time ABC Penta- In truth, the initial bomb- gon producer. “And because ately saturated ing campaign was anything we’re always rushing off to the the airwaves but massive, and the media next story, the Pentagon has badly misrepresented its size learned it can manipulate the with successive and scope in that first month. media easier. They spin us briefings timed Now we know that the early with the cockpit video because Allied Force campaign was a they know that video has to keep the modest effort based on the power and will lead the broad- 24-hour media political calculation that cast, and if they can just make pack running Milosevic would back down it past the 6:30 p.m. news as soon as he realized NATO shows, they are home free. in circles. was serious. His failure to do Reporters don’t have time to so caught the alliance and the go back and poke around for Pentagon badly off guard, the real story. Increasingly, the Pentagon is forcing them to rush three times the num- blowing stories right by the media.” ber of aircraft into the theater to mount a One story that many reporters believe the serious air campaign. Partly to hold together Pentagon “blew by them” concerned how a shaky alliance, NATO officials tried to badly unprepared NATO was in the early obscure this fact. weeks of Allied Force. The implied message NATO spokesman Jamie Shea’s remark- of the countless NATO and Pentagon brief- ably candid speech after the war dispelled any ings at the time implied that a massive, doubt that government officials had used the Desert Storm-type bombardment would dynamics of the never-ending news cycle to either shock Serbian strongman Slobodan manipulate the media. Shea described how Milosevic into submission or destroy the NATO deliberately saturated the airwaves Yugoslavian military. The military withheld with successive briefings from Brussels, Lon-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 38 ] James Kitfield: Lessons from Kosovo don and Washington, timed to keep the 24- be to give them the benefit of the doubt. The hour media pack running in circles. Pentagon is setting a trap for itself.” “One thing we did well during the Kosovo In fact, that trap might have sprung on May crisis was to occupy the media space,” Shea 22, 1999, when after many weeks of tensions said. “We created a situation in which over information control during the Kosovo nobody in the world who was a regular TV war, Pentagon briefers announced “the most watcher could escape the NATO message. It active night of strikes so far.” NATO air was essential to keep the media permanently strikes, they said, not only had hit between 40 occupied and supplied with fresh informa- and 50 targets in Kosovo but also had virtually tion to report on. That way, they [were] less shut down Yugoslavia’s electrical grid. inclined to go in search of critical stories.” “Looking back, that may have been the Such a calculated manipulation of the turning point in the war,” said then-Pen- media threatens to increase an already worri- tagon spokesman Bacon. “It showed our some credibility gap. Some reporters are increased ability to hit Serb forces on the concerned that the media and the military ground in Kosovo, and it brought the war are heading for another disastrous estrange- home to the population of Serbia as a whole.” ment as a result of butting heads during The next day, however, when Bacon Kosovo. “When the Pentagon decided to picked up The New York Times to see how clamp down on information during Kosovo, the paper had played this turning point in it had a terrible effect on our ability to cover the war, he was aghast. Given the military’s the war, but eventually that will backfire on early, misleading proclamations of an ever- the military,” said Rick Newman, defense intensifying war, all the media heard on correspondent for U.S. News & World May 22 was another cry of wolf. The pivotal Report. “The more they continue to adopt day of bombing had merited a mere sen- this ‘control the information at all costs’ tence in a picture caption on the Times’ mentality, the more unwilling reporters will front page.

S UMMER 2001 [ 39 ] LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/CORBIS Censored notebook page of United Press correspondent Robert C. Miller, 1942 ENOUGH IS ENOUGH Journalists should draw a line in the sand to limit the military’s attempts at absolute secrecy.

J ANE K IRTLEY

      of the conflict between the military and the American Civil War, journalist F. Col- news media. The military’s mission is to Sburn Adams wrote, “The future histo- fight, and to win, whatever conflict may rian of the late war will have [a] very present itself—preferably on the battlefield difficult task to perform ... sifting the truth but certainly in public opinion and the his- from falsehood as it appears in official tory books. The journalist, on the other records.” hand, is a skeptic if not a cynic and aims to Similar to the oft-repeated axiom that seek, find and report the truth—a mission truth is the first casualty of war, Adams’ both parties often view as incompatible observation succinctly summarizes the nub with successful warfare, which depends on

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 40 ] Jane Kirtley: Enough Is Enough secrecy and deception as much as superior modern history occurred during the Reagan strategy, tactics, weaponry and manpower. administration when Defense Secretary Cas- Accordingly, the military and the media par Weinberger decided that the press would seem destined to be forever at odds. Many, not be allowed to witness the invasion of the though by no means all, of the generation of island of Grenada. Plans for the invasion had officers who served in the Vietnam War, as been kept secret, but once journalists learned well as those succeeding them, have never that U.S. forces had landed, they immedi- really forgiven the press for the “living room ately tried to cover the story. U.S. ships and war” that brought home images aircraft turned back at least of combat’s death and destruc- two boats and a plane char- tion. Thoughtful observers such Jane Kirtley tered by the news media, and as Col. Harry G. Summers, is the Silha Professor of several reporters already in- who testified before the Senate Media Ethics and Law country were held incommu- Governmental Affairs Commit- at the University of nicado. Some days later about tee near the end of the Persian Minnesota School of 100 journalists were taken to Gulf War in 1991, acknowl- Grenada in military planes Journalism and Mass edged that “blaming the media but reported that they were for the loss of the Vietnam War Communication. closely supervised, kept far was wrong. The media, and tel- Previously she was from the action and thwarted evision in particular, [were] executive director of in their attempts to transmit good at showing the cost of the the Reporters Committee their own footage to the U.S. war. But [the] cost of anything public. for Freedom of the has meaning only in relation to Although reporters eventu- value . … It was not the news Press in Arlington, Va., ally gained access to the media, which reported the for 14 years. island, the news media con- price, that lost the war. It was tinued to grumble. Larry the government which … Flynt, publisher of Hustler deliberately failed to establish its value.” magazine, even sued Weinberger and others The enduring perception, however, that in U.S. District Court in Washington, the media “lost” the war in Vietnam persists D.C., seeking an order prohibiting the in some military circles. In the wake of the access restrictions and a declaration that the bitterness following that Southeast Asian government’s actions had violated the First conflict, it is perhaps not surprising that the Amendment. He didn’t get either one. Pentagon and the White House reconfigured In what was to become the template for a the equation—retreating from a policy of series of frustrating court decisions, District open coverage tempered only by voluntary Judge Oliver Gasch dismissed the com- adherence to security guidelines, and instead plaint, finding that the decision to impose a adopting strict control of both battlefield press ban was properly within the military access and press dispatches from the front. commander’s discretion and, moreover, that the Grenada situation was unlikely to repeat    ,  itself. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals Fnadir of media-military relations in for the District of Columbia Circuit—

S UMMER 2001 [ 41 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD including then-Judge Kenneth Starr— sometimes days; broadcast journalists affirmed the dismissal on grounds of moot- seemed to face fewer obstacles in preparing ness. and airing their live transmissions. Regard- This pattern repeated itself in subsequent less of the medium, those in the press pool conflicts. A Defense Department panel, all complained that their access to military chaired by Maj. Gen. Winant Sidle and operations had been severely impaired and including two retired journalists, proposed a that—far from being “business as usual”— press pool, to be deployed at the outset of the press was subjected to unprecedented covert military operations. censorship. The theory behind the com- Regardless of the And so, in the best Ameri- promise was that the press can tradition, the journalists pool would give media repre- medium, those sued. Nine organizations and sentatives real-time access to in the press pool four individual journalists filed military operations without a federal suit in New York, compromising security. But all complained seeking an injunction against journalists complained that the that their access enforcement of restrictions military kept the pool reporters to military on movement. The suit also isolated, away from the con- called for the speedy dispatch flict, during operations in operations had of news reports for anything Iran and Panama. Then-Sec- been severely other than legitimate security retary of Defense Dick Cheney reasons. A second suit, filed was lambasted, not only by impaired and shortly thereafter, sought sim- the press but even in a 1990 that the press ilar relief and also challenged Pentagon report, for his “exces- the exclusion of specific news sive concern for secrecy.” was subjected to outlets from the pool. Yet unprecedented another federal judge disap-    - censorship. pointed the press. U.S. Dis- T sian Gulf crisis. When trict Judge Leonard Sand of U.S. troops went to Saudi New York, like his D.C. coun- Arabia for Operation Desert Shield, the terparts, found that both the “uniqueness” press pool did not go along. It was several and the need for speedy resolution of the days before journalists, carrying Saudi Ara- gulf conflict made it impossible to render an bian visas the State Department arranged opinion on the constitutionality of the mili- for them, were deployed to Dhahran. The tary restrictions in that particular theater. new “ground rules” and regulations eventu- Uneasy negotiations between the press ally included the notorious “security review” and the Pentagon, lasting more than eight process—which the military insisted was months, followed. They culminated in a needed to protect operations but which the new set of nine principles for combat cover- media saw as pernicious censorship age, which the Pentagon adopted in May designed to thwart independent reporting. 1992. The principles espoused “open and Print reporters were particularly frustrated independent reporting” of military opera- as their stories were delayed for hours, tions as the norm, with pools to be used

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 42 ] Jane Kirtley: Enough Is Enough

CORBIS President Reagan receives update on Grenada invasion from his staff, 1983. only for short periods and for limited pur- retain the option to review news material, to poses. The military reaffirmed the concept avoid the inadvertent inclusion in news that public affairs officers would be liaisons, reports of information that could endanger not censors, and pledged to transport the troop safety or the success of the mission.” pools and to facilitate the transmission of journalists’ stories.  ,    , The final sticking point, however, con- Athe official record ends. Subsequent cerned the phantom “10th principle”: secu- military operations elsewhere simply failed rity review. The Washington bureau chiefs to present the same opportunity for govern- of major media organizations who had rep- ment restrictions. resented the press viewpoint insisted that As the Persian Gulf conflict demonstrated, journalists would abide by clear “ground the nature of warfare was changing, and rules” similar to the simple guidelines dur- news-transmission technology was changing, ing the Vietnam War but would resist prior too. The possibility of real-time dispatch of review by government officials. The military written, audio and video reports from the contended, in words recalling the famous front became a reality, adding verisimilitude dicta in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1931 to the military’s hyperbolic insistence that Near v. Minnesota decision, that “it must news coverage could literally aid and abet the

S UMMER 2001 [ 43 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD enemy. Yet at the same time, the advent of the newspapers that the military had Internet communications rendered the reviewed the stories. threat of censorship via prior review less fea- sible. This has left the military with the       choice of either letting in the press and Iimpose Draconian restrictions, the media resigning itself to open and robust coverage, can and should adopt a strategy to oppose perhaps by “rogue” journalists far less them. The press must protest, of course, but willing to abide by Defense Department it must simultaneously convince the public principles, or trying to block that, above all, it will do media access—the very sce- everything possible not to nario that veteran journalist In a democracy imperil U.S. lives or the Walter Cronkite had deplored like the United integrity of military opera- in congressional testimony States, the tions while also pledging to near the end of the Gulf War. tenaciously and courageously The drawback to a govern- public expects to chase the story—offering the ment-imposed news blackout, get news, and independent perspective that from a military perspective, the Founding Fathers deemed would presumably be that while they expect to essential when they drafted the American people might tol- get it from the First Amendment. erate or even embrace such a sources other The media also should for- policy for a short time, no mil- get about lawsuits. Their track itary operation could continue than the record in the courts has been without public support in the government. abysmal on this issue, not only long run. In a democracy like in the cases of Grenada and the United States, the public the Gulf War but also in sub- expects to get news, and they expect to get it sequent related actions, such as the unsuc- from sources other than the government. cessful attempt to report on the return of During the Gulf War, of course, the pub- soldiers’ bodies to Dover Air Force Base. The lic did get news—or at least what it thought Supreme Court remains lukewarm at best, was news—on a regular basis, 24 hours a and hostile at worst, when it considers press day, complete with spectacular video footage. access to locations not generally open to the My own experience, admittedly anecdotal, public, such as prisons. Although the court was that in the days following the Gulf War, observed in Branzburg v. Hayes (1972) that when I spoke to audiences made up of the news gathering enjoys some First Amend- general public, none had any inkling that ment protection, I see little prospect that the the press’s movement and dispatches had current justices will expand those rights in been restricted. the foreseeable future. In other words, the media themselves did Which brings me to my final recommen- not adequately inform the public that the dation, a modest proposal that I anticipate rules of the game were not what they might will please no one: If the military subjects have expected. Most news consumers blew the media to unacceptable restrictions on cov- right past those “agate-type” disclaimers in erage of military operations, the only ethical

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 44 ] Jane Kirtley: Enough Is Enough solution is to refuse to cover them at all. I is up to the press to resist, and it must. can hear the howls of protest as journalists So, by all means, agree to abide by rea- from all quarters insist that it is not only their sonable “ground rules” if you can do so right but their duty to cover the news. They without compromising your journalistic must do what they can to get the story— integrity. But be wary of accepting facilities even under less-than-optimal conditions, or support from the military. Recognize the they’ll say—on the theory that incomplete risks inherent in relying on the Pentagon’s information is better than none. good offices as your means of covering con- In principle, I agree; but experience has flicts. And make it abundantly clear to your shown that the military, given the opportu- readers and viewers when you are denied the nity, will do everything possible to use the opportunity to cover a story in the way that media as instruments of propaganda, to you see fit and that they would expect. shape public opinion and to garner support. As a last resort, be prepared to say, This is perfectly understandable, but it is “Enough,” when the military draws yet inimical to a free press and a free people. It another line in the sand.

S UMMER 2001 [ 45 ] NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION USS Shaw explodes at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Dec. 7, 1941. WAR WITHOUT WITNESSES Journalists must respect the military’s need for secrecy—or face even greater restrictions on coverage.

R OBERT S IMS

    Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine from with us always, and it isn’t going 1600 to 1200 B.C. By successfully keeping Maway. Nor should it. the smelting process secret, they controlled For literally thousands of years, secrecy the region for 400 years. Centuries later, the has been an effective military tool for main- United States gained a huge advantage in taining technological advantage and maxi- global affairs after World War II by keeping mizing the element of surprise. The Hittites, the atomic bomb secret—for a while. after inventing iron and using it to forge Since the earliest days of the modern superior weapons, defeated the Babylonian news media, military leaders have worried Empire and dominated the lands of about popular morale and used secrecy to

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 46 ] Robert Sims: War Without Witnesses try to gain or maintain public support. issue for military leaders: To accomplish During the Revolutionary War, George their mission, they must learn how to con- Washington complained that dispatches trol the media. from New York newspapers undermined his battlefield efforts. During World War   , ..  - II, news of the Pearl Harbor attack was I ers simply call on journalists to act heavily censored; neither the number of responsibly. At the outset of Operation casualties nor the number of ships sunk was Desert Storm, Gen. Colin Powell, then chair- released to the press. Not until man of the Joint Chiefs of more than a year later, in Jan- Staff, told the Pentagon press Robert Sims uary 1943, did the public see corps that he “would ask for the indelible newsreel images we is a former White House some restraint on your part as have of the attack, captured by deputy press secretary for you find out information.” He Fox Movietone cameraman Al foreign affairs and former continued, “If you would Brick. The need to keep the assistant secretary of always measure it against the Japanese from knowing detailed defense for public affairs need for operational security results of the attack justified to protect our troops, that during the Reagan the secrecy, but the primary should be uppermost, I think, benefit for the military was to Administration. in all our minds.” maintain the morale of the He is the author of Powell could well expect U.S. public and armed forces. The Pentagon Reporters. journalists to take his counsel The most powerful argu- because, if for no other reason, ment for military control of a substantial majority of Amer- the media concerns reporting that might icans believed media coverage would make endanger troops’ lives. The public tradi- it harder for the Alliance to win the war. A tionally supports military control of the poll in January 1991, at the time of Opera- news. The national consensus behind the tion Desert Storm, found that 79 percent of U.S. war effort made secrecy easier during the public approved of military censorship. World War II. In the battle for public support, the news Today we still need to protect the lives of media are no match for the military and its service men and women from careless or concerns about American lives. inadvertently damaging reporting. In an era Public opinion notwithstanding, observers of instant global communications—aided have generally exaggerated the press’s influ- by laptop computers, the World Wide Web, ence on specific military operations. Before satellite phones and commercial photo- the Bay of Pigs debacle, The New York Times graphic satellites—this task becomes more withheld and toned down Tad Szulc’s report difficult. Those capabilities plus the fierce that anti-Castro partisans had been training competition to be first in the 24-hour news in Florida and Guatemala and planned to cycle—led by cable-TV channels that must invade Cuba in mid-April 1961. Afterward, provide fresh, interesting, nonstop informa- President John F. Kennedy reportedly told tion—create a witch’s brew for believers in Times Managing Editor Turner Catledge, military security. They have crystallized the “If you had printed more about the opera-

S UMMER 2001 [ 47 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD tion, you would have saved us from a colos- combat—isolated aboard ships. Military sal mistake.” and civilian public affairs officials, including The colossal mistake, of course, was the White House Press Office, were launching the raid with too small a force excluded almost entirely from the planning and without air support, which the U.S. for handling the press during the attack. Navy had planned to provide but the Faced with major complaints from reporters administration canceled at the last minute. and media officials, a White House press Whether the Times had printed its story or official implored Chief of Staff James A. not, the operation “had been Baker to intercede. Although cranked up too far” and President Reagan had given would have proceeded anyway, The media complete control of the oper- thought Times’ Washington make good ation—including information bureau chief James Reston. policy—to the Pentagon, Publishing the report, how- scapegoats. Baker finally convinced the ever, would have given Politicians and president to relent and get Kennedy a perfect scapegoat reporters to the island. Never- for the administration’s mis- the military have theless, with no independent takes. The media make good learned to use reporting for the first two days scapegoats. Politicians and the them skillfully of combat, the invasion’s pur- military have learned to use pose and success largely escaped them skillfully in that way. in that way. public attention. Despite the White House’s ,  - arrangement of military brief- Inam, where truth became the first casu- ings and interviews with officials from neigh- alty, reporters and the military had a boring Caribbean countries who applauded surprisingly good relationship in the field. the U.S. intervention, news organizations Discarding the censorship that had been were in an uproar, and their coverage part of the fabric of the Korean War, the reflected that. They lost sight of the fact that government blamed the news media for the after alarming developments on the island, lack of national consensus. Arguably, news the administration had developed a joint reports—especially in the form of graphic Navy, Army, Air Force and Marine Corps photos and television—did undermine operation in complete secrecy. These forces public support for the war. Perhaps a more successfully gained control of the island, convincing argument is that a flawed strat- rescued U.S. medical students in the egy lost the public’s support, and the media process, restored order, and eventually became the scapegoat. returned control of Grenada to local citi- Fast-forward to the invasion of Grenada zens. The press, excluded from the party, in 1983, during Ronald Reagan’s presi- declared it a disaster. dency. In that instance the Pentagon con- Mishandling of the press in Grenada ush- trolled press policy, and the commander of ered in a period of self-examination, illus- the forces attacking Grenada kept trated by a report from retired Army Maj. reporters—scrambling to reach the scene of Gen. Winant Sidle, a former information

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 48 ] Robert Sims: War Without Witnesses

CORBIS President John F. Kennedy tells newspaper editors that Cuba must not be abandoned, 1961. chief with Vietnam experience. His commis- already on the scene. The media pool exists sion recommended that the military secretly to this day but has been largely dormant in take a media pool of reporters and camera- recent years, simply because no clandestine men to an isolated location in the event of a combat operations have occurred in loca- forthcoming combat situation that U.S. tions without reporters. Certainly that was media could not generally cover. The Penta- the case in the Persian Gulf War, when some gon established such a pool system with the 2,500 accredited correspondents became a cooperation of media organizations. major headache for the military. In the wake of Grenada, then-Secretary of     - Defense Caspar Weinberger committed to Tthing of an excuse for commanders in “Principles of Information” that his succes- the field. They thought it was a panacea, sors have endorsed. According to one of the taking the responsibility for reporters off principles, “Information will be withheld their shoulders. In its first serious deploy- only when disclosure would adversely affect ment, the pool went to Panama in the 1989 national security or threaten the safety or invasion. The deployment was generally privacy of the men and women of the rated a failure. Reporters got there late and Armed Forces.” found the story being covered by others Despite information principles and the

S UMMER 2001 [ 49 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD

CORBIS Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf with troops realization that something had gone wrong forces in the Persian Gulf War. “The most with media handling in Grenada and difficult decisions are the ones that involve Panama, relations improved little during human life,” he said. Journalists must recog- the Persian Gulf War. The U.S. military nize the importance to the military, and to tried to control information and battlefield the country, of protecting the lives of service access. As detailed by print press pool coor- men and women. Reporters and news dinator John J. Fialka in Hotel Warriors: organizations must develop responsible ways Covering the Gulf War, neither the press nor to do that, in tandem with the military. If the military covered itself in glory. In the they cannot confront this issue and develop inevitable post-mortem, a group of media procedures that work for them and for the representatives and Pentagon officials could military, they can expect the military to do it not even agree on the use of censorship or, for them. They can expect a war without euphemistically, “security review.” Fialka pre- witnesses. If it comes to that, the military dicted a future of “war with no witnesses,” will likely have solid support from the pub- based on the Grenada model. lic whose sons and daughters are at risk. That’s not too remote a possibility, given the sentiments of military leaders like Gen.  ,    - Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of U.S. Tbers of the military acknowledge the

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 50 ] Robert Sims: War Without Witnesses need to engage with the press, and not nec- contract and speech. Some 25,000 individ- essarily because of the First Amendment or uals already subscribe to the service. because they like reporters. They might like All this represents progress for those of us them, but most present-day reporters have who believe that the Defense Department is not served in the armed forces and are woe- doing the people’s business and that the peo- fully unprepared for military assignments. ple have a right to know what’s going on In contrast, the National War College and there. service colleges teach military officers that Still pertinent, though, is the military’s dealing with reporters and providing infor- unwavering core belief that it must protect mation is part of their jobs, and the officers information vital to national security. This have learned how to do it. They know that applies to secret technologies, information news can affect both their personal success that would destroy public and troop morale, and the mission’s success. They have con- or reporting of troop deployments that cluded that they need to understand how to could endanger U.S. forces. This issue is not work with the media to reach the public comparable to issues such as cameras in the through them. But they will never be willing courtroom, access to city council meetings to put their troops at risk for the sake of infor- or computerized records. It is a fundamen- mation flow. tal issue of life and death, victory or defeat. As an institution, the Defense Depart- The military should fight to protect secu- ment decided to make nonsensitive infor- rity information. It can win the fight more mation available as rapidly as possible easily with sensitivity to the public’s right to through the Internet. Reporters and the know. The trick is for our uniformed public find an amazing amount of informa- guardians to develop a reciprocal relation- tion readily available through DefenseLink ship with the news media instead of an (www.defenselink.mil). By subscribing free adversarial one—one in which both sides to its listserv, anyone can receive by e-mail recognize each other’s needs and roles and every Defense Department press release, resolve to do the right thing for the country.

S UMMER 2001 [ 51 ] THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CBS News correspondent Morley Safer during patrol in Vietnam

BASIC TRAINING Fewer journalists serve in the armed forces, leading to diminished understanding between the media and the military.

P ETER S. PRICHARD

’  - At the beginning of each Gridiron din- iron Club dinner is probably ner, there is a clear but subtle acknowledge- W the pre-eminent gathering of ment of Americans’ long commitment to journalists and the nation’s political power public service. The Marine Band plays John structure. On a Saturday evening in March, Phillip Sousa’s famous march—“The Stars reporters, editors, publishers and TV and Stripes Forever”—and then plays, in anchors rub shoulders—literally—with the rapid-fire order, the anthems of the five mil- president, Cabinet members and U.S. itary services: the Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Supreme Court justices. The principal pur- Air Force and Marines. pose is to have fun and laugh at the skits the It is a Gridiron tradition for the people in Gridiron Club journalists perform, skewer- the audience—most of whom are or have ing Democrats and Republicans. been journalists—to stand when the tune of

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 52 ] Peter S. Prichard: Basic Training their service branch is played. In the mid- notions as ‘surgical strikes.’ Few reporters 1980s, when I began attending the dinner, have military backgrounds and few editors about two-thirds of the audience stood dur- [as well]. Considering both the military’s ing the military medley, acknowledging expense to taxpayers and interest from its with pride their own service to the nation. (I current and former personnel, the inatten- served with the U.S. Army for 19 months; tion to this subject is surprising.” nearly 14 of those were spent in South Viet- Air Force Gen. John P. Jumper spoke for nam in 1968-69.) So I stand when “The most of the military when he said, “In Army Goes Rolling Along” is Desert Storm so many re- played. Peter S. Prichard porters were not at all familiar In 2001, in this audience of is president of with military matters and had nearly 600, fewer than one-third no idea of the importance of The Freedom Forum. stood for the military music. In security when dealing with fact, for some branches—the Air From 1988-95, he was operational matters. There Force, for example—fewer than editor of USA TODAY. was no sense that any sensitive five people rose. Prichard served in Army information would be han- Anecdotally, this suggests intelligence in Vietnam dled with any care. ... Respon- that among today’s working sible news agencies should from 1968 to 1969 and journalists, very few have served send reporters experienced in the military. received the Bronze Star. with military matters.”

          Fneed for journalists to have a better Dthat very few journalists have served in understanding of the military. In a 1995 the armed forces? The draft ended in 1973, report by The Freedom Forum First Amend- so it is natural that fewer and fewer Ameri- ment Center, “America’s Team: The Odd Cou- cans have served in the military. ple, A Report on the Relationship Between To understand whether lack of service the Military and the Media,” journalists and adversely affects news coverage, simply exam- service members were asked this question: ine some of the apparent differences in atti- “Do you (agree/or not) that few members tudes between veterans and nonveterans. of the news media are knowledgeable about In more than 30 years in journalism and national defense matters, such as military journalism-related jobs, I have noticed a few personnel, equipment capabilities and the common characteristics among some jour- specifics of foreign military threats?” nalists who lack military experience: Seventy percent of the military respon- • They sometimes distrust military personnel dents agreed with that statement. Perhaps automatically. They often see service men more telling, 74 percent of the press respon- and women as puppets, incapable of dents agreed that journalists lacked such independent thought. knowledge of the military. • They have no conception of, and little Stephen Rynkiewicz of the Chicago Trib- appreciation for, the skill, dedication and une summed up the view of many in the intensity many men and women in the press: “Few reporters question such dubious military bring to their jobs.

S UMMER 2001 [ 53 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD

• They lack appreciation for the high qual- of reporters: “They publish without stint ity of military training, for its degree of positive information of movements past & difficulty and the fact that much of it is prospective, organizations, names of com- dangerous. manders, and accurate information which • They lack respect for the hardships that reaches the enemy with as much regularity military people and their families endure as it does our People. ... So that no matter to serve and defend the country. how rapidly we move, the enemy has • They tend to underrate many of the mili- advance notice. ... Never had an enemy a tary’s formidable accom- better corps of spies than our plishments: not just keeping army carries along, paid, the peace but being a true Are the complex transported, and fed by the equal-opportunity employer, realities and United States.” successfully putting young formidable Pete Williams, NBC’s Sup- people in positions of great reme Court correspondent responsibility, running huge technical chal- who was once the chief Penta- organizations and executing lenges of mili- gon spokesman, thinks this difficult missions. attitude persists, more than a A current example: Con- tary missions century later, among some sider the technical and logisti- reflected in daily senior officers. “In the mind of cal skills it takes to maintain news coverage? the average field-grade com- the no-fly zones in Iraq. Every mander,” Williams said, “noth- day, air crews fly across hostile Occasionally but ing good can come out of an territory, face enemy fire, often not often. encounter with a reporter. They flying at night and in all (the press) just can’t help you.” weather conditions, to help Williams also has noticed ensure that Iraq does not regain military bias by journalists concerning the military. power and threaten its neighbors. Or think “There is a cultural prejudice toward the about the diplomatic and military tightrope military,” he said. “Some say about young that peacekeepers in Bosnia must walk every people in the military, ‘Yeah, they couldn’t day. Many of the pilots, the ground crews do anything else, so they joined the military.’ and the infantry personnel are volunteers. That is so unfair, so wrong. The officers I Many are members of National Guard units worked with in the Pentagon were some of on regular rotations. the best-educated, most world-wise people Are the complex realities and formidable I’ve ever met.” technical challenges of these missions None of these observations is meant to reflected in daily news coverage? Occasion- suggest that our military is perfect. Far from ally but not often. The no-fly zone in Iraq, it. It is important to note as well that many in particular, gets scant news coverage. journalists with no military experience have The military shares some of the blame for been among the best of our war correspon- this. Many senior officers have no use for dents: Peter Arnett, David Halberstam, the press. They would agree with Civil War Edith Lederer and Morley Safer, to name Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who said just a few. It is also true that journalists who

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 54 ] Peter S. Prichard: Basic Training

DENNIS BRACK/BLACK STAR Time correspondent Jay Peterzell talks to U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, 1990. have served may have a regrettable tendency the officer’s collar to take flight in disgust to be cheerleaders for the military. when the error was published. Navy and But clearly the lack of military knowledge Coast Guard officers of such rank are cap- among many journalists today does affect tains. Army, Marine and Air Force officers the completeness and the degree of sophisti- are colonels. cation of the news coverage. “It is that kind of mistake, albeit small, Other observers have made similar about which the Pentagon experts rightly points. Writing in 1991 in Presstime, the complain. Call a battleship an aircraft carrier magazine of the Newspaper Association of or an Air Force F-15 Eagle (fighter) a bomber, America, Jack Dorsey, a military affairs and the credibility gap widens even more.” writer for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, cited this example: “A somewhat seasoned     , reporter, trying to capture the scene in a Dthe officers in charge complained from Virginia Beach restaurant ... for a feature time to time that the journalists covering story, wrote that ‘a Navy colonel’ had done that conflict lacked even the most elemen- such and such. For a military town like Vir- tary knowledge of the weapons systems, ginia Beach, populated with thousands of ranks, and other systems and conventions of members from all service branches, it was the military. For some journalists, it was like almost enough to cause the silver eagle of covering a football game without under-

S UMMER 2001 [ 55 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD standing what a first down was. abilities have declined markedly since the “On active duty I had the feeling that was demise of the draft. One of the unintended the case,” said Gen. Walter Boomer, a benefits of universal military service, at least retired Marine four-star general who com- from the military’s perspective, was that manded troops in the Persian Gulf region. large numbers of the population gained an He noted that media ignorance makes it appreciation for what it took to serve. important for military leaders to help jour- Today that knowledge is largely gone. nalists understand defense issues. The public is often ignorant of the military’s “I tried to convince our young military skills and accomplishments, and so are jour- people to take the time to learn who the jour- nalists. As a result, the news media are not nalists are who are covering them. They’ve covering a very big story with the knowl- sort of written off the media. [The press] is a edge and sophistication it deserves. Our fact of life. It’s an important part of the fab- current defense budget is about $300 bil- ric of our country. … [Military leaders] have lion, the third-largest federal expenditure. to figure out how to deal with it . . . to try to The United States operates 600 military reach out and educate and expose journalists bases and other facilities around the world. to what the military is all about.” More than 1.4 million Americans serve on At USA TODAY, where I was then the active duty. The nation is home to more top editor, we hired a retired Marine major than 25 million military veterans. to help us keep the military terminology All of the stakeholders—the armed forces, straight during the Gulf War. At least we the journalists and the public—deserve bet- realized what we didn’t know, and our read- ter. The work of Americans in uniform is a ers gave us high marks for accuracy. huge and complex story, and it ought to be The reality is that among journalists, told well, by people who thoroughly under- knowledge of the military and respect for its stand what they are covering.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 56 ] James Creelman: Battle Impressions

BATTLE IMPRESSIONS

J AMES C REELMAN

   ,  nated me was a drop of blood which hung on Tmoments during the battle of El Caney. the end of a dead man’s nose. His lips were One was when I stood beside General Chaf- drawn back from his teeth and he seemed to fee and saw a button cut ❖ be laughing, and there on the from his breast by a Mauser James Creelman end of his pinched nose was a bullet. A moment before, he made news as well as great bright drop of blood. had been raging up and In every battle that I go reported it as a corre- down the line, the only man through, I somehow get a in his whole brigade who spondent for the New melody in my head and hum was not lying flat on the York Herald, the New it to the end of the action. I grass. His hat was on the York World, Illustrated suppose it is the result of nerv- back of his head, and his ous excitement. A man’s nerves lean, thirteenth-century face American and Cosmopoli- play him some very curious was glorified with the pas- tan. In 1898 Creelman tricks. All through the battle sion and fury of the fight— went to Cuba to cover and massacre of Port Arthur in the toughest, profanest, the Japanese war, I hummed the Spanish-American divinest soldier I ever saw in the air from Mendelssohn’s battle, his eyes shining, and War for William Ran- “Springtime,” and during the the muscles standing out on dolph Hearst’s New York shell fire I found myself actually his neck and forehead like Journal. He helped lead shrieking it. When I started in knotted cords. Then as I the charge on Fort Caney, I an American charge stood beside him in the began to hum “Rock of Ages,” shadow for a moment, a against Spanish forces at and I couldn’t get rid of the Mauser bullet clipped the El Caney. tune even when I was lying shining ornament from his ❖ among the dying of Chaffee’s breast, and he looked into my face with a brigade in the hospital camp. I remember that half-startled, half-amused air. when General Chaffee leaned over me after I The next tremendous moment of the fight had been shot and asked me how I was, I was when I went alone to the edge of the couldn’t answer him until I had finished, in trench in front of the stone fort, and saw the my mind, one phrase of “Rock of Ages.” Spaniards who remained alive crouching there and waiting for death. The thing that fasci- From Cosmopolitan, September 1898

S UMMER 2001 [ 57 ] BOB PEARSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, left, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell at a Pentagon briefing during the 1989 invasion of Panama

THE REAL WAR The news media’s complicity in government censorship dismays a reporter who covered the Persian Gulf War.

P ATRICK J. SLOYAN

    Johnson was one of the most fearless presi- media—government and the men dents when it came to confronting the press, Pand women who daily portray their but as the Vietnam War drained his popu- actions to voters—are in continual battle. larity at home, he became more reluctant to We are adversaries. The rub comes when hold press conferences. One of his aides reporters portray an event differently from recalled urging Johnson to go on national the carefully contrived official view. Lyndon television to once again stress the success of

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 58 ] Patrick J. Sloyan: The Real War the military venture, but Johnson balked. “I zations accepted Cheney’s edicts. can come out every once in a while,” John- Not everyone knuckled under. More son said of challenging media coverage, “but than 70 reporters were detained, threatened those sons of bitches come out every day.” at gunpoint or literally chased from the The perpetual war between press and front lines by U.S. Army military police and government has produced an ocean of bad public affairs officers. Some were roughed up. blood, with extremes on both sides. The Photographer J. Scott Applewhite of The late Frank Kent of The Sun in Baltimore, a Associated Press was punched, handcuffed Washington newspaper vet- and had his film seized when eran, represented one wing: he photographed U.S. sol- Patrick J. Sloyan, There is only one way to look diers killed by an Iraqi Scud at politicians, Kent said, and senior correspondent for missile. About 150 reporters that is down. At the other Newsday’s Washington who were directed by their extreme is Vice President bureau, has covered employers to participate in Dick Cheney. national and international Cheney’s pool system found Cheney was secretary of they were blocked from wit- news since 1960. He won defense during the 1991 Per- nessing combat. Their reports sian Gulf War. He effectively the 1992 Pulitzer Prize were delayed or, in most cases, shredded the First Amend- for international report- “lost” after Cheney ordered a ment by imposing censorship ing and shared the 1997 news blackout during the on U.S. journalists covering Pulitzer for spot news. ground war. As a result, the the confrontation with Iraq’s pool media failed to produce Saddam Hussein. Abandoned a single photograph, strip of were self-imposed ground rules that the videotape or eyewitness account of 300,000 press used during the Vietnam War to pre- U.S. Army troops in combat with an esti- vent security breaches that might endanger mated 400,000 Iraqi soldiers. U.S. troops. Later, Cheney would say that the generals In the 10 years of the Indochina conflict, (among them Colin Powell, then chairman out of several thousand U.S. correspondents, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and now secre- none had accreditation revoked for violat- tary of state) requested the restrictions. But ing these rules, which the U.S. military politics was the real reason for Persian Gulf also approved. But during Desert Storm, War censorship. Political leaders enjoy an reporters had to have military escorts wher- astounding windfall of voter support for ever they went, escorts who routinely would using military power to crush a foreign interrupt interviews if a soldier strayed from enemy, real or imagined. This is not just a the official line. Dispatches, still photo- U.S. phenomenon. Margaret Thatcher was graphs and video footage were subject to on the verge of being ousted as Great military censorship. Reporters operating Britain’s prime minister and Conservative outside the so-called pool system for wire Party leader when Argentina made the mis- services, newspapers and networks were sub- take of seizing the Falkland Islands in 1982. ject to military arrest. After some bloodless The British invasion of those specks in the protests, corporate leaders of media organi- south Atlantic revitalized her career. She

S UMMER 2001 [ 59 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD became the longest-serving prime minister President Bush was all too familiar with in British history. President George Bush’s the ugliness of war. He once recounted a day public approval rating after Desert Storm aboard an aircraft carrier where he served as was the highest any president had achieved a bomber pilot during World War II. When in the history of opinion polling. We saw it an unwary sailor wandered into the path of again in last year’s election of Vladimir Putin a landing plane, the propeller sliced him in as Russian president. His lone attribute two. Bush said he could still hear a chief appeared to be the aggression against Chech- petty officer calling for a broom to sweep the nya and its Islamic residents. guts from the flight deck. “I have seen the hideous face of     Despite the war,” Bush said. T for Thatcher in the Falk- daily intensity of By leading the media estab- lands, Bush in the Persian lishment into pool coverage Gulf and Putin in Chechnya the coverage and of the Persian Gulf War, Bush was the same: Blindfold the millions spent and Cheney hid that face media. on reporters and from the public. Despite the Not a word of British losses daily intensity of the coverage at sea—236 sailors and sol- photographers, and millions spent on report- diers perished—became pub- Desert Storm ers and photographers, Desert lic until after the fleet arrived Storm ended without any reli- in the Falklands. By then, the ended without able account of battles, losses, casualties were almost second- any reliable triumphs or disasters. ary to Thatcher’s announce- account of ment that the islands had   - been retaken. Restrictions on battles, losses, Iflict from October 1990 the Russian and international triumphs or through its end in March press last year meant the 1991. After a brief vacation, I bloodshed in the Caucasus disasters. spent the rest of the year find- went unwitnessed by the pub- ing out what the press restric- lic. For the world watching tions had hidden, starting the Iraqi desert, the Persian Gulf War was a with the opening moments of the land inva- series of smart bombs destroying bridges sion when the 1st Infantry Division (Mech- and apparently empty buildings. anized) broke through the defensive trench Eliminated from these accounts were the line of 8,000 Iraqi troops. Division com- horrors of war, the battlefield mistakes, the manders had studied the World War I-style dead and wounded and the human suffer- trenches from aerial photographs and, with ing and grief. That is the other side of polit- some help from Washington think tanks, ical use of military power. Newspaper and devised a low-risk assault. Instead of using television accounts of the Vietnam conflict’s soldiers with bayonets to clear the trenches, reality turned many U.S. voters against their they mounted plows on their main battle government years before it dawned on the tanks, the M1 Abrams. After rehearsals politicians in Washington. before the assault, the commanders desig-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 60 ] Patrick J. Sloyan: The Real War

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President Lyndon Johnson defends Vietnam War policy, 1967. nated two tanks for each trench line. With dered, but thousands were killed by gunfire an Abrams on either side, the desert sand or buried alive under tons of sand. Col. was easily plowed into the trenches. Follow- Anthony Moreno, commander of the 2nd ing the tanks but actually straddling the Brigade, which led the assault on the heavi- trenches were Bradley fighting vehicles, est defenses, said in a taped interview, “For lighter armored machines equipped with a all I know, we could have killed thousands. cannon and machine guns. Finally, bringing I came through right after the lead com- up the rear were combat earthmovers, pany. What you saw was a bunch of buried which smoothed out the filled-in trenches trenches with peoples’ arms and things stick- so that an observer would see only the face- ing out of them. As the Iraqi soldiers saw less desert of southern Iraq. what we were doing and how effective and After an artillery bombardment pinned fast we were doing it, they began jumping the Iraqis in their trenches, two of the 1st out of their holes and surrendering.” The Division brigades—8,400 Americans in commander of the 1st Brigade, Col. Lon 3,000 vehicles—began filling in 70 miles of Maggart, told me his troops buried 650 trenches. More than 2,000 Iraqis surren- Iraqi soldiers.

S UMMER 2001 [ 61 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD

Pool reporters with the 1st Division were Persian Gulf War was, as televised govern- ordered to stay back until the end of the ment briefings portrayed, largely a bloodless assault the next morning. Included in that affair. In fact, Cheney’s spokesman told pool was a distinguished combat correspon- reporters that U.S. troops never really engaged dent, Leon Daniel of United Press Interna- in close combat with Iraqi forces. As I probed tional. Daniel told me later that he was deeper in interviews with commanders and surprised by the dearth of dead bodies. In soldiers involved in the fighting, my esti- Vietnam, he said, a relatively small firefight mate was closer to 35,000 Iraqis dead on the would produce a stack of battlefield from both the air corpses. But combat earth- and ground war. movers had removed any Not until after But where were the battles? trace of what had happened my dispatches One senior Army officer urged in the previous 24 hours. appeared did the me to talk to commanders of Daniel asked one commander the 1st Division, the same out- where the bodies were. The Army formally fit that buried thousands of officer, a public affairs major, acknowledge Iraqi troops. The Army meas- replied, “What bodies?” ures battles by its own losses. what had The senior officer noted that    happened. one of the 1st Division units M in Newsday in June, had been engaged in a fero- three months after the cious night battle that left six speeches, the parades and the medals. They soldiers dead and more than 30 wounded. were news to the chairmen of both the Five main battle tanks were destroyed, House and Senate Armed Services commit- along with five Bradley fighting vehicles. tees, the panels charged with overseeing the After interviews with almost 100 partici- Pentagon and the military. Even more pants, I learned that battle was a tragic shocked were some of my colleagues who fiasco. The six men killed, the tanks and were scrambling to match these accounts. fighting vehicles destroyed, and the 30 What really sickened some of them was wounded all were victims of what the Army Cheney’s confirmation that my dispatches calls “friendly fire.” In every instance, the were accurate. My tape-recorded interviews Army lied to families about the cause of certainly helped prod the Defense Depart- death. Not until after my dispatches appeared ment’s confirmation. did the Army formally acknowledge what The burial-brigade dispatch was one of had happened. 13 that I filed after Desert Storm. It was a For all the hype about allied military prowess particularly nasty development for Cheney, in the desert, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf who had just finished a formal report to could not destroy the bulk of Iraq’s best troops Congress. His report implied that only 457 and tanks. The administration could not par- Iraqi soldiers had been killed during the lay a military triumph into an election vic- war—the number of bodies that allied tory. You might remember challenger Bill troops found and buried. Cheney’s estimate Clinton’s bumper sticker: “Saddam Hussein coincided with Bush’s contention that the Still Has His Job. Do You Still Have Your Job?”

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 62 ] Patrick J. Sloyan: The Real War

    - sarial relationship with government. The Tvide a constitutional landmark, how- wave of mergers in recent years has led major ever. Desert Storm marked the occasion corporations to assume control of newspa- when the world’s most powerful media pers and television networks. These mergers barons gave up their constitutional right to often must pass muster with the Justice report on U.S. troops in battle by bowing to Department’s Antitrust Division, the Federal government censorship. None of the wire Communications Commission, Congress service, newspaper or broadcasting execu- and other powers in Washington—all of tives was happy with Bush’s controls, but which would prefer less adversarial media. none challenged their legality, either. Their Gannett, Knight Ridder, the Tribune Co. inaction had many causes, but my opinion (which owns Newsday), Newhouse and is that the government somehow led them other chains have grown rich by centraliz- to believe the pool system would work to ing many aspects of the business. They are their advantage. the fattest of cats. And in city after town, Take The Washington Post, for example. those corporations have installed editors Under the pool system, every censored dis- who have little time for the First Amend- patch by Post reporters was supposed to be ment because too much of their day goes shared instantly with every other journalist toward marketing and budgeting. covering the war. Instead, one of the Post’s Editors who go along with this corporate pool reporters kept very interesting informa- style are rewarded beyond their wildest tion about U.S. Marine Corps operations dreams. A recent Inland Press Association hidden until after the war. It was finally survey found that editors of newspapers in revealed in a book serialized by the Post. I the 250,000-to-500,000 circulation range should note here that the Post and my com- earn an average of $250,000 a year. Bonuses petition in New York City, The New York and stock options accounted for, on aver- Times, criticized my reporting after I won the age, another $56,470 a year. But that Pulitzer Prize for my Desert Storm coverage. income hinges on their willingness to trim On the day I received that honor, I criti- expenses—reducing the size of the news cized the very establishment that sponsors the hole, making do with fewer reporters, cut- Pulitzer Prizes for groveling before govern- ting budgets for lawsuits to assert First ment censors. It underscored the media lead- Amendment rights. ers’ abandonment of the First Amendment In the editor’s office, this issue is far more and the battle against government secrecy. gray and complex, not the black-and-white Another reason that news organizations image I am presenting. But to me, it is a dis- caved was disengagement at the top levels of turbing trend. I can think of only a hand- media corporations. Too many men and ful to share my foxhole in the real war that women who control the flow of information goes on every day between the press and in this republic have forgotten their adver- government.

S UMMER 2001 [ 63 ] NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION The Stars and Stripes reports the near-end of World War II. REPORTING ON THE WARRIORS The Stars and Stripes strives for good journalism in a “company-owned” arena.

D ERALD E VERHART

  - - States of America would be if The Stars and ebration of the European edition of Stripes closed down because we should move AThe Stars and Stripes in April 1992, out of [Europe], and I know most of you “60 Minutes” commentator Andy Rooney won’t take that too kindly,” said Rooney, asked the gathering of several hundred peo- who had reported for the military newspaper ple, “What are you still doing here? when he was a GI in World War II. “I think that the best thing for the United The famous curmudgeon’s comments

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 64 ] Derald Everhart: Reporting on the Warriors made many on the newspaper’s staff—wor- practices shall be in accordance with the ried that the military is always seeking a rea- highest journalistic standards governing son to shut down the newspaper—cringe. U.S. daily commercial newspapers,” reads Indeed, the paper’s long history of battles DoD Directive 5122.11. on journalistic grounds continues today as However, the journalistic issues that faced potential censorship and other military con- the newspaper in Rooney’s day and ear- trols remain issues. lier—censorship and news management by Rooney’s remarks reflected his belief that, the military—remain a battle for its with the fall of the Berlin Wall reporters and editors, albeit a and German reunification, subtler one. Derald Everhart Europe no longer needs U.S. As part of their jobs, staffers troops. Without troops, he was European desk at both the European and reasoned, there would be no editor with The Stars Pacific editions of Stripes, as need for The Stars and Stripes. and Stripes in they informally call the news- But 56 years after the end Griesheim, Germany, paper, continue to follow troops of World War II, 100,000 from 1997-99. as they did in World War I and U.S. Army, Navy, Marine and World War II. Currently he is deputy Air Force personnel still serve Stripes reporters were there in Europe. These days, those editor of the when units of the 1st Armored troops are likely to bring their Gazette Newspapers Division crossed the Sava spouses, children and pets in Prince George’s River into Bosnia at the end with them. Add Defense County, Md. of 1995. During the 1999 Department civilians and bombing campaign against their family members, and Yugoslavian forces in Kosovo, Europe contains an American military com- “Stripers” were on Air Force flight lines and munity of more than 300,000 people, U.S. Navy cruisers and aircraft carriers and spread out primarily in seven countries. with Army contingents in Albania and Although those numbers are down 60 Macedonia. They followed the first U.S. percent from the height of the Cold War, ground troops into Kosovo after the bomb- when U.S. troops served as a tripwire for ing. Later that year, they went into East Soviet Bloc aggression, today’s European Timor with an international peacekeeping force is more likely to be deployed from mission. They are just as likely to report bases in Germany, Italy and England to hot from Korea, Okinawa, Turkey or NATO spots in the Balkans, the Middle East or headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Africa. Bringing the news to this far-flung Just as the military and its mission have community remains the job of The Stars and changed since the end of World War II, so Stripes—in many places the only English- too have the paper’s staff and readers. Dur- language newspaper available. ing World War II the reporters and editors The Defense Department gave The Stars came mostly from the enlisted ranks. Back and Stripes the mission of serving as the then it was a newspaper for soldiers and by “hometown newspaper” for service mem- soldiers, heavy on war news. Today most of bers overseas. “Its editorial policies and the staff in the 14 European bureaus—

S UMMER 2001 [ 65 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD including Bosnia and Kosovo—and 10 to base housing, where many of the build- Pacific bureaus are civilians, including all ings and plumbing are more than 40 years the senior editors. Of the editorial staff of old. 27 in Europe, only four reporters and one While war reporting might be perceived photographer are from the armed services. as a glamorous occupation filled with And while a colonel used to carry the title of adventure and tinged with danger, reporting publisher and editor, civilians hold those on the warriors, as Stripes reporters do daily, positions today in Washington, where the is more like covering the residents and centralized copy-editing and workers of a large company pagination staffs of both the town. What puts Stripes in a Pacific and European editions While war different, sometimes difficult, are based. reporting might situation is that it is owned The paper’s readers are just and subsidized by the “com- as likely to be civilians— be perceived pany” its reporters cover. spouses and family members as a glamorous For that reason the Defense living on military bases, and occupation filled Department has codified some other Defense Department standard journalistic protec- employees—as they are mem- with adventure tions. “The DoD policy for The bers of the military. For that and tinged Stars and Stripes is that there reason, the reporting flows shall be a free flow of news and both ways in its circulation with danger, information to its readership areas. During the Kosovo reporting on without news management or bombing, Stripes reporters the warriors, as censorship,” says DoD Direc- wrote about the long working tive 5122.11. “The calculated hours, minimal comforts and Stripes reporters withholding of unfavorable muddy field conditions facing do daily, is more news is prohibited.” the troops and airmen deploy- The First Amendment pro- ed in Albania, Italy and Mace- like covering tection afforded The Stars and donia to set up staging camps. the residents Stripes—its civilian editors At the same time, other report- and workers decide independently what ers wrote about anxious fam- stories reporters will write, ily members at the European of a large which ones to run and how to home bases who were coping company town. play them—sets the newspa- with the uncertainty of that per apart from its electronic potentially prolonged and cousins at the extremely pop- dangerous deployment. ular Armed Forces Radio and Television The Stars and Stripes carries a mix of wire Service or the ubiquitous base newspapers news from back home in the United States that serve the same community. and local, staff-written stories on issues Both AFRTS and the base publications affecting those stationed overseas. Recently are products of the armed services’ public the European edition published a three-part affairs machine, which promotes “com- series on the quality of water being delivered mand information,” or the commanders’

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 66 ] Derald Everhart: Reporting on the Warriors

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION Soldier stationed in South Korea catches up on the news, 1950. point of view. That means that the staff- own stories that violate those rules, it can produced material aired or published is publish stories containing such information what someone in the chain of command if they come from another publication or wants the troops to know. news agency. But the department’s direc- Still, the Defense Department does tives do allow the publisher to hold or kill a impose limitations on The Stars and Stripes. story if he believes it would violate those For starters, the staff cannot publish stories rules. that knowingly disclose classified informa- Such an event happened just last year, tion, adversely affect national security or and the fallout caused a stir among the staff endanger the lives of military personnel. and the journalism community when the Although the newspaper cannot publish its Stripes editor resigned in protest.

S UMMER 2001 [ 67 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD

In that August 2000 incident a Stripes David Offer, who’d been in the job about reporter in Europe wrote about the planned four months, resigned in protest the day deployment of Patriot missiles from Army after the Post story ran in Stripes. bases in Germany to Israel. The information In a newspaper column on the incident came from the communities where the sol- two days later, Stripes ombudsman David diers were based, from Army sources in Ger- Mazzarella said Kelsch should have tried many and from diplomats in the Middle harder to ascertain what parts of the story East. were classified, given the “apparently open Pentagon higher-ups caught way” the planned deployment wind of the story and con- was being treated in Europe. tacted Clifford Bernath, civil- Because of the The Pentagon’s involvement ian director of Stripes’ parent newspaper’s and Kelsch’s decision left a agency, the American Forces “sense of disquiet and suspi- Information Service, to say status within its cion,” Mazzarella’s column they had national security con- “community,” concluded. cerns about the story. Bernath, in turn, called Publisher Tom some overzeal-   - Kelsch, also a civilian, who lis- ous public Tprofile censorship attempts tened to the arguments. affairs officers are few, the military has sub- Without reading the story tler ways of controlling the or identifying the Pentagon and command- news—as any reporter from a officials who made the ers believe that civilian newspaper in regular request, Kelsch decided to kill contact with a local military the story. His position was the newspaper’s base can attest. that the deployment was clas- primary mission Public affairs officials insist sified and the story posed a should be to on being the sole point of con- security threat to soldiers. tact for base matters and infor- The staff was incensed that promote morale mation, and reporters can the Pentagon was trying to among the usually enter bases only with censor the paper, and the edi- an escort. Although Stripes tors protested vociferously. troops. staffers carry military identifi- Kelsch, who had listened to the cation cards admitting them Pentagon’s case under a cloak to all overseas bases, the rule is of confidentiality, said he was not allowed to that reporters do not go on a base to work a divulge the reasons behind his decision, even story without first notifying the base’s pub- to his senior editors. lic affairs office. The unspoken threat is that A similar story on the missile deployment the command could revoke the reporter’s appeared in The Washington Post the next ID card if this procedure is not followed, day. Even then, Kelsch refused to run the thus limiting access to the military commu- story, though he allowed the editors to run nity and the stories that are the newspaper’s the Post story in the following day’s edition. daily fare. Kelsch’s top newsman, Executive Editor The military also frequently uses the Pri-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 68 ] Derald Everhart: Reporting on the Warriors vacy Act to deny reporters access to infor- enlightened public affairs folks who under- mation that would be public record in the stand the concept. civilian world—for example, arrest logs, The second limitation is that Stripes charging documents and disposition of reporters cannot protect a source from an criminal charges. Just getting the report on authorized military investigation. Although the cause of an unattended death can take that has rarely been an issue, such an inves- several letters and many months of waiting. tigation theoretically could arise from the Because of the newspaper’s status within publication of a story. its “community,” some overzealous public A third limitation, perhaps the least affairs officers and commanders believe that problematical for reporters in their day-to- the newspaper’s primary mission should be day work, is a restriction on staff-generated to promote morale among the troops. So editorials or political endorsements. To they are slow to respond to information compensate, the newspaper runs a wide requests, “forget” or “misplace” requests, or selection of opinion columnists and politi- simply refuse to release information they cal cartoonists from a variety of syndicates. consider too controversial or negative. Fight- The ombudsman also has the authority to ing that mind set is a constant in the run his column—in which he responds to workaday world of Stripes reporters and edi- readers’ or staff complaints—on the opinion tors—and the subject of many complaints to page, unedited and uncut. Mazzarella, a former USA TODAY editor. Despite its lack of a traditional editorial Stripes reporters face a few other journal- voice, Stripes does offer readers an unfiltered istic limitations arising from the newspa- voice through its letters-to-the-editor page. per’s military status. Recent readership surveys indicate that the The first is the inability to use the Free- letters page is the second most popular— dom of Information Act to force disclosure after sports. The page gives Stripes a loud of information. Because one federal gov- voice in its overseas community and helps ernment entity cannot “FOIA” another, further define its independence from the Stripes reporters work to get around that military. by using Defense Department directives Over the past few years the sometimes that afford Stripes equal access to informa- rough-and-tumble letter threads have dealt tion available to U.S. civilian newspapers. with racism in the military, former President The newspaper has developed its own free- Bill Clinton’s impeachment, and the high dom-of-information request letter, in which tempo and number of deployments away it reasons out its argument: If the informa- from home bases and families. The most tion sought is releasable under FOIA, then popular, continuing themes in the letters: the spirit and intent of the law should make AFRTS, the commissary and exchange serv- the information releasable without a FOIA ices, and—you guessed it—The Stars and request. That letter tends to work on Stripes.

S UMMER 2001 [ 69 ] T HE P EN AND THE S WORD

HATRED TO STAY

R ELMA M ORIN

      , munists suddenly appeared in uniforms. Lthe weeds of hatred will be flourishing in They killed some of their neighbors and Korea, nourished by blood and bitter memo- caused others to be put in jail at Inchon. The ries. headman himself fled to safety in the south. This is the heritage of the short weeks dur- One of the villagers went with him. ing which most of South Korea was learning “He did not want to go,” said the head- Communism. man. “He was to be married. The girl stayed Only weeks ago in the region around Seoul here. She is 18 and a grown woman, but she and Inchon, people were ❖ did not know what to do.” being killed, dispossessed of Relma Morin Back in the village the nine land and homes, left to starve, Communists began putting won two Pulitzer Prizes or driven away from all they theory into practice. First held dear—because they were for war coverage in the they confiscated all land. not Communists and refused 1950s, the first of which Then they summoned land- to act like Communists. … was for this article on the less tenant farmers from Today, in that same region, nearby villages and told them enmity between commu- the same things are still hap- the land would be given to pening—because some Kore- nist and noncommunist them if they became Com- ans are Communists and members of a newly munists. … propose to remain so. liberated Korean village. Then, ten days ago, the Hidden in the hills a mile Americans attacked Inchon. off the road to Seoul, there is ❖ Before the Communists left a village of twenty-four mud-stone huts with they herded thirty-three men into a large cell in thatched roofs. … Even before the North the Inchon jail and locked the doors. Then the Korean military invasion last June, nine of the thirty-three were shot to death. men in the village were Communists. The As soon as possible the headman came back headman didn’t know why. He simply said to his village. Soon the man who had fled they belonged to a Red organization, and fre- with him came back too. … quently went to meetings in Inchon at night. The American officer asked: “What would As a result, the headman said, some of the you do if the nine Communists came back?” other villages banded together and beat the The headman and the others listening Communists. burst into hearty laughter. “There was always trouble and fighting,” “Kill them, naturally,” the headman said. said the headman, “and we talked of driving the Reds away.” Excerpt from Associated Press dispatch, Sept. 25, Then the North Korean army swept south- 1950. Reprinted with permission of The Associated ward over this little village. The nine Com- Press.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 70 ] CHRIS RAINIER/CORBIS Child running from sniper fire, Maglaj, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1994 RIGHT AND WRONG

Journalists are storytellers, not social scientists or historians or criminal investigators or humanitarian aid workers. We offer the power and eloquence of our writing and observation. —   ❖ Tom Gjelten on journalists’ moral responsibility and the new rules of war reporting Judy C. Woodruff on why U.S. media should cover foreign wars ❖

S UMMER 2001 [ 71 ] GILLES PERESS/MAGNUM PHOTOS Photographer James Nachtwey carries orphaned baby, Zaire, 1994.

FINDING THE RIGHT ‘MORAL ATTITUDE’ Journalists can best serve victims of crisis by balancing humanity and professionalism.

T OM G JELTEN

     again, war reporters had to consider their an eruption of small but savage wars own moral responsibility in the face of evil. Taround the world: Colombia, Kosovo, We journalists have always had difficulty Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the deciding whether professional ethics require Congo, Chechnya, Afghanistan and beyond. that we care about the people we cover or In every conflict, the victims were predomi- remain indifferent to their plight. Critics of nantly civilians. Those who escaped out- our performance in war and crisis situations right death or injury in the fighting often argue that we should consider our report- were left homeless and hungry. Journalists ing’s impact. Carole Zimmerman, speaking who covered the fighting witnessed war for the Bread for the World aid agency, has crimes, human rights violations and untold even suggested that journalists “re-imagine” suffering, much of it preventable. Once their profession and consider becoming

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 72 ] Tom Gjelten: Finding the Right ‘Moral Attitude’ explicitly humanitarian in their approach to Rwanda and decided to testify before the international reporting. People working on International Criminal Tribunal for programs to prevent violence recommend Rwanda. “It was not my responsibility as a that we think more about how our report- journalist,” she later explained. “My role as a ing may affect the development of a con- journalist could even have been compro- flict. Human rights monitors insist that we mised by my testifying. But I also have aggressively uncover atrocities and injustice. responsibilities as a human being.” A jour- Journalists instinctively resist arguments that nalist who witnesses a crime is not absolved we be more “socially responsi- of the responsibility to report ble,” having seen how authori- Tom Gjelten the crime to the proper legal tarian governments around the is the national security authorities. world have used that demand to Roy Gutman, who won a correspondent for muzzle an irksome free press. Pulitzer Prize for exposing Serb- Moreover, we have faith that National Public Radio. He run concentration camps in good journalism intrinsically is the author of Sarajevo Bosnia, hoped his stories would serves the public interest. But Daily: A City and Its save lives. “You’ve got to do we need to think more carefully Newspaper Under Siege everything in your power to about the responsibilities we and a contributing author stop these things,” he said, “and have—individually and profes- exposing it is one of the best of Crimes of War: What sionally—when we find our- ways to do it.” Gutman is care- selves in places where war crimes the Public Should Know. ful, however, to limit the jour- are occurring and where our nalist’s role: “Our job is to actions as journalists and as people could supply the facts so other people can make the change the course of events. judgments. The worst thing is to step across the line and recommend what should be done.”     Mreporting to make a difference. War      correspondents would have little reason to Sthat journalists should maintain moral risk their lives for a story if they did not detachment. Former newsman Marvin Kalb believe they served a larger purpose in get- (now directing the Washington office of the ting the news to their readers, listeners or Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Poli- viewers. War reporting in the Balkans, tics and Public Policy at Harvard Univer- Africa, Chechnya and elsewhere has been sity) complained in a recent book that some for many of us a passion-stirring personal journalists in Bosnia wrote their stories “for experience. We were among the first to learn the specific purpose of affecting national that great atrocities had been committed policy,” a practice he criticized as a depar- and the first to witness the terrible suffering ture from the standard of objectivity. “To in their wake. Having seen such things, we the degree that this change in professional had to choose the appropriate reaction. attitude is simply a limited response to the Lindsey Hilsum, a reporter for Indepen- anguish of covering a truly dreadful human dent Television News in the United King- tragedy such as the events in Bosnia,” he wrote, dom, covered the mass killing of Tutsis in “this may be understandable though still

S UMMER 2001 [ 73 ] R IGHT AND W RONG regrettable. But if reporters are now to adopt a reported extensively about possible solutions moral attitude toward their stories, then the to identified problems. public is almost certain to be shortchanged.” Thus far, journalists have confined the Still, as a veteran journalist, Kalb should practice to domestic affairs, but some critics have known that adopting a “moral attitude” of international reportage have suggested in journalism was hardly unprecedented. Cru- extending public journalism to the global sading reporters who uncover corruption in arena. Peter Shiras, a veteran of such agen- local government or child abuse in day-care cies as Catholic Relief Services, has argued centers are seen as performing a that the “public journalism” public service. One of the approach “could be usefully Pulitzer Prizes is even reserved Journalists who applied to conflict situations for this kind of journalism. make no moral abroad wherein reporting would Many reporters who covered the judgments in focus not only on the conflict but civil rights movement in the also on an array of both indige- 1960s adopted a “moral atti- their reporting nous and international strategies tude” in their stories without and who treat all for dealing with the conflict.” being criticized for surrendering That approach probably their objectivity. stories equally takes a noble idea a step too Bob Greene, a longtime are routinely far, however. Reporters can investigative reporter for News- criticized for demonstrate moral and social day, told an interviewer that his responsibility without becom- generation of journalists went being cynical or ing proactively involved in into the business “because it mercenary. their own stories. If journalists was an opportunity to effect are to be deployed abroad as change for good. You never did social workers or conflict-reso- it for money because you knew it was the lution specialists, it probably will be through poorest paying job in the world. … [But] you groups or projects with exclusively human- can try to work for what is presumed to be itarian aims (such as the Search for Common good, if nothing else, by bringing accurate Ground, a nongovernmental organization) information to people.” rather than as staff members of traditional In fact, journalists who make no moral news organizations. judgments in their reporting and who treat all stories equally are routinely criticized for   - being cynical or mercenary. Such charges A cerning coverage of hot spots overseas helped prompt the “public journalism” move- is that we revise our notion of newsworthi- ment, whose advocates contend that the press ness. The news media often are criticized for should work openly “to help communities focusing excessively on emergencies instead solve problems and to aid in the country’s of paying close attention to potential con- search for a workable public life.” News flicts or crisis areas before they erupt. Yet organizations practicing “public journalism” such criticism is at times naïve. John Ham- (generally community newspapers) have mock and Joel Charny—both associated polled citizens about their main concerns and with Oxfam America, an antipoverty advo-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 74 ] Tom Gjelten: Finding the Right ‘Moral Attitude’

HORST FAAS AND MICHEL LAURENT/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Soldiers conduct bayonet executions in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1971. cacy group—suggested in a recent article approach in covering the developing world, that “journalists given overseas assign- United Nations Radio, is hardly known for ments—even when parachuting into a dis- its wide audience. aster—should be fluent in the language Useful media criticism must consider the favored locally.” To meet that requirement, realities of the business: We must win and a news organization would have to employ hold the attention of readers, listeners and as many foreign-language speakers as the viewers; we operate under tight budgetary United Nations does. constraints, and our resources are limited. Hammock and Charny go on to recom- Covering emergencies will always be a mend that journalists “present the daily lives higher priority than covering people’s daily of people in developing countries and their lives. After all, we are not development offi- organized efforts to solve their own prob- cers, agricultural extension agents, public lems—before, during and after crises.” health workers or family planning advisers. Would Hammock and Charny promise to “Good news is too often considered not read such articles or listen to such programs? newsworthy,” complained Zimmerman of The media organization best known for this Bread for the World, who asked journalists to

S UMMER 2001 [ 75 ] R IGHT AND W RONG

“re-imagine” the purposes of their profession. ical circumstances abroad,” Overholser asked, “Murder in a small town and its big-time “wouldn’t there be hope for steadier policies equivalent, war within or between nations, and more effective interventions?” Overholser makes better news than a nutrition program suggested that news organizations run regular that improves a million lives.” “primers” on major foreign news stories, Editors do not consider war to be “better” answering basic “who, what, where, when and than life-saving nutrition programs. Their why” questions to give readers some context for major responsibility is to see that the world understanding breaking developments. is explained, not that it is improved. In most Because war correspondents often witness editors’ judgment, an overseas story deserves the first stages of a conflict, their reports can coverage if, among other things, it is: serve as warnings. A major challenge to diplo- • Important: Broad values, interests or mats, aid organizations and peace mediators is resources are at stake. the relatively weak domestic constituency for • Dynamic: The story has some suspense, their efforts. Foreign news coverage can change with events changing and the outcome that, as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan uncertain. has recognized. “Peacekeeping operations,” • Illustrative: The story has explanatory Annan said, “depend for their support on power, suggesting trends or patterns. widespread public awareness of the conflicts, • Interesting: The story will hold the atten- and we are committed to doing everything we tion of readers, listeners or viewers. can to facilitate the work of the media.” If critics want the news media to cover sto- Of course, journalists are storytellers, not ries that fail to meet at least some of these cri- social scientists or historians or criminal inves- teria, their advice is not helpful. They are on tigators or humanitarian aid workers. We solid ground, however, when they fault the offer the power and eloquence of our writing press for being inaccurate; distorting reality; and observation. insufficiently examining the root causes of When people are in anguish, it is our conflicts; resorting to simplistic analyses or unique professional responsibility to convey clichés; stereotyping, or failing to ask tough what they feel and not just the facts of their questions. When diplomats, historians, social predicament. We must aim to preserve the scientists or others explain how the news human dignity of those whose experiences media get a story wrong, they do help. we relate. When suffering is gruesome, we must take care that our reporting steers clear      “- of pornography. Stories that pander to emo- Jimagine” their international work to help tion—offering no insight or analysis— prevent or resolve conflicts around the world. might titillate but do not explain and may They simply need to do their jobs better—by even distort what has happened. In the end, the traditional standards of their profession. to balance emotion with dispassionate Geneva Overholser, a former Washington observation is one of the great challenges of Post ombudsman, once quoted a Post reader professional war journalism. who said she did not understand foreign news This essay is adapted from “Professionalism in War stories and consequently did not read them. “If Reporting: A Correspondent’s View” (Carnegie Commis- Americans better understood economic and polit- sion on Preventing Deadly Conflict, 1998).

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 76 ] David Halberstam: War from a Helicopter

WAR FROM A HELICOPTER

D AVID H ALBERSTAM

        At about 8:30 a.m. we saw some movement Tthe Vietcong there is a sharp sense of dis- in the village below, followed by a few light appointment. He is not, it turns out, very dif- crackles around us. It was ground fire; the bait ferent; he is simply another Vietnamese. had been taken. We came in low once over the Generally when you see him he is either village and saw some men scurrying to posi- kneeling and firing at you, or he has just been tions. … We were making our advance on the captured, or, more often than not, he is dead. tree line under fire when we saw one man in a The bodies of enemy dead are always lined black suit desperately running across the open up, feet all in an orderly row. ❖ field. It was the dry season and The guerrilla wears little, per- the fields were of sun-caked David Halberstam haps a simple peasant pajama mud. Suddenly a helicopter suit, perhaps only shorts. He covered the Vietnam War descended almost on top of is slim and wiry, and his face for The New York Times. the man, and he stopped and could be that of your inter- In 1964 he received the held up his hands. The Viet- preter or of the taxi driver namese commander ran over Pulitzer Prize, along with who drove you to My Tho. to him. There was no weapon Only the haircut is different, Malcolm Browne of The on this Vietcong; neither was very thin along the sides and Associated Press, for his there any of the bowing or very long on top and in front. work there. scraping that local guerrillas It is a bad haircut and, like who posed as farmers some- the frailness of the uniform ❖ times employed. and the thin wallet with only a few pictures of This enemy was angry and defiant, and at some peasant woman, it makes the enemy first a little scared as well—until he saw me human. But one’s sympathy does not last and spit at me. The commander slapped his long; this is the same face which has been seen face very hard and said something in Viet- by the outnumbered defenders of some small namese. Later I was told that the captain had outpost before it was overrun. said to the prisoner, “The Americans are very There were not many operations in which kind. They do not kill, and they are always Vietcong were caught; there were few prisoners telling us not to kill you, but I am not so kind in this war. One of the rare exceptions to this and I will kill you. You will see.” that I ever observed took place in April 1963, when I accompanied the new armed-helicop- Excerpt from “The Face of the Enemy in Vietnam,” ter units in the upper Camau peninsula. … Harper’s Magazine, February 1965.

S UMMER 2001 [ 77 ] CHRIS RAINIER/CORBIS Bosnian Muslim sniper aims at a target in Sarajevo during the Yugoslavian civil war.

BEWARE OF THUGS, WARLORDS AND P.R. AGENTS Rules for reporting postmodern wars

T OM G JELTEN

    In Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, in the 1980s, I covered war and rev- the opposing sides were clearly distinguished Aolution in Central America. In the by political ideology, with contrasting views 1990s I reported the violent breakup of on the distribution of wealth and the role of Yugoslavia. The Central American and private capital. The wars were local but fit Yugoslav wars were just a few years apart, neatly into the wider context of East-West yet they belonged to different historical eras: struggle. The Soviet Union, Cuba and other before and after the end of the Cold War. socialist countries generally supported one

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 78 ] Tom Gjelten: Beware of Thugs, Warlords and P.R. Agents side and the United States the other. vival, and this might mean getting the peo- In Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, however, ple to identify with an exclusive group, the warring parties could not be placed so defined perhaps by religion or ethnicity. easily along a left-right spectrum. These Hatemongering demagogues in Rwanda and conflicts were not primarily about land Bosnia, for example, used local radio stations ownership or workers’ rights, and they were to foment interethnic conflict. The interna- far less connected to broader global rivalries. tional media’s representation of these wars War in the former Yugoslavia was mostly also is important because it can influence the provoked by local demagogues who, in a response of other states and international time of rising social and economic discon- organizations. tent, saw benefits to be gained by turning Under such changing circumstances, jour- people against their neighbors. nalists must reconsider the conventions of tra- For now, the Yugoslav pattern echoes in ditional war reporting and adopt guidelines conflicts around the world, from West appropriate for covering armed conflict in Africa to East Timor. State disintegration is the 21st century. increasingly common. Old ethnic rivalries are rekindled, even where linguistic and cul-       . tural differences are slight. Much of the TFor as long as journalists have followed fighting is among civilians, and it is espe- troops into combat, war reporting has been cially brutal. Conflicts increasingly involve a high-risk profession. The downscaling and nonstate actors, and the parties are less deregulation of war in recent years have inclined to abide by customary interna- made it even more dangerous. More jour- tional humanitarian law and the established nalists died in the first year of fighting in the rules of war. The fighting creates enormous former Yugoslavia than were killed during problems for neighboring states, yet the the first five years of heavy U.S. involvement outside world is not sure whether, when or in South Vietnam. how to intervene. Those of us who were in Central America In its primitiveness, warfare at times learned early that it is far safer to go into seems to revert to the style of past centuries. battle in the company of one side or the Marauding groups chase down their hapless other than to strike out on your own. The victims and club them to death, hack their troops you move with will provide some limbs off or gouge their eyes out. Yet these protection. Normally you can rely on a also are Information Age conflicts—battles command-and-control structure with clear where words and images are mighty rules and expectations. And there is far less weapons. Some of the most vicious militia danger of stumbling across a front line by groups are most eager to work with news accident. media outlets, both local and international. In Bosnia, Somalia, Chechnya and Sierra In fact, the outcome of many small, post- Leone, such arrangements have been the modern wars may depend as much on how exception. War in these places involved not they are perceived as on how they are fought. just organized armies but also paramilitary To mobilize his people, a leader must por- groups, armed civilians and even criminal tray a conflict as a fight for collective sur- organizations. Covering messy conflicts is far

S UMMER 2001 [ 79 ] R IGHT AND W RONG riskier than conventional war reporting. The reports of front-line journalists determine in “soldiers” manning a roadblock may turn out part how the world responds. to be drunken thugs, attracted mainly by the In the early months of war in Chechnya opportunity to extort money, jewelry or and Bosnia, for example, few foreign gov- equipment from passing journalists. They ernments had representatives on the ground may answer to no superior officer or only to to report to their capitals on the unfolding colleagues in crime. Anarchy reigns where conflicts. Many foreign journalists, how- state authority has disappeared, and working ever, had access to a portable satellite tele- as a journalist under such cir- phone or telex and were cumstances can be a deadly prepared, sometimes fool- business. In Central ishly, to head straight for the The best course is to be espe- America we most troubled areas. Their cially cautious, understand that accounts often were the only no “arrangement” guarantees wore T-shirts information available to the your security, learn to recognize and rode in outside world. land mines and bring body “soft” cars. In Since policy makers cannot armor. In Central America we explain such conflicts within wore T-shirts and rode in “soft” Bosnia we were a Cold War framework, they cars. In Bosnia we were outfit- outfitted with must analyze them on a case- ted with flak jackets and hel- by-case basis, and the pattern mets and traveled in armored flak jackets and of press coverage can sway cars. The BBC now requires all helmets and their judgment. For example, staff journalists headed for a traveled in the 1992 reports of starving war zone to first complete a children in Somalia shamed “Hostile Environments Train- armored cars. the Bush administration into ing Course,” where they learn sending U.S. forces to how to handle themselves dur- Mogadishu to help distribute ing a firefight, what to do if taken hostage food aid there. But pictures of a dead U.S. and how to dress a bullet wound. Army Ranger being dragged through a Mogadishu street prompted the Clinton    ,  administration to bring the troops home. Aneed to be sure they make sense of the Journalists covering wars like those in story they’re covering. Good war reporting Somalia, Chechnya, Kosovo and Sierra in this time of localized unrest is in some Leone therefore might find themselves in a ways even more important than during the position of unaccustomed influence but also days of worldwide crisis and East-West con- greater responsibility. We have a newly frontation. Many of the small wars currently important obligation to provide clear, being waged are almost incomprehensible to cogent explanations of the conflicts we outsiders. One recent global tally found 30 cover. It is not enough to dismiss current armed conflicts under way simultaneously, wars as tribal uprisings or explosions of each claiming about a thousand lives per interethnic animosity. Journalists need to year. Some get noticed; many do not. The explore the roots of conflict and the histori-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 80 ] Tom Gjelten: Beware of Thugs, Warlords and P.R. Agents

ANTOINE GYORIL/CORBIS/SYGMA Serbian volunteers train during civil war in Croatia, 1991. cal background. An explanation of the launched the genocide.” fighting in Angola and Sierra Leone, for When war raises clear moral issues, example, needs to cover the diamond trade. reporters need to identify them. It was not Likewise, Colombia’s civil war cannot be enough in Bosnia to interview refugees flee- reported without referring to illegal drug ing from a burning village and relate their trafficking. sad stories. We needed to dig deeper, to find out which houses were burned and which  ,    were left standing, and to tell the larger Treport complex conflicts in faraway story of “ethnic cleansing” often behind the places, journalists resort to clichés. In refugee tales. Rwanda, reporters unfamiliar with the This requires a careful balance of direct events preceding the 1994 mass killings observation and analysis. Critics of war cov- were inclined to suggest, as BBC journalist erage in Bosnia sometimes accused the news Fergal Keane later observed, “that the media of overdramatizing the conflict, exag- genocide was the result of some innate gerating the number of Muslim casualties interethnic loathing that had erupted into and too quickly portraying Serb actions as irrational violence. … Much of the coverage criminal. The opposite charge was made in of Rwanda in the early days,” he lamented, Rwanda: A steering committee evaluating “neglected the part that power and money the international response to the crisis had played in the calculations of those who faulted the media for not realizing more

S UMMER 2001 [ 81 ] R IGHT AND W RONG quickly how widespread the killing actually struggle can be just as intense. In recent was. “The overall failure of the media to accu- months the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has rately and adequately report on a crime against had an Internet dimension, with supporters humanity,” the committee said, “significantly of both sides hacking into each other’s Web contributed to international disinterest in the sites, determined to disrupt the information genocide and hence to the inadequate response.” flow. Last April’s U.S.-Chinese confronta- Good, responsible reporting from the tion over a U.S. surveillance plane prompted front lines can provide early warnings to the another “Web war,” with Chinese propagan- international community, dif- dists anxious to portray the ferentiating between those conflict to the world as a bat- wars raising broader issues and At a time when tle to defend Chinese sover- those arising from purely local participants in a eignty against U.S. hegemony. conflict. Journalists covering In Chechnya, human rights war need to be grounded in conflict casually monitors have begun video- international humanitarian fling charges of taping atrocity scenes to law, the rules of war and the counter misinformation from Geneva conventions. At a time “genocide” and the Russian government. when participants in a conflict “war crimes,” In Bosnia the battle for the casually fling charges of reporters need story was just as intense and “genocide” and “war crimes,” waged on all sides. Serb reporters need to know what to know what nationalists, enjoying a clear those terms actually mean. those terms military advantage over the The Crimes of War Project, Bosnian government forces, initiated by journalists at actually mean. hoped to discourage any American University in thought of outside interven- Washington, D.C., is a major tion. Serb leaders therefore step in that direction. described the conflict as an eruption of age- old hatreds beyond the comprehension of       other countries, much less worthy of their Aour war coverage, we also will find that interest. In Sarajevo the Muslim-dominated interested parties want to influence our government had the opposite aim. Desper- reporting. All those involved in a war have ate for the United States and other Western stakes in portrayals advancing their particu- powers to come to their rescue, Sarajevans lar interests, and the fragmentation of wanted visiting journalists to portray the armed conflict in the post-Cold War era war as a struggle that threatened Western dramatically raises those stakes. War corre- civilization as we know it. U.N. Protection spondents must keep all these competing Force commanders, under intense criticism agendas in mind and guard against the for failing either to deliver aid effectively or related pressures. to protect endangered civilians, defended In virtually every war today, the military their performance by downplaying the suf- confrontation brings with it what could be fering in Bosnia, at one point even disput- called “the battle for the story,” and that ing whether Sarajevo could really be

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 82 ] Tom Gjelten: Beware of Thugs, Warlords and P.R. Agents considered under “siege.” vene, whether justice is done or denied, and Human rights advocates, for their part, whether killing is stopped or allowed to con- saw Bosnia as a test case for the post-Cold tinue. We are expected to tell “the truth” in sit- War effort to establish the primacy of inter- uations with many versions and no obvious national humanitarian law and universal answers. When we raise questions of good and human rights standards, and they constantly evil, our reports should clarify those moral urged journalists to highlight those issues. issues, but we cannot become advocates. When so many groups present such different Generally editors prefer to send their ideas of “the story,” a responsible correspon- more experienced reporters into war zones, dent must keep his or her distance from all but the personal and physical demands in interested parties. We must ignore outside many ways make it a job more suitable for pressures as best we can and describe conflicts younger reporters. As a minimum, war cor- objectively and completely, without regard respondents should receive better training. for whose interests our reporting serves. Just as medical, legal, science and business reporting has grown more sophisticated     - and specialized in recent years, so should Ned more skill, judgment and knowl- the reporting of war, peacekeeping missions edge. Correspondents routinely are expected and humanitarian interventions. As jour- to “parachute” into highly dangerous situa- nalists, we need to clarify our professional tions where the rule of law is not recognized obligations, develop new ethical guidelines and where civilians—including journalists for these new situations, and commit our- and aid workers—are considered legitimate selves as a profession to upholding those military targets. We are asked to cover wars standards and even to being held account- whose origins may be obscure and to explain able to them. complex conflicts to a largely indifferent audi- This essay is adapted from “Professionalism in War ence. What we say about a war could influence Reporting: A Correspondent’s View” (Carnegie Commis- whether the rest of the world chooses to inter- sion on Preventing Deadly Conflict, 1998).

S UMMER 2001 [ 83 ] LAURENT REBOURS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A father’s hands press against the window of a bus carrying his tearful son and wife to safety from Sarajevo, 1992.

WE OWE THE WORLD Why the U.S. news media must cover foreign conflicts

J UDY C. WOODRUFF

     NEW YORK those who read his words later, was one par- Times reporter Chris Hedges stood up ticular point. The news media were “partly Ito say a few words of thanks after receiv- to blame,” Hedges said. “We failed to cover ing the Francis Frost Wood Award for the conflict until it burst into a crisis.” Courage in Journalism from Hofstra Uni- Preoccupied with the Bill Clinton-Monica versity for his coverage of the conflict in Lewinsky story at the time, the news media Kosovo. In his remarks, Hedges discussed were not just late in unleashing reporters and the origins and the ramifications of the war cameras on one of the world’s hot spots, in that Kentucky-size region in the former Hedges said. More ominously, he added, the Yugoslavia. But what stuck in the minds of news media’s failure—to first cover the those in the New York City audience, and Yugoslav conflict and then to explain it accu-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 84 ] Judy C. Woodruff: We Owe the World rately—can be linked with the fate of NATO. difficult. Managers now respond to research By their inattention and later misinterpreta- that tells them what audiences like and what tions, he charged, journalists must answer in they want to see. part for NATO’s lack of influence over events, In this “it’s-a-business” environment, a development that he said could lead to the there are heated debates about whether weakening, crippling or crumbling of the sending a crew to cover insurgency in Mex- alliance. ico’s state of Chiapas or an outbreak of That is a heavy burden for a news corps fighting between India and Pakistan is more accustomed to focusing worth it. Some have proposed on O.J. Simpson than Slobo- increasing the pooling of TV Judy C. Woodruff, dan Milosevic. And it’s one resources to cover those kinds easy to slough off by those a veteran of more than 20 of stories and air them on the weary of being blamed over the years in broadcast largest number of outlets. But years for everything from the journalism, is CNN’s competition among U.S. tele- rise in teen violence in the prime anchor and senior vision networks is alive and United States to the coarsening kicking. The long-held belief correspondent. She of the political culture in that competition makes news Washington. anchors “Inside Politics,” coverage better—although not But now that instant com- the nation’s only daily always true—has become so munications rival governments program devoted ingrained in the minds of net- in the ability to influence the exclusively to politics. work veterans that it is diffi- outcome of events, we should cult to shake off. appreciate more than ever what Hedges meant. We in the news media actu- ,   . ally play a larger role in world affairs than we SLongtime “60 Minutes” producer Don are comfortable acknowledging. Hewitt has proposed that the traditional This greater responsibility comes, ironi- early evening newscast be radically revised: cally, at a time of widespread retrenchment Pool the coverage of stories every network in the news business at home and abroad. wants, and redeploy resources for analytical Standards of financial profitability now are and enterprise reporting that would give being applied to decisions that used to be each network a distinctive look. based primarily on standards of journalism. But until Hewitt’s vision or someone With the bottom line playing an ever- else’s is adopted, news managers have to ask increasing central role in decisions about tough questions. For instance, how much news coverage, few news organizations are does a development in a foreign country free to deploy reporters without considering affect U.S. interests? And if the answer is the number of “eyeballs” that will read or “not much,” is it such a momentous or see the resulting story. In television, the unusual story that the networks would be at costs of getting a story on the air—the latest a competitive disadvantage not to cover it? video and audio technology, satellite time, Those questions will not go away. The number of people involved and their economics of news reporting is a fact of life salaries—make such decisions even more for every media entity. Only public broad-

S UMMER 2001 [ 85 ] R IGHT AND W RONG

ANDRE KAISERT/GAFF FOTOARCHIVE Bosnian refugees in building used to house cattle casting, with its softer mandate for attract- that only half were “very interested” in news ing viewers and listeners, is largely exempt. about U.S. relations with other countries, That’s where important stories that might and only 35 percent were “very interested” in not make the commercial networks get told. news about other countries in general. That As news managers wrestle with how best shows surprisingly little curiosity, one might to deploy their resources, they can study think. Yet four years later—early in Jimmy the results of marketing research to identify Carter’s presidency and at the height of the their audiences: How many people are Cold War—the number of Americans inter- watching? Male or female? How old are ested in U.S. relations with other countries they? What are their incomes? What sort of dropped to 44 percent and the sector inter- news interests them the most? Local ested in news of other countries declined to community news? Politics in Washington? 26 percent. International happenings? TV program- The survey, conducted for the Chicago mers constantly weigh the answers to these Council on Foreign Relations every four years and dozens of other questions. since 1974, shows that the U.S. public’s inter- Over time, the answers have proved est in international affairs waxes and wanes. instructive. In 1974, when the Vietnam War Interest peaked at 53 percent in 1990—in the was reaching its bloody and politically messy aftermath of tearing down the Berlin Wall, at conclusion and regularly making news head- the dawn of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, lines, an initial survey of Americans found and when the United States led a coalition of

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 86 ] Judy C. Woodruff: We Owe the World nations against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein follow- now inhabit the planet. Ninety-five percent ing the invasion of Kuwait. By 1998, with the live outside the United States. Ninety per- Cold War long over, popular interest had cent don’t speak English. fallen to percentages nearly as low as those two So although the United States is the decades earlier. world’s sole superpower, and can throw its What is fascinating is that, over this same weight around economically, militarily and 24-year period, the percentage of Americans culturally, it also represents a tiny minority. who believe the United States plays an Most of what goes on in the world is well increasingly important and beyond its control. The United powerful role as a world leader States can use its influence— has climbed fairly steadily, We have an and does—but it is increas- from the high 20s to exactly obligation to ingly obvious that it does not 50 percent. Perhaps we’ve been always get its way. That was lulled into thinking that, with help people in recently made apparent when no immediate threat to our the “have” part it lost its seat on the U.N. existence, the United States Commission on Human occupies an exalted, almost of the world stay Rights. Beyond the U.N., invulnerable spot on the informed about European nations are more planet—a spot that allows us emboldened than ever to to focus our attention inward, the “have nots.” disagree with controversial to domestic matters as momen- U.S. proposals like President tous as the future of Social George W. Bush’s plan for a Security or as frivolous as the box-office national missile defense system. returns on the latest Hollywood block- Then why not sit back and let the world buster. do its thing while we do ours? Here are three If so, it also is a spot deaf to the cries of reasons: our children, our grandchildren and more than 2 million children who died as a their children. Those who expected that the result of armed conflicts around the world end of the Cold War and the meltdown of in the last decade of the 20th century and of the Soviet Union would usher in an era of more than 6 million who were disabled or peace and prosperity were only half right. Yes, otherwise seriously injured. According to a the United States enjoyed unprecedented report prepared by the United Nations and economic prosperity during the 1990s. And sponsored by the International Conference yes, it has not been involved in a prolonged on War-Affected Children, the proportion war since Vietnam, nearly 30 years ago. of war victims who are civilians has leaped But while the United States has pros- dramatically in recent decades, from 5 per- pered, two-fifths of the planet’s popula- cent to more than 90 percent. As of the end tion—nearly 2.5 billion people—subsist on of 2000, about 20 million children had less than one dollar a day or cannot meet been uprooted from their homes. even the most basic needs. Moreover, the If that seems too harsh an indictment, number of civil wars worldwide has increased some perspective may help explain why we dramatically since the end of the Cold War. should care: An estimated 6 billion people By one estimate, more than 150,000 peo-

S UMMER 2001 [ 87 ] R IGHT AND W RONG ple, most of them civilians, lost their lives In a more complex world, with old hatreds because of wars in 1997 alone. and new economic rivalries often overlaid, But the story is far more profound than our job seems more urgent than ever. Now one of lives lost. The Carter Center, the that the Cold War era is dead, what is replac- nonprofit institution founded by Jimmy ing it? The answer lies not just in the nuances Carter which formerly monitored conflicts of diplomatic exchanges between the United around the world, listed 30 major conflicts States and China—as important as those and about 100 smaller ones under way in are—but also in the human story, in man’s 1999. Since then, the number has climbed. inhumanity to man, particularly on the In addition to the deaths, the Carter Cen- African and Asian continents. ter and others calculate that in 1997 alone, Two years ago you could traverse Africa, 20 million people were forced to leave their from the Red Sea in the northeast to the homes, and untold numbers were wounded southwestern Atlantic coast, and never set or suffered the indirect consequences of foot on peaceful territory, according to the conflict. Countless children have seen their Carter Center. Fifty thousand people died fathers and brothers killed or taken away, in the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. leaving them emotionally scarred and per- Almost 2 million died during the long con- haps growing up wanting revenge. All this flict in neighboring Sudan. And so on, creates an atmosphere of fear and instability. through genocide in Rwanda and fighting This legacy is being laid down not at the in Angola and Sierra Leone. Do people in end of a world war but right now. Yet the Africa matter less than those who die every typical reaction is to shut this information day in the Middle East? Of course not. And out or discount it: “It’s too depressing; it as long as such conflicts continue, there can doesn’t really affect me; there is nothing I be no peace and prosperity for a large part can do about it.” Some of that is true. Most of the world. people are too busy to be consumed for long Those who live in the United States with the plight of the world’s poorest and its should understand this better than any other victims. prosperous nation on earth, for it is a nation We who are journalists or managers of of immigrants. Almost one in 10 people in newspaper and television empires have an the United States today were born in another obligation to help people in the “have” part country, making it more diverse than any- of the world stay informed about the “have where else. Try as we might to be apart from nots.” We have an obligation to tell them it—or even above it—we are the world. about ethnic, racial and territorial disputes If that’s not an excellent reason to cover that could fester or have consequences for the world, and cover it energetically, I don’t other parts of this planet, which, after all, is know what is. After all, stories of conflict a place of limited resources. teach us who we are as human beings and If some people don’t want to read or lis- what sort of world our children, and their ten to these stories, that is their choice. But children, will inherit. If we in the news busi- it’s our obligation at least to make the infor- ness don’t lead the way in telling those sto- mation available to them. ries, who will?

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 88 ] JAMES P. BLAIR The Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial, Arlington, Va. THE PRICE PAID

How many journalists have heard, “No story is worth getting killed for”? The risk-takers see things differently. They believe that sometimes a story is worth putting one’s life on the line. —  . 

❖ Timothy J. Kenny on journalists who died covering the news Donatella Lorch on the emotional aftermath of war reporting Gary Knight on getting close enough Susan Moeller on compassion fatigue

❖

S UMMER 2001 [ 89 ] LASZLO BALOGH/REUTERS Reuters correspondent Kurt Schork, who was killed in Sierra Leone in May 2000 IN THE BLEEDING FIELDS Journalists lose their lives covering war and conflict.

T IMOTHY J. KENNY

“ ’     , Most journalists are not risk-takers. mostly by editors, no story is worth That notion might come as a surprise, Idying for. I beg to differ—there are sto- given that some of us in the business tend to ries worth dying for. Some of my colleagues glamorize what we do. Likewise, Hollywood have made that choice and have died in bru- has reinforced many a romantic stereotype. tal ways. And they should be honored for You know the movies: “All the President’s having made the choice to get that story.” Men,” “Deadline USA,” “The Front Page,” — PAUL WATSON, “The Paper” and others of that genre. Los Angeles Times Alas, most journalists’ jobs—while cer-

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 90 ] Timothy J. Kenny: In the Bleeding Fields tainly more interesting than putting fenders Newseum in Arlington, Va. Twenty-six on trucks—are more likely to involve cover- names were added to its glass panels on May ing city councils, state legislatures or, heaven 3, 2001, World Press Freedom Day. The help us, the White House, than anything memorial, the most comprehensive of its dangerous. kind in the world, now bears the names of Most journalists have weighed “what if” 1,395 men and women who died doing against “yes, but” and found a refuge their jobs. More than half of the names between the worlds of risk and comfort. (705) are those of men and women who They follow the rules. Today’s died while covering conflict. newsroom generally is a low- War reporters have a decid- key, computer-driven bastion Timothy J. Kenny, edly romantic if fatalistic of political correctness—a a former newspaper streak, although some would distant cousin to the chaotic reporter and editor, deny that. A cynic, after all, is clatter of yesterday’s city is director of research only a romantic disappointed rooms and their hard-drink- by life. Scratch the cynicism and news history ing, cigar-smoking inhabi- of any hard-bitten war corre- tants. Most people in the at the Newseum spondent and you’ll often find business today risk little and in Arlington, Va. someone who got into jour- lead lives of quiet, if interest- nalism to improve the world, ing, middle-class comfort. someone offended by the ran- Then there are the others—the ones who dom unfairness of life, someone convinced take the chances the rest of us can’t or won’t. deep down of humanity’s basic decency. He These journalists investigate Mafia murders or she still believes journalism can make a and South American drug wars. They cover difference. West Bank demonstrations, Indonesian Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle, a latecomer riots and Sierra Leone’s civil war. They have to World War II, covered the Pacific The- felt the wrath of mobs, choked on clouds of ater. Her shot of a blood-soaked Marine tear gas and seen comrades lying dead in aboard a hospital ship attracted widespread pools of blood. attention when home-front blood drives Photographers of this breed are perhaps the used it repeatedly. Chapelle might have boldest. They have to get close to get good been one of those without an “off” switch, pictures. So they get hurt—by shrapnel, by though it’s not really clear. Those who rocks, by rubber bullets. Too often they end worked with her often saw her push her up dead. How many journalists have heard luck to the limit to get a story or photo. At more than once, “No story is worth getting Okinawa she ignored an order to stay killed for”? The risk-takers see things differ- aboard ship and went ashore with the ently. They believe that sometimes a story is Marines, telling one commander she wished worth putting one’s life on the line. to go “as far forward as you’ll let me.” She arrived in South Vietnam in 1961 at     age 43, proud that she carried her own pack TMemorial is a 37-foot-high glass and and ate C-rations in the field with the steel spiral in Freedom Park, adjacent to the grunts. Four years later shrapnel from a

S UMMER 2001 [ 91 ] T HE P RICE P AID booby trap ripped through her throat while the Sunday Independent. She had no quit in she accompanied a Marine patrol outside her. One night, thugs came to her house Chu Lai. One of the war’s most dramatic and shot her in the thigh because of her photos shows Chapelle receiving the last high-profile investigations of Irish drug rites. (See facing page.) She was the first wars. Even then, she refused to stop report- female correspondent to die in Vietnam. A ing the story. Most of us would have. She Marine honor guard took her body home to couldn’t. Milwaukee. Her last words reportedly were, Guerin covered Ireland’s underworld, she “I guess it was bound to hap- said, because “crime is an evil pen.” subculture existing within our The risk-takers cover wars The Freedom culture. And to me, exposing for various reasons: a com- Forum Journal- it is what journalism is about. pelling story, the adrenaline I suppose that’s why I do it. It rush, and the fame and money ists Memorial is a story that has to be told.” a strong performance can now bears the In 1996 a motorcycle pulled bring. Sometimes, though, it’s names of 1,395 alongside her car when she just plain craziness. Sean stopped at a traffic light out- Flynn, the son of Hollywood men and women side Dublin. The motorcycle icon Errol Flynn, died in who died doing passenger shot Guerin three Southeast Asia the way he had times in the heart and once in lived: hard and fast and with- their jobs. More the neck. She was 36 and left out rules. He had been acting than half died behind a husband and a 7- in a movie in Singapore while covering year-old son. Her murderers before going to Vietnam, were caught and convicted. wanting to see some action, conflict. Later, Ireland enacted tough and quickly got accredited as new organized-crime laws. a UPI photographer. He dis- Don Bolles also paid the appeared in 1970 with fellow “easy rider” ultimate price for his persistent crime cov- Dana Stone in Cambodia. The Khmer erage. After 15 years of exposing political Rouge captured both men and held them scandals and organized crime in Arizona, for a year before clubbing them to death. Bolles decided he’d had enough. “I thought, Flynn was a very good photographer, with ‘This isn’t worth it to me or my family,’ ” he several Time covers to his credit. He was also said. In November 1975, “I told my editors, an adrenaline junkie. “Sean Flynn spent ‘No more. I’m no longer in investigative most of his time playing out in real life the reporting.’ ” Hollywood derring-do of his swashbuckling Seven months later The Arizona Republic father,” said author William Prochnau. reporter died, the victim of a car-bomb explo- “[He] had death wish written all over him.” sion in a Phoenix parking lot that blew off Other reporters died from covering wars both his legs. As he lay mortally injured, Bolles of a different nature. Ireland’s Veronica whispered to rescuers, “Mafia.” He died 11 Guerin was a brave, headstrong woman days later. Within a week 39 reporters from who covered organized crime in Dublin for across the nation formed the Arizona Project

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 92 ] Timothy J. Kenny: In the Bleeding Fields

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Dickey Chapelle receives last rites, Vietnam, 1965. to continue Bolles’ work. Within a year the The story was the lure for former fighter project exposed a web of corruption, narcotics pilot and CBS correspondent George Polk, deals and land fraud that resulted in 18 indict- murdered in 1948 in Salonika, Greece, ments. while covering the civil war between com- munists and monarchists. Polk’s unblinking       reporting had earned him death threats. Mnamed on the Journalists Memorial In his final broadcast, he said: “Here in were foot soldiers pursuing truth, just trying Greece, this capital city has a slight case of to get the story right. They were professionals the jitters. So far today—and it’s only early who knew what they were doing. Most didn’t afternoon in Athens—44 alleged commu- take unnecessary chances, but sometimes just nists have been executed. … The Greek covering the news can be dangerous. government’s anticommunist measures

S UMMER 2001 [ 93 ] T HE P RICE P AID include martial law, curfew at night and suffering of ordinary people around the heavy guards at strategic places. This is world. He was 53 years old. George Polk reporting from Athens.” His “War reporting,” Schork said, “is a job, is battered body, wrists and ankles bound, a craft—not a holy crusade. The thing is to washed up on the shores of Salonika Bay. work and not get hurt. When that is no He had been shot in the back of the head at longer possible, it is time to get out.” point-blank range. Described by colleagues as the best war cor- One of journalism’s most prestigious respondent of his generation, Schork had awards is named for Polk, covered fighting in Bosnia, whom journalist I.F. Stone Kurdistan, Chechnya, East called the Cold War’s first The risk-takers Timor, Kosovo and Sierra casualty. In 1965 veteran field cover wars for Leone. But all that experience producer Ted Yates won the was not enough to keep him George Polk Award for his various reasons: alive. Vietnam coverage. Like Polk, a compelling Finally, there was Egon NBC newsman Yates was fear- story, the Scotland. He was covering the less and brilliant. He had a sly war in Croatia in July 1991 sense of humor and could adrenaline rush, for the German newspaper laugh at the absurdities of his and the fame Suddeutsche Zeitung when an often-dangerous world. Two inexperienced colleague failed years after winning the Polk and money to return from the field. Scot- award, Yates was shot and a strong land went looking for him, killed in Jordan while covering performance driving a clearly marked press the Six-Day War. car. Serb militiamen, who can bring. often targeted the press,   - opened fire on the vehicle Fment lackey trapped on a and shot Scotland in the beat, taking press releases and not making stomach with an exploding dumdum bullet. waves, a reporter or a photographer is put- He died at the scene, at age 43. Among the ting his or her neck on the line for a story effects taken from his body was a copy of a that won’t let them alone. It’s too good. It’s poem by Slavko Bronzic, a resident of Osi- too big. It’s too important to stop doing. So jek in the Slavonia region of Croatia: they don’t. To the Reporter Sierra Leone was the worst killing field Take as many notes and shots as you can, for journalists in 1999. Ten lost their lives My friend, covering the civil war there. In May 2000 But do not report to the world that only Reuters correspondent Kurt Schork met the A number was killed same fate, gunned down along with APTN In the golden fields of Slavonia. cameraman Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora. As no number has any given name or Schork had left a flourishing career as a cor- Any taken future porate lawyer to write about war and the Do report to the world that

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 94 ] Timothy J. Kenny: In the Bleeding Fields

It was Johann and William Will be killed tomorrow. And Victor and Fransecso Take as many notes and shots as you can, That was killed My friend, In the heart of Slavonia But do not report to the world that only And that Gabriel and György A number was killed And your name, too In the bleeding fields of Slavonia.

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‘THIS ONE IS CAPTAIN WASKOW’

E RNIE P YLE

     , ( on the left side of the mule, their stiffened legs A wireless Jan. 10, 1944)—In this war I sticking awkwardly from the other side, bob- have known a lot of officers who were loved bing up and down as the mule walked. and respected by the soldiers under them. But We left him there beside the road, that first never have I crossed the trail of any man as one, and we all went back into the cowshed and beloved as Capt. Henry T. ❖ sat on watercans or lay on the Waskow, of Belton, Tex. straw, waiting for the next Ernie Pyle Captain Waskow was a batch of mules. company commander in the accompanied World Somebody said the dead 36th Division. He had been War II Allied forces in soldier had been dead for four in this company since long the invasions of North days, and then nobody said before he left the States. He anything more about him. Africa, Italy and Nor- was very young, only in his We talked for an hour or middle 20s, but he carried in mandy, and reported more; the dead man lay all him a sincerity and gentleness from the front lines with alone, outside in the shadow that made people want to be personal stories of sol- of the wall. guided by him. diers and their lives. His ❖ “After my own father, he comes next,” a sergeant told reports, collected in Here Then a soldier came into the me. Is Your War (1943) and cowshed and said there were some more bodies outside. We “He always looked after Brave Men (1944), us,” a soldier said. “He’d go to went out into the road. Four bat for us every time.” earned him a Pulitzer mules stood there in the “I’ve never known him to Prize. Pyle was killed by moonlight, in the road where do anything unkind,” another Japanese gunfire the trail came down off the mountain. The soldiers who one said. on the Pacific island of ❖ led them stood there waiting. Ie Shima in 1945. “This one is Captain Was- I was at the foot of the ❖ kow,” one of them said quickly. mule trail the night they brought Captain Two men unlashed his body from the mule Waskow down. The moon was nearly full, and lifted it off and laid it in the shadow and you could see far up the trail, and even beside the stone wall. Other men took the part way across the valley. Soldiers made shad- other bodies off. Finally, there were five lying ows as they walked. end to end in a long row. You don’t cover up Dead men had been coming down the dead men in the combat zones. They just lie mountain all evening, lashed onto the backs of there in the shadows until somebody else mules. They came lying belly down across the comes after them. wooden packsaddle, their heads hanging down The uncertain mules moved off to their

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 96 ] Ernie Pyle: ‘This One Is Captain Waskow’

olive groves. The men in the road seemed dead captain, not in a whisper but awfully reluctant to leave. They stood around, and tenderly, and he said: gradually I could sense them moving, one by “I sure am sorry, sir.” one, close to Captain Waskow’s body. Not so Then the first man squatted down, and he much to look, I think, as to say something in reached down and took the captain’s hand, finality to him and to themselves. I stood and he sat there for a full five minutes hold- close by and I could hear. ing the dead hand in his own and looking One soldier came and looked down, and he intently into the dead face. And he never said out loud: uttered a sound all the time he sat there. “God damn it!” Finally he put the hand down. He reached That’s all he said, and then he walked away. up and gently straightened the points of the Another one came, and he said, “God captain’s shirt collar, and then he sort of damn it to hell anyway!” He looked down for rearranged the tattered edges of his uniform a few last moments and then turned and left. around the wound, and then he got up and Another man came. I think he was an offi- walked away down the road in the moonlight, cer. It was hard to tell officers from men in the all alone. dim light, for everybody was grimy and dirty. The rest of us went back into the cowshed, The man looked down into the dead captain’s leaving the five dead men lying in a line in the face and then spoke directly to him, as though shadow of the low stone wall. We lay down he were alive: on the straw in the cowshed, and pretty soon “I’m sorry, old man.” we were all asleep. Then a soldier came and stood beside the officer and bent over, and he too spoke to his Reprinted by permission of Scripps Howard Foundation

S UMMER 2001 [ 97 ] SCOTT PETERSON/LIAISON Photographers document massacre of Tutsis in Rwanda, 1994. SURVIVING THE FIVE DS A writer struggles with the emotional aftermath of covering brutality in Africa.

D ONATELLA L ORCH

     with insomnia and jumbled nightmares that cold and grim. But to me, in early even today occasionally intrude. I felt A 1996, after three years of covering deeply alienated. My sister complained conflict in Africa, it was like a prison. It about my temper and constant impatience. didn’t help that the city was battered by one Back then I chalked it up to missing my of the worst snowstorms on record. For Africa friends and disliking my new assign- those first few months back in the United ment. But over the years I have talked to States, I struggled with an emptiness that I many colleagues who shared the same nursed alone at night in my darkened living experiences and realized that my emptiness room, watching the lights of New Jersey that winter was very real, just as powerful as across the Hudson River, wine in hand, withdrawal from any drug. deeply lonely, anxious and unhappy. I lived We all dealt with it at different levels and

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 98 ] Donatella Lorch: Surviving the Five Ds in differing degrees. Some friends claim just didn’t understand what our lives were they are immune. Many say they can’t give like and what we did to get a story. up that thrill of being in war zones and find that life back home is just too pedestrian        and boring. I was guilty of that for a few Ito be a reporter and a foreign correspon- years. At the other extreme, I have watched dent. My first television memories are of the many drink heavily and at least one slip into Tet offensive in Vietnam—I was hooked. I alcoholism, while others suffered from must have been about 14 when I decided I bouts of depression. In my wanted to write about war. It decade and a half in journal- took another 13 years and Donatella Lorch ism, I know of two who com- many detours before I made it mitted suicide. is a national correspon- to Afghanistan and began In Africa my colleagues dent for Newsweek. As a traveling with the Mujahed- and I joked that we covered New York Times reporter din guerrillas. At first, adven- the five Ds: the Dead, the she covered the war in ture and curiosity drew me Dying, the Diseased, the there, but I remained in the Afghanistan and civil Depressing and the Danger- field for other reasons. I felt ous. In three years there, I wars and refugee crises in privileged to witness and write reported on six civil wars, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, about history as it unfolded, genocide and massive refugee Rwanda and Zaire. In to become part of people’s migrations. I walked over 1997-99 she was an lives and to make it real for thousands of corpses. I was others thousands of miles NBC correspondent shot at, carjacked, arrested and away. Sometimes I even felt I contracted cerebral malaria. It covering conflicts in the made a difference. Gradually was a roller coaster of intense Balkans, Israel, Iraq and the strands of the story weave emotions, an adrenaline high South Asia. in and around your own life that included raw fear and and affect the way you view anger and horror and pure, everything else. extreme fun. I loved it. I hated it. I have no favorite defining moment, no The Africa reporters were a close-knit great incident of utter fear or sadness or elite, a weirdly snobby clique; we differenti- happiness. Thankfully, colleagues have not ated between those who had covered the been killed or wounded in front of me. The genocide in Rwanda and those who hadn’t, most dangerous stories are not necessarily between those who lived in Africa and those the ones that have stayed with me. Certain who didn’t. We joked about dead bodies over events have remained as mental snapshots. sushi at a Japanese restaurant in Nairobi And I remember smells. (much to the shock of neighboring tables). Take Nyarubuye. The utter quiet. Small Yet we took Africa very personally. Many of pink and white flowers grew along a red us were deeply angered by the West’s inac- brick wall near the church, and the dust of tion over Rwanda. One British reporter even the dirt road smoked up around my shoes. resigned in protest. A common litany and Once it must have been an idyllic little ingrained frustration was that our editors hamlet in eastern Rwanda, but when I

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COURTESY DONATELLA LORCH Donatella Lorch with U.S. soldiers in Somalia walked through it in May 1994 it was just impossible to escape that sickly, gagging bodies. The church and school complex stench. This place, I knew, had witnessed lined by those beautiful flowers was piled true evil, an evil that I could see and smell. with corpses—about 800 of them. Two col- Yet it floated about, untouchable, and all I leagues and I spent a few hours walking over could do was take notes. them and around them, peering into dark Less than an hour’s drive from Nyarubuye rooms so that we could count them, men- was the paved road. There we stopped the tally separating the women and little chil- car and did what I had done after visiting dren, leaning over desiccated, broken limbs other massacres in Rwanda and Burundi: and cracked skulls to guess how they had We pulled out whatever food we had and been killed. We didn’t talk. The smell and ate lunch. Months later, a British army psy- the stillness were too overwhelming. I’d put chiatrist reassured me that I was not being Vicks VapoRub on my nose and a bandanna callous but rather subconsciously reaffirm- over my mouth and tried hard to gulp little ing that I was still very much alive. In The breaths. The rain had left scattered puddles, Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien and bodies had rotted in them. It was says there is no greater feeling of aliveness

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 100 ] Donatella Lorch: Surviving the Five Ds than after a firefight. I think many of my school, Skoler said the death and destruction Nairobi-based colleagues expressed this by resurfaced and hit him with waves of emo- creating a small baby boom. tion. One image still haunts: Amid the filth of the cholera epidemic, a tiny 6-year-old girl      clung to him; she was orphaned, and aid Tdiffers significantly from that of those workers said she would die unless he took her covering the military or law enforcement out of the camp. That would have meant tak- because our war lacks institutional struc- ing her to his home in Nairobi. “I had a ture. This void boosts the feel- chance to save someone’s life ing that one is alone. Many of and I walked away from it,” he us created our own inner cir- In a year and said. “That image comes back cle of on-the-road friends. a half, six of my a lot. I’m pretty sure I made After covering the genocide in colleagues were the wrong choice.” Skoler said Rwanda and the cholera epi- reporting the Rwanda story demic in Zaire, Michael Skoler, killed (in left him feeling guilty because a close friend and award- Mogadishu), he could go home while those winning Nairobi bureau chief he covered were caught in the for National Public Radio, several were midst of terror with nothing found it hard even to share shot, and one to protect them and nowhere experiences with his family. was kidnapped. to escape. “There was no way to really Editors back in the States share the experience, to put it We drank were often clueless about into logical, analytic terms,” he heavily. Many what we had witnessed or said. “So the feelings never got how it might have affected us. resolved, they just sort of sat.” smoked dope; At The New York Times, after Especially in Goma, as he at least one did my stint in Rwanda, I was watched thousands of people hard drugs. debriefed by a psychiatrist die around him, Skoler said he with a long list of abbrevia- went back and forth between tions after her title. My great wanting to help and wanting to hide behind memory of the session, before I zoned out, his work. After three weeks of constant was that she asked me where Rwanda was. work, when his editors told him a colleague Yet I was luckier than many of my col- would relieve him, he found he couldn’t leagues. The New York Times went to bat leave the story. Instead, without telling his more than a few times for me, turning the wife or his editor, Skoler volunteered for world of U.N. peacekeeping upside down two days in one of the refugee camps. He to get me out of Rwanda, getting me the then returned to Nairobi and spent a couple best care for my malaria. of weeks lying in his living room, unwilling to talk or go out.     , Africa is still very personal and very present Fone that is difficult to share. It is also an in his life. Years after Goma, in the incongru- underestimated emotion. Most people ous setting of an ethics class at business experience fear in spurts, but what happens

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GILLES PERESS/MAGNUM PHOTOS Bodies left to rot in the sun, Rwanda, 1994 if you are constantly exposed to it day after took pot shots at us on our roof. In a year day, night after night? and a half, six of my colleagues were killed Roberto Suro, who covered the 70-day there, several others were shot, and one was siege of Beirut for Time magazine, described kidnapped by her driver and held for several it with awe. “It boosts your senses,” he said of weeks. We drank heavily. Many smoked the heart-pounding adrenaline. “It makes dope; at least one did hard drugs. you hyperperceptive. It turns up the volume. The tension never fully dissipated back You see and hear things much more vividly.” home in Nairobi, where armed burglaries He believes the effects last for years. Even and carjackings were commonplace. Even living in Rome, he felt constant apprehen- now I catch myself, for brief moments, sion—scanning the roads around him, looking for danger, wary of walking on looking for snipers, avoiding untraveled unmarked trails because of land mines or routes. just checking out people to see if anyone Living in Africa was very similar. I spent looks suspicious. And if smell can trigger long weeks in Mogadishu, a city where you memories, all I need is to catch a whiff of could travel only in a car with armed road kill before I remember the churches of guards; where reporting often meant run- Rwanda and the hills of Burundi. ning the gantlet between warring subclans; where potholes were mined at night; where   , ,   bullets pierced our hotel walls and snipers Owere stoned and shot to death by a

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 102 ] Donatella Lorch: Surviving the Five Ds mob in Mogadishu. Accepting a last-minute as their counterparts in the general journal- flight offer, I had left the night before and istic population. I do drink more than before I headed home to Nairobi. The death of pho- went to Africa, but I like to think that it tographer Dan Eldon and the three others probably would compare to a European filled me with an overwhelming feeling of male counterpart’s consumption. loss. Maybe it was because we had spent the I still miss the years on the road and the evening before laughing and clowning on intense emotions I experienced. The stories the hotel roof, or maybe it was because I I covered dug deep into my heart and soul. was alive and they weren’t. Maybe it was They filled me with awe when I witnessed because I always thought death wasn’t sup- the courage of some of the people I met. posed to touch us. But it brought home my They filled me with anger over the corrup- own mortality and underscored my fear of tion and greed of others. I became inti- losing people close to me. mately acquainted with fear, desperation, Nearly a year and a half ago, I decided to cynicism and total vulnerability. They give up the road and the wars and the remain my companions today. adrenaline. I moved to Washington and am learning how to live in suburbia. According 1 “Risking more than their lives: The effects of post-trau- 1 matic stress disorder on journalists,” published by The to a Freedom Forum-sponsored study, female Freedom Forum European Center, 2001. Available at war correspondents drink five times as much www.freedomforum.org.

S UMMER 2001 [ 103 ] SANTIAGO LYON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Cameraman Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora, right, follows a Kosovar soldier during Albanian-Serb con- flict, 1998. Moreno was later killed in Sierra Leone. UP CLOSE AND DEADLY Photojournalists face special dangers in capturing images of conflict.

G ARY K NIGHT

    Getting close is inherently hazardous, but by photojournalists who cover war most photojournalists believe they cannot T are best captured in the words of communicate war from the hotel lobby or Robert Capa, the man who set the standard press conference and that good photographs for modern war photography—and who rarely come from a telephoto lens. They was killed when he stepped on a land mine have to be close enough to touch, close in Vietnam in 1954: “If your pictures aren’t enough to breathe the same air, as immersed good enough, you aren’t close enough.” as the men and women whom they view

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 104 ] Gary Knight: Up Close and Deadly through the lens. They have to be prepared ways to the field. Fiona, a network TV pro- to take the same risks and face the same ducer, would leave the house in a silver lim- fears the combatants confront. ousine, with $10,000-$20,000 in her bag, Photojournalists, and a small number of armed with pages of research. She would fly video camera operators, usually work alone in business class and be greeted upon land- or in pairs. This allows them to think and act ing by a local producer, who would have swiftly, unencumbered by the need for a arranged her onward travel and would brief consensus of colleagues (as is often the case her fully on the current situation. Fiona with television crews). It lets would work for two to three them be absorbed into a con- weeks in the field, traveling in Gary Knight flict rather than attached to it an armored car with her crew and gets them more involved is an award-winning and correspondent, commu- with the participants and the photojournalist who is a nicating by satellite telephone, casualties. It also puts them contract photographer with practically everything she right there. That makes pho- for Newsweek. needed at her disposal. When tographers more prone to she returned home, in the physical harm, and in some same elegant manner as she cases mental harm, than others in the news left, she could even get counseling and med- media. I think that’s a small price to pay for ical care, if needed. the privilege. I, on the other hand, was totally on my own. During the war in Yugoslavia some    magazines would give free-lancers only Pthe support infrastructure that other “guarantees,” not assignments. That way members of the media have. In most cases they could not be held responsible if a pho- this is because the vast majority of photo- tographer was killed or wounded. journalists who cover world conflict are Guarantees never covered expenses, how- free-lance contributors rather than staff ever. So, shortly after Fiona left, I would members. More often than not, free-lance head for the airport in the cheapest minicab photojournalists finance their own work, available, raiding any ATM machine brave providing entirely for themselves. This enough to accept my card. I would take a excludes them from facilities normally avail- cheap flight and, on arrival, would hire a able to employees, including such things as cheap, “soft-skinned” car and make my way satellite communications, armored vehicles, to the story. If things got hot along the way, bulletproof jackets, abundant financial I would put the car seat in maximum recline resources, logistical support and research and drive as fast as I could. If I needed to facilities. It also excludes them from another speak to the magazine client, I would first vital component: Should it all go terribly have to find a satellite telephone. In Sara- wrong, there may be no one out there to jevo that meant driving down Sniper know they have a problem, no one to turn Alley—in full recline. Once I got in phone to for help. contact with the magazine, I could be kept During the war in Bosnia, my wife, on hold for 10 minutes (that costs $450). Fiona, and I would often make our separate My overnight accommodation was usually

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Associated Press photographer Nick Ut is treated by South Vietnamese army medics after being wounded by mortar fire, 1972. on someone else’s floor. By the end of some geted by military forces as part of their strat- of these trips, I would arrive home having egy. Journalists now must go to increasingly spent more money than I had earned. extreme lengths to get to the story. I have no complaints. The lack of support The U.S. war in Vietnam made both can be liberating; it gives photojournalists state and irregular forces recognize that the the freedom to ask the questions they want visual record of their behavior and conduct to ask and to look at what they feel is impor- is significantly more compelling and damag- tant. More often than not, they set their ing evidence than any other, one that their own agenda, and that is a source of strength. own propaganda departments are incapable The role of photojournalists in war cover- of undermining. The only way to smother age, however, becomes significantly more that message effectively is by placing more hazardous because of events way beyond restrictions on the movement of journalists their control. And control, in fact, is the key and photojournalists in the field. word. Since the end of the wars in The U.S. armed forces have made huge Indochina, the media have been restricted efforts to do exactly that in the theaters in their movements and, in some cases, tar- where they operate but fortunately with

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 106 ] Gary Knight: Up Close and Deadly limited success. It always amuses me to see debilitating. the strategy mirrored—down to use of the In some cases, notably in Israel and in the same language—by the surrogate irregular former Yugoslavia, military forces have forces that the United States supports. deliberately targeted the media, particularly Reprehensible as it was, the allied forces’ video camera people and photojournalists. attempted censorship of many journalists Again, this censorship has not been success- during the Persian Gulf War failed. Individ- ful, but it does raise the odds somewhat. uals operating outside, not within, the pool The days of newspeople as bystanders are mechanism generated much of the best over. They more often are seen as participants visual material from that conflict. British and treated as such. This just increases the video cameraman Vaughan Smith became danger for photographers, who are often famous after he spent weeks disguised as a closer to the belligerents than other journal- British army officer and enjoyed U.S. mili- ists. Photojournalists can wear bulletproof tary support to reach places restricted to jackets, drive armored cars, or rely on fate, those less industrious. Even so, the time amulets and charms. They can use myriad spent getting to the location of the story methods to feel more secure, but photograph- under such conditions, together with the ing a conflict at any level can exact a heavy dangers of finding a “back door,” can be price. Knowing that is a heavy burden.

S UMMER 2001 [ 107 ] BENNAN LINSLEY/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Children whose limbs were amputated by rebels in Sierra Leone, 1999

COMPASSION FATIGUE Graphic, complicated stories numb readers and viewers to atrocities.

S USAN M OELLER

      been done, of whether the world could and of the 20th century might well have should help. Tonight, ‘Rwanda: The New Tcome in Rwanda. From the outset, Killing Fields.’” news reports and photographs documented During those hundred days, Americans something extraordinary—even if journal- read reports from the scene and saw images ists understood fairly late that they were wit- of victims that were unprecedented in their nessing genocide. As Ted Koppel said in his graphic nature. They read on the front page opening voice-over to a “Nightline” story in of The New York Times what the head of the May 1994: “The horrific pictures, they Ugandan cleanup operation had to say: come into your living room, leaving noth- “Children are skewered on sticks. I saw a ing but questions of how far humanity can woman cut open from the tailbone. They sink, of how irreparable the damage is that’s have removed breasts and male genital

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 108 ] Susan Moeller: Compassion Fatigue organs.” Newsweek ran a close-up of a dead than in the preceding four months. Oxfam woman, arms tied behind her and so attributed the sudden interest to news cov- bloated as to look like some obscene inflat- erage of the cholera epidemic that had killed able doll. CNN and the networks ran 7,000 Rwandans who had fled to camps in images of pasty bodies floating down rivers Zaire. The link was so direct, said a Boston and collecting in miserable clots in eddies Globe story, that the “calls peak immediately and at the base of waterfalls. after graphic reports of dying Rwandan The public flinched and looked away. refugees are broadcast.” After Newsweek published a Americans responded more large photo by Magnum pho- to cholera among the refugees Susan Moeller tographer Gilles Peress of a than to the genocide of the decomposing corpse, one is an assistant professor at Tutsi. They weren’t naïve reader wrote, “You wouldn’t the Philip Merrill College enough to think that $5 sent publish some obscenities, how- of Journalism, University to Oxfam could rescue a child ever common or benign the of Maryland; senior trapped by genocidal killers. usage, or print photos of a fellow, International It might, however, buy a healthy, naked human body— refugee child a blanket. Security Program, Belfer yet you think it’s appropriate When the news media that I be shocked nearly to the Center for Science and turned to the refugee camps, point of vomiting by a full- International Affairs, Americans could look at spread, close-up photo of the John F. Kennedy School Rwanda again. It was almost hideous corpse of a Rwandan of Government, Harvard a relief when cholera broke civil-war victim.” (See photo, out in the camps. They could University; and author of next page.) Jefferson White of care again. The disaster was Cedar Crest, N.M., went on Compassion Fatigue: both familiar and could be to say, “I support your right How the Media Sell ameliorated. The problems— to publish what you wish, Disease, Famine, War disease, sanitation, water and and it may be necessary to and Death. food—had time-tested solu- display such an image. But tions. But what could any one you might have featured it person do about a nation full less prominently and on a smaller scale.” of sadistic butchers? As Time magazine put White wasn’t the only one to recoil from it, “The horrifying slaughter is another explo- the news of the genocide. Since the April sion in a mainly ethnically based civil war start of the crisis, the international aid con- that outsiders understand imperfectly if at sortium Oxfam had sought help for all—and therefore do not know how to solve.” Rwanda. Oxfam America received only about 10 calls a day in response, and few      donated money. But in mid-July with the W compassion fatigue (and donor genocide over but the refugee crisis in fatigue) in a way that less-dramatic disasters camps across the border at its height, do not? The bare facts of an event (genocide Oxfam received more than 1,000 calls in 24 or cholera, for example) trigger caring less hours and raised $50,000, more in one day often than does the story told about that

S UMMER 2001 [ 109 ] T HE P RICE P AID

GILLES PERESS/MAGNUM PHOTOS Some readers objected when Newsweek ran this photo of a victim of tribal violence in Rwanda, 1994. event—and the moral argument that story frontations with realities suggesting that makes, the moral box into which we place humanity’s dark and brutal impulses remain ourselves and others. Without a compelling as vital as ever or that individuals often have moral argument—if we cannot decide, for no influence over their own environments. example, which side is the “good guy”—we Civic engagement—the opposite of com- are liable not to care. We fall into compas- passion fatigue—occurs when members of sion fatigue after seeing graphic images and the public find that their own interests are hearing graphic tales that mean little to us in synch with the community’s needs and beyond the fact that “people are being hurt.” standards. One difficulty in moving Ameri- Especially egregious events are particu- cans toward engagement is that they con- larly at risk for prompting compassion sider few political themes or few international fatigue because they create a disconnect in conflicts compelling enough to galvanize a the psyche. The sheer existence of an event concerted response. Their incentive to care so horrific as genocide, for example, and the is diminished. Except for a few generic helplessness of individuals in the face of it, themes—“protecting children,” for exam- conflicts with basic ideals and values cher- ple—Americans feel minimal compunction ished in U.S. society. Americans avoid con- about ignoring calls to action or even calls

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 110 ] Susan Moeller: Compassion Fatigue simply to pay attention. If you get skewed information, not enough Sociologist C. Wright Mills identified information, or information that is too offen- what is now an article of faith for advertisers, sive, you are unlikely to care about the topic. politicians and sociologists alike: Americans Some in the media, sometimes, under- respond generously when engaged by private stand the phenomenon and try to meet it concerns but remain indifferent to public head-on by marrying a nuanced text to calls for their attention. Private concerns tap images that might be graphic but are not into the needs, even desires, of an individual. just horror-porn. A well-done example was Public calls arouse the suspi- a May 2000 article in The cions of, and impose outside New York Times’ Week in agendas on, the individual. Rarely does pity Review section. Jane Perlez’s Turned around, this argu- provoke a article about the morality of ment posits that public issues the international commu- can be made immediate by response long- nity’s dealings with Sierra capturing private interests. lived enough to Leone’s rebel leader Foday Pity, for example, can provoke jump-start Sankoh, titled “A Chance to a sporadic response, which Give Evil Its Rewards,” included explains individual donations Americans into a large Associated Press pho- after a natural disaster. But caring about a tograph, selected by photo constantly playing the same editor Sarah Weissman. (It’s note can cause Americans to country or the one on the first page of close their ears. Compassion region beyond this article.) The searingly fatigue can set in when we the immediate beautiful portrait showed two believe the media are just crassly children, one a girl perhaps in playing on our sympathies. disaster. her early teens, the other a Rarely does pity, for instance, boy half her age. The girl, provoke a response long-lived seated facing forward, looks enough to jump-start Americans into caring out of the frame to her left. Her arms are about a country or region beyond an imme- raised in front of her, forming a shelf at the diate disaster. One feels pity for only so long crook of her elbows which props up the before feeling tempted to consider the per- extended left arm of the boy. He leans into son or situation merely pitiful. her, but looks straight into the camera. It is a double portrait of two exquisite children.      It is also a portrait of horror. The girl has Tcontortions to attract the public’s no hands; the viewer must look twice at the notice: They focus on the American angle, puckered stumps to recognize them for they don’t linger too long on the same story, what they are. The boy, shirt off, with soft they sensationalize the story. Yet these con- childish skin, also has been mutilated. His tortions produce news that only reinforces right arm is hacked off just below the shoul- compassion fatigue. You have to know a sub- der; a slight knob of skinned-over bone pro- ject well before you can care about it, trudes. This is a morality tale with a whether “it” is golf or a war in Sierra Leone. vengeance—all the more powerful because

S UMMER 2001 [ 111 ] T HE P RICE P AID of the children’s understated poses and individuals and societies must be brought to expressions. Self-evidently, the children are justice—these two children, and others like victims. But the image is not pathetic. For them, are patient witnesses. one, the children are too self-possessed. Nor In many ways, the true horror of a Sierra do the photograph and the accompanying Leone is not the injured children we are Times article read as a media attempt to grab shown; it is the thousands more whom we our attention with gratuitous sensationalism. do not see. And while the media cannot These are not children in extremis, smeared acquaint us with all of those suffering or at with blood and dirt, the pitiable figures in risk, at their best they can get the broader a breaking-news tragedy. These are children story out. We might be overwhelmed, but inured to their fate, showing patiently to the we might just as well become engaged camera what life has dealt them. because we will better understand cause and The children’s mere existence argues for effect. Understanding is the prerequisite for moral engagement and moral solutions. caring. These children need more than a month Words alone can be soulless. Images alone of good meals and a better roof over their tell an abbreviated story. Too often pictures heads, all of which a local or international provide illustrations but not explanations. relief organization could provide. These Yet through words and pictures, used in children need a lifetime commitment of concert and given generous space and time, resources—and beyond that because the an audience can come to understand a cri- atrocities committed against them are so sis. And that understanding can prompt the dastardly. In an era when humanitarian inter- public to see beyond the damaged children vention beckons—the implication being and to realize that a box of Band-Aids that thugs who inflict terrible crimes on doesn’t deliver compassion.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 112 ] NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION Walter Cronkite films interview while covering the battle of Hue City, Vietnam, 1968. IN THEIR OWN WORDS

I knew I had been hit, and I turned my arm and I could see the blood, and the first thought I had was, oh God, they’re going to cut my arm off. —  

❖ Excerpts from interviews with Peter Arnett, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Frank Bolden, The Pittsburgh Courier, one of the few accredited black correspondents in World War II Walter Cronkite, former wire-service reporter and former anchor of “CBS Evening News” Ed Bradley, correspondent for “60 Minutes” Janine di Giovanni, correspondent for The Times of London ❖

S UMMER 2001 [ 113 ] I N T HEIR O WN W ORDS

A FRIGHTENING NIGHT

P ETER A RNETT

On getting to know U.S. troops: that therefore, my credentials were not valid for In Vietnam, in the earlier period of the war, covering wars Americans were involved in. In Viet- reporters developed close relationships with the nam, of course, there were New Zealand troops, men they were covering. If you were out on patrol Australian troops, many, many South Vietnamese with an American who was advising a Vietnamese troops, Koreans, Thais. My nationality at that paratrooper battalion and you got into action, he point, as with Morley Safer’s from Canada, was a could well throw a rifle towards you and say, basis for criticism. So in the Gulf War, the critics “Hey, ya gonna help us out here?” And you attempted to go back to that particular criticism. wouldn’t stand on the Geneva Convention and Why not criticize me on the basis of my report- say, “You know, I’m a civilian, I’m a reporter, I ing rather than on the basis of where I’d come can’t get involved.” More than likely you would from? take the weapon and say, “I’m ready,” and hope to hell that you’d never have to use it. Fortunately, at On Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf: no time did I actually have to use a weapon. The When I met him in 1966, he was the senior closest it came was in 1965. I was at an American adviser to a Vietnamese airborne unit. He was Special Forces camp in Song Be north of Saigon. very much in command at a remote firebase in There’d been an attack the previous night. Two- the highlands that had been under siege for a thirds of the Americans had been killed. There while. I encountered him when I went in to do a were only four left. They welcomed us there and story about this particular siege. And he was they said, “Well, you can stay with us tonight on gruffly spoken. I remember when I arrived at that the condition that you help defend the camp, and particular camp he said, “What the hell are you we’re expecting an attack.” So through the night I doing here? You know where you’re at?” He was was manning a machine gun at a mortar pit and critical of the war strategy at that point, trying to was told, “If the VC come up that ravine, your job hold on to keep his unit from being overrun and is to make sure they don’t make it to the wire.” It personally being very brave. I never did see him was the most uncomfortable, frightening night I during the Gulf War. I know that my reporting ever spent in my life. But I was ready to shoot that from Baghdad did not please him. After the Gulf machine gun, if only to defend myself. But fortu- War, I was at a gathering in Washington, one of nately, I didn’t have to do it. these big press gatherings. Schwarzkopf was there, and I said hello to him and we shook hands. And On criticism of his war coverage: I said, “I know you were critical of me,” and I said Much of the criticism that I’ve had in my career that was “disappointing because I was the only one beginning in Vietnam and going right through to in Baghdad who could pronounce your name.” the Gulf War was the fact that I was from New And he said, “Ah, but with an Iraqi accent.” Zealand. Being a foreigner, it was sort of perceived that I would not be able to represent American val- Edited excerpt from an interview for “War Stories,” an ues; that my allegiance would be questionable; and exhibit at the Newseum in Arlington, Va.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 114 ] I N T HEIR O WN W ORDS

BRAVERY OVER DISCRIMINATION

F RANK B OLDEN

On military acceptance of black soldiers: tions of valor and 48 countries had honored The legacy of both the Tuskegee Airmen and them. The 92nd made it possible for black peo- the 92nd Glory Infantry Division in World ple to go into any branch of the armed services War II in my book are equal because they both on the ground. The infantry was open to us, and proved that blacks in combat would not wither we got our black officers. These two units had an under fire. I was assigned for a short stay at impact on America. Tuskegee to welcome the first black fliers. They did not permit the Negro fliers to be trained at On a messman’s bravery at Pearl Harbor: the white air bases. We all know that Tuskegee In World War II, segregation and discrimina- was an agricultural school, it wasn’t even an engi- tion kept the Negro recruit from doing anything neering school. But they sent them there. And I in the Navy except being a messman. Dorrie reported that day, I’ll never forget it, the field was Miller, coming out of Texas, was a messman, and a cow and animal pasture. We had to wait two the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, he came up days for them to clean up the field so we could out of the galley and saw the devastation on deck. walk in it. He’d never had any training on a machine gun. The Tuskegee Airmen’s historic flight was He grabbed one and brought down three Japan- when they first bombed Berlin. They flew the left ese planes. It made two lines in the newspapers. protective wing of the bombers. The wing that The Pittsburgh Courier thought he should be was supposed to go on the mission came down recognized and honored. We sent our executive with the measles, and the only unit left was the editor to the naval department. They said, “We black fliers. There was quite a bit of objection do not know the name of the messman—there’s from the white fliers because they didn’t think so many of them.” We spent $7,000 working to that the black fliers would be up to that. It was find out who Dorrie Miller was. We advocated the first time that the 15th Air Force never lost a that he get a Medal of Honor. Later on he was bomber going or coming. killed on another ship. The black press was When the 92nd was disbanded at the end of needed in order to show the positive side of what the war, I was invited to that ceremony, and I was we were doing in this war. mighty proud when the secretary of war read to the public that this division in World War I and Edited excerpt from an interview for “War Stories,” an World War II had earned 12,096 American cita- exhibit at the Newseum in Arlington, Va.

S UMMER 2001 [ 115 ] I N T HEIR O WN W ORDS

GLIDERS, BOMBS AND THE BLITZ

W ALTER C RONKITE

On covering World War II: pened to the gliders in Normandy, and it was World War II remains probably the greatest terrible. I really had no desire at all to go in by memory any correspondent has. United Press glider. But the mere thought of what they’d say managed to get me to the right place at the right about me at the 101st Airborne—what they’d time. I did the battle of the North Atlantic when say, my colleagues, when I came whimpering it was at its hottest and we were losing it, losing a back to London—was enough to put me on that lot of ships out of every convoy. I made a couple glider. of convoy trips which were quite interesting. I made the landing in North Africa. I made the On conditions at the battlefront: first B-17 raid over Germany that they permitted I think the infantry is the worst. I wouldn’t correspondents on. I was overhead on D-Day mind going to war almost any way except with and got into Normandy in D-plus-five. I the infantry. Those poor devils, hastily digging a dropped with the 101st Airborne into Holland, foxhole, for heaven’s sakes. Cowering in it as the and covered the Battle of the Bulge, and then bombs and the shrapnel fly. That’s terrible! The Nuremberg afterwards. The trial of the top air war is frightening, of course, terribly frighten- Nazis—Goering, Hess, the rest of them. So, I had ing. It’s not much fun having anti-aircraft shells a pretty good war. Got bombed out a couple of bursting around you, the great orange glow and times in London. That’s an experience. the black puffs from the smoke and the incoming fighter planes with the tracer bullets coming right On bravery: next to the skin of your airplane and right next to I guess a lot of it is how you want to appear to you. Seeing your airplanes in your flight going your fellow man. It’s a peer pressure sort of thing. down around you, getting hits on your own air- If you were alone, I think you would probably craft. On the North African landing, I was weep and cower and run. But you don’t do that, aboard a battleship for the first couple of days, that’s not the way you handled yourself. I think and that’s a fairly safe place to be. Being on a the greater fear is the fear of what your fellows transport ship in a convoy, being a real sitting will think of you. When I was assigned to a glider duck, virtually nothing you can do, totally instead of a parachute going into Holland, I came dependent on the escorts you’ve got, is terrifying. very close to fleeing back to London. I could have. I was a civilian war correspondent and Edited excerpt from an interview for “War Stories,” an nobody’s making me go. I’d seen what had hap- exhibit at the Newseum in Arlington, Va.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 116 ] I N T HEIR O WN W ORDS

DOING ‘THE LORD’S WORK’

E D B RADLEY

On wartime journalism: On fear: Every day that you go down the road and you There are times when there is fear, but this was come back alive, there’s a sense of accomplish- a time when there was no fear, when I was ment, satisfaction, exhilaration—that you put wounded, because I didn’t think I was in any your life on the line and you did OK. We’re not danger. We were in the middle of a field, and the doctors or saving lives, but sometimes you feel Khmer Rouge were in the tree line, mortaring the like you’re doing the Lord’s work because the positions of the government soldiers. I had said public has a right to know. The best of what we to Norman Lloyd, who was the cameraman I was do is giving the public what they have a right to working with, that we’ve got everything we need know. You had that sense that you were out there here, except a conclusion. We’ve got the Cambo- every day, and you were doing something that dian Army shooting small arms fire, .50-caliber was worthwhile. You weren’t just sitting there machine guns, those big god-awful recoilless covering some dreary hearing, which has to be rifles that are on armored personnel carriers that done, but you had a sense that it meant some- make a hell of a noise. We had air strikes. And I thing, that it was worthwhile, it was meaningful. was sitting on the film bag, under a tree. Then I heard an explosion, and that explosion blew me On success and failure in Vietnam: in the air and I hit the ground. I had these sepa- I knew early on not only that there was no rate and distinct thoughts from the time of the way the United States could win that war, but explosion to the time I hit the ground, which was also that South Vietnam could not win the war. a split second: I heard the explosion. I said, I spent some time with the Viet Cong, and I “What’s that? Oh that’s the recoilless rifle on this remember one night, talking to this guy north- armored personnel carrier. Hey, there’s no recoil- west of Quang Tri, and he said, “You know, we less rifle on this armored personnel carrier. You’d fought the French before you. And we fought better turn and see what that noise is.” That’s five the Chinese. We fought you. We’ll fight the separate and distinct thoughts in a split second. South Vietnamese.” And he said, “It may take And then I knew I had been hit, and I turned my five more years, 10 more years, 20 more years. arm and I could see the blood, and the first But we will win in the end.” And I knew that thought I had was, oh God, they’re going to cut the United States didn’t have 20 years of my arm off. That was the first thought I had. For- patience for what was going on in Vietnam. tunately, they didn’t. The shrapnel went through, They couldn’t last that long and they couldn’t so all they had to do was stitch me up. last propping up the South Vietnamese govern- ment that long. I knew there was no way we Edited excerpt from an interview for “War Stories,” an could win that war. exhibit at the Newseum in Arlington, Va.

S UMMER 2001 [ 117 ] I N T HEIR O WN W ORDS

A LUCKY DAY

J ANINE DI G IOVANNI

On covering war in Africa: they just got tired of it and just kicked us out and I never really anticipated the stress of it—the told us to never come back there again. After- physical stress. When you’ve been in the midst of wards, I saw a refugee who had passed me as the a conflict for about four weeks, the exhaustion soldiers led us off into the woods at gunpoint. you begin to feel. And you are running. I always And he said to me, “Thank God. Thank God thought it was a cliché that you run on adrena- you’re alive. You don’t understand. They usually line, but for instance, I flew on a chopper into don’t change their minds.” So I don’t know if it’s Sierra Leone that was empty because it was going that I was lucky or it wasn’t my day. in to evacuate people. So I arrived and everyone was standing at the airport, pushing and shoving On male vs. female reporters: to get on the chopper to get out of the country. I really do think it makes a difference if you’re And I got off, and as the chopper lifted off and a woman. And I’m not saying that you go in and took people away, I thought, “My God, what you use your sexuality in any way because I have I done?” just don’t think that would ever work. But what I find is that a lot of times people will respond to On being kidnapped: you because you’re a woman in a much more In Montenegro, at the beginning of the bomb- open way. I find that people talk to me, that I ing, I crossed by accident into Kosovo territory can get them to open up. They can tell me things with two French journalists. We were taken cap- in a way that maybe they don’t with men. Maybe tive by these Serb paramilitaries who were drunk. I remind them of their sister, their mother, their They marched us into the woods and started girlfriend or something. Maybe it does help beating up the cameraman. And I remember that they’d rather take a smiling woman along thinking, “This is it. You’ve had your seven lives.” with them on the road than take a bunch of It was a really awful hour and a half spent with grumpy guys. Who knows? At any rate, it gets them in which they were obviously deciding what me on the back of the truck, and that’s what I’m to do with us. They finally loaded us into a car. I trying to do. guess maybe they were looking for a spot on the road to kill us. Maybe they were looking for a Edited excerpt from an interview for “War Stories,” an place to rape me. I don’t know. But at one point, exhibit at the Newseum in Arlington, Va.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 118 ] AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Macedonian special police and photographers run for cover from heavy artillery fire, March 22, 2001.

REVIEW ESSAY

Are the media and the military ready for the next war?

❖

Jerry W. Friedheim on, among others: Live From the Battlefield Peter Arnett. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994 Big Story Peter Braestrup. Boulder: Westview Press, 1977 Hotel Warriors John J. Fialka. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1992 The Bang Bang Club Greg Marinovich and João Silva. New York: Basic Books, 2000 Chienne de Guerre Anne Nivat. New York: PublicAffairs, 2001

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S UMMER 2001 [ 119 ] THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Russian soldiers in Chechnya, 2000

ADVERSARIES OR ANTAGONISTS? The media-military conundrum

J ERRY W. F RIEDHEIM

’      : mon defense and a free press. We know that preservation of a free society. The play- a strong, free country and a strong, free press Iers: media and military. The contending are inseparable. You cannot have one with- principles: free expression and national out the other. No nation ever has; none will. security. The challenge: How do tomorrow’s Of course, even wars that are not “Amer- players learn from and embellish the lessons ican” carry major import for the United of the past? States in an interlinked political, economic They read. They think. They come to and security-minded world. What we don’t understand the game, to love it, to relish it. know can hurt us. We Americans are the luckiest citizens with So what are the best books for young the best chance to defend the most freedom. journalists and military officers to read and Our Constitution enshrines both the com- mull—and for older editors and security

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 120 ] Jerry W. Friedheim: Adversaries or Antagonists? officials to recall and review? And what In Vietnam, Arnett—in helmet and pon- should they seek there? Lessons from past cho—went where the soldiers and Marines conflicts that, though dated, hold insight went. He liked them, as Ernie Pyle had in for the next war—a major confrontation World War II, and he followed the military’s that the news media will report as differ- reporting guidelines to guard their safety. ently from Vietnam, when copy sputtered He appreciated the military leadership along wire cables and film was flown thou- when it provided jeep and helicopter trans- sands of miles, as they reported the Hainan portation. But he didn’t hold his dispatches Island incident this year, to hear the views of the top when video phones and pri- brass when, for instance, he vate satellites flashed words Jerry W. Friedheim, found unannounced use of and images. a former newspaperman tear gas to clear enemy caves Where better to start than and journalism teacher, is and bunkers. He filed what Live From the Battlefield, in retired after serving as the happened and let the AP which Peter Arnett details his worry about getting the Pen- founding executive adventures from Vietnam to tagon’s policy explanation. Baghdad for the AP and director of the Newseum The AP’s president sometimes CNN. Arnett was the dean of in Arlington, Va. thought Peter a bit too much war correspondents for the last He served as assistant of a maverick; his colleagues half of the last century, and his secretary of defense voted him the Pulitzer Prize. book reminds us that only for public affairs and was He watched the last Ameri- wily risk-takers and free spirits cans evacuate Saigon and president of the American need apply. One day he filed stayed to meet the North his own AP story from Laos, Newspaper Publishers Vietnamese. He sympathized then another version to cover Association. with other correspondents his absent UPI colleague, then who left Baghdad when that another on behalf of a missing war started, but he stayed, Reuters pal. Peter didn’t mind, and the persistently maneuvering his way through world got the news. Iraqi censorship to tell the story as well as he Danger was his middle name. One day, could for as long as he could. Many corre- with Laos communications down, he spondents’ memoirs tell similar tales, and sloshed across the mile-wide Mekong River whatever the next war holds, both media to Thailand with a vital scoop, his passport and military need to understand that this is and $200 clamped between his teeth. Later, what a war correspondent is and does. from Iraq, as his connection to CNN sput- tered in and out, he stuck his microphone       out the window to catch the sounds of Tbut much studied by such scholars as exploding missiles. Battle-site communica- military historian William M. Hammond tions always are lousy. Sometimes military and journalist Peter Braestrup. Hammond’s services help; often they don’t. Nonetheless, Reporting Vietnam is subtitled Media and a few skilled and slightly sneaky correspon- Military at War, and he elucidated that big dents always get the news through. picture as has no other writer by under-

S UMMER 2001 [ 121 ] R EVIEW E SSAY standing the role of a free press and mining One need not read all of Braestrup’s 728 hundreds of government public-information pages to grasp the burgeoning melodramat- directives, many of them from Washington ics. Consider just his reconstruction of news decision makers. Braestrup’s Big Story likewise coverage during the siege in the city of Hue. is unique in exhaustively plumbing the Tet First, the AP reported that enemy troops offensive of early 1968 to show what hap- “control most of the streets.” Then the UPI pened on the ground, how news people Hue correspondent wrote that it might reported it, how editors back home changed become “the bloodiest nine blocks” since and presented the stories, and how Wash- Korea. UPI’s Saigon bureau chimed in with ington leaders perceived the events. “foot by bloodsoaked foot.” And CBS Hammond asked: What happened to the intoned, “bloody inch by inch.” From New media-military cooperation forged during York City, Time rewriters first said “block- World War II and even the Korean War? by-block struggle,” which gave way to a How did these adversaries become antago- “brick-by-brick” fight. nists? He recalled that as Vietnam began, So watch out. During the next war you, correspondents like Arnett and David Hal- too, might overwhelm the news process. berstam sometimes questioned policy and Still, we have learned lessons beyond Viet- official obfuscation but placed great confi- nam, and two unassuming paperbacks are dence in U.S. troops. A reciprocating mili- chock full of them. tary eschewed censorship in favor of Another title by Braestrup, Battle Lines, voluntary reporting guidelines that were was a Twentieth Century Fund report occa- almost never broken. sioned by the worst U.S. government failure Hammond found plenty of subsequent in media-military history: the failure to plan mistakes on both sides, but in the end he for, or to take any newspeople on, the 1983 placed primary blame for the evolving dis- invasion of Grenada. This time Braestrup trust and discord less on in-country worked his succinct magic on every major reporters and officials than on the policies war and every involved issue: censorship, and actions of U.S. political leaders at access, communications, accreditation, trans- home. Thus, if we would prepare wisely for portation, pools, and the soldier-scribe cul- the next war, we must seek a broad perspec- tural chasm. tive and be alert for what might happen at He examined Ike taking newsmen along home as well as at the front. on D-Day. MacArthur landing them in Braestrup’s monumental, in-depth case Inchon. Gen. Abrams flying them into Cam- study of the portrayal of war lets us follow the bodia. The British taking them to the distant smallest details from the field, through the Falklands. Then Reagan’s National Security reporting and editing, to the actions and Council and Joint Chiefs of Staff deliberately reactions of public officials. He found no barred Grenada coverage while lying to the conspiracy, just an overwhelmed, overhasty White House press secretary and deceiving the news process that unintentionally and dra- assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, matically evoked crisis and distorted complex causing a predictable press explosion and con- reality until Washington leaders saw a home- trite government efforts to put press planning front disaster rather than an enemy defeat. back into national-security deliberations.

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 122 ] Jerry W. Friedheim: Adversaries or Antagonists?

COURTESY PETER ARNETT Peter Arnett in Vietnam

OTEL WARRIORS,   , Back at headquarters, Bob Woodward’s Hdissected the Persian Gulf War experi- The Commanders put the top layer on the ence that tested, bent and broke the post- cake as he reconstructed the high-command Grenada press-pool planning as Army news interaction of George Bush, Dick Cheney, fell into a self-dug, communicationless black Jim Baker, Colin Powell, Brent Scowcroft hole. The more P.R.-astute Marines raked in and Norman Schwarzkopf. Each of them headlines and credit with their former public- certainly had studied all the lessons above. information chief as battle commander and their They tried to implement them. They con- philosophy that the press, like the rain, is just vinced the Saudis that U.S. forces do not something to cope with on the battlefield. deploy without U.S. correspondents. They Gulf War coverage gave both press and planned to get many reporters into the field military the first taste of the future’s instant- when the land-war phase started. Corre- communications technology as TV-network spondents went. Copy was prepared. Some truck convoys dragged satellite-uplink dishes actually was sent out. And much of it arrived across the desert, safe and sound under total at home newspapers and networks only allied air superiority. It got the military think- after the war was over. ing about how in the next war to throw an So the U.S. media-military future is not electronic umbrella over the entire battle area, secure. A new generation of soldiers and forcing the media to use only military-pro- scribes must contend over it again. Mean- vided channels. while, there are other wars, smaller wars,

S UMMER 2001 [ 123 ] R EVIEW E SSAY regional and ethnic wars, bloody and disgust- or feeling, that makes your mouth dry.” She ing wars—covered for the world and for kept going by retreating into her profes- U.S. residents almost entirely by non-U.S. sional self; struggling to keep her ballpoint journalists. pen from freezing; jotting her notes on Violence, terror and despair in South legal-size paper concealed in her plastic Africa, Yugoslavia and Sudan spill from the boots; recharging her satellite phone from shocking photos by Greg Marinovich and tractor batteries; dictating quickly to Paris; João Silva, which are the guts of The Bang and hiding, listening, questioning, moving Bang Club. If the next wars are like these in on, always moving on. lawless bandit country, then Peter Arnett’s Could any other tough journalist have risks will pale in comparison. accomplished this reporting crusade? Proba- Marinovich was shot covering one fire- bly not. Did it take a special person? Cer- fight in which colleague Ken Oosterbrock tainly yes: a mother-taught Russian speaker, died. Silva calls himself a “conflict” photog- totally engaged—even obsessed—by the rapher, going where people get killed—the region and its people, with a French doctor- “dead zones.” It is free-lance work, with no ate in Russian affairs plus a fellowship at nurturing parent organization to order you Harvard’s Russian Research Center, driven home and no friendly military nearby to by a youngster’s desire to make her name walk, ride, eat and sleep with. It is headlong with a big story, itching to flout Russian combat journalism on your own. If you sur- denial of accreditation, eager to conquer vive, it yields stories and images of the dead what her French colleagues call “Anglo- and the dying. Clearly these two are good at Saxon journalism.” The name is made. it, enthralled by it, committed to it. News Anne Nivat will be heard from again, even results, but gathering it is very, very scary. before the next war. Finally, a lighter note. This business can  ’ CHIENNE DE GUERRE still have some laughs. Many wars ago Eve- A is among this year’s most striking new lyn Waugh skewered all of us ink-stained, books. She stowed away with the rebels, electron-buzzed news junkies in Scoop, a behind the lines of the unending, ugly war classic 1938 satire about the most unlikely in Chechnya. The Russian side is wont to war correspondent of all time, the Brits’ jail journalists. Some Chechens will kidnap William Boot of The Beast. If you haven’t you and sell you to other Chechens. Either read it at all, or haven’t reread it for a while, side might just as likely kill you. But with cun- I won’t give it away—except for this one ning, deception and disguise, Nivat sought helpful hint from The Beast’s foreign editor out the terror, witnessed the horror, endured as he hurries the dumbfounded Boot tod- the hunger, sat under the bombs, and dling off to war: reported the chilling stories of needless death You’ll be surprised to find how far the and compassionless destruction, escaping war correspondents keep from the fight- with her life to become the Moscow corre- ing. Why, Hitchcock reported the whole spondent for the French daily, Liberation. Abyssinia campaign from Asmara and “I lived through hell,” she wrote, “… the gave us some of the most colorful eye- kind of raw fear that wipes out other thought witness stuff we ever printed!

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 124 ] For Further Reading FRONT LINES AND DEADLINES

Arnett, Peter. Live From the Battlefield: From Viet- Gjelten, Tom. Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its nam to Baghdad: 35 Years in the World’s War Newspaper Under Siege. New York: Harper- Zones. New York: Simon & Schuster Trade Collins Publishers, 1995. Paperbacks, 1995. Gutman, Roy and David Rieff, ed. Crimes of Aukofer, Frank and William P. Lawrence. Amer- War: What the Public Should Know. New York: ica’s Team: The Odd Couple, A Report on the W.W. Norton & Co., 1999. Relationship Between the Military and the Goff, Peter, ed. The Kosovo News and Propaganda Media. Nashville, Tenn.: The Freedom Forum War. Vienna, Austria: The International Press First Amendment Center, 1995. Institute, 1999. Braestrup, Peter. Big Story: How the American Hammond, William M. Reporting Vietnam: Press and Television Reported and Interpreted Media and Military at War. Lawrence, Kan.: the Crisis of TET 1968 in Vietnam and Wash- University Press of Kansas, 1999. ington. Novato, Calif.: Presidio, 1994. Hallin, Daniel C. The “Uncensored War”: The Braestrup, Peter. Battle Lines: Report of the Twen- Media and Vietnam. Berkeley, Calif.: Univer- tieth Century Fund Task Force on the Military sity of California Press, 1986. and the Media. New York: Priority Press Pub- lications, 1985. Hastings, Max. Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy. New York: Simon and Schus- Carter, Ernestine, ed. Grim Glory: Pictures of ter, 1984. Britain Under Fire. London: Lund, Humphries, 1941. Knightley, Phillip. The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker From Elwood-Akers, Virginia. Women War Correspon- the Crimea to Kosovo. 2nd ed. London: Prion dents in the Vietnam War, 1961-1975. Books Ltd., 2000. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press Inc., 1988. Library of America. Reporting Vietnam, Part One: Emerson, Gloria. Winners & Losers: Battles, Retreats, American Journalism, 1959-1969. New York: Gains, Losses, and Ruins from the Vietnam War. Literary Classics of the United States Inc., New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1992. 1998. Emery, Michael C., Edwin Emery and Nancy L. ____. Reporting Vietnam, Part Two: American Roberts. The Press and America: An Interpre- Journalism, 1969-1975. New York: Literary tive History of the Mass Media. 8th ed. Need- Classics of the United States Inc., 1998. ham Heights, Mass.: Allyn & Bacon, 1996. ____. Reporting World War II, Part One: Ameri- Evans, Harold M., with Gail Buckland and can Journalism, 1938-1944. New York: Liter- Kevin Baker. The American Century. New ary Classics of the United States Inc., 1995. York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1998. ____. Reporting World War II, Part Two: Ameri- Fialka, John J. Hotel Warriors: Covering the Gulf can Journalism, 1944-1946. New York: Liter- War. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson ary Classics of the United States Inc., 1995. Center Press, 1992. Loyd, Anthony. My War Gone By, I Miss It So. Gellhorn, Martha. The Face of War. New York: New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999. Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988.

S UMMER 2001 [ 125 ] For Further Reading

Marinovich, Greg and João Silva. The Bang Bang Sharkey, Jacqueline E. Under Fire: U.S. Military Club: Snapshots From a Hidden War. New Restrictions on the Media from Grenada to the York: Basic Books, 2000. Persian Gulf. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1995. Mercer, Derrick, Geoff Mungham and Kevin Williams. The Fog of War: The Media on the Smith, Jeffery A. War and Press Freedom: The Battlefield. London: Heinemann, 1987. Problem of Prerogative Power. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Moeller, Susan D. Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death. Smith, Richard Norton. The Colonel: The Life and New York: Routledge, 1999. Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880-1955. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997. Morris, John G. Get the Picture: A Personal His- tory of Photojournalism. New York: Random Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. House, 1998. New York: Prometheus Books, 1998. Nivat, Anne. Chienne De Guerre. New York: Tobin, James. Ernie Pyle’s War: America’s Eyewit- PublicAffairs, 2001. ness to World War II. New York: The Free Press, 1997. Newton, Eric, ed. Crusaders, Scoundrels, Journal- ists: The Newseum’s Most Intriguing Newspeo- Voss, Frederick S. Reporting the War: The Jour- ple. New York: Times Books, 1999. nalistic Coverage of World War II. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Min- National Portrait Gallery, 1994. neapolis: Econo-Clad Books, 1999. Wagner, Lila. Women War Correspondents in Pyle, Ernie, Brave Men. Lincoln, Neb.: Univer- World War II. New York: Greenwood Publish- sity of Nebraska Press, 2001. ing Group Inc., 2000. Pyle, Ernie. Here Is Your War. North Stratford, Westmoreland, William C. “A Reply to Walter N.H.: Ayer Company Publishers, 1979. Cronkite.” The Christian Science Monitor, Perry, James M. A Bohemian Brigade: The Civil June 7, 1982, p. 27. War Correspondents, Mostly Rough, Sometimes Whelan, Richard. Robert Capa: A Biography. Lin- Ready. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000. coln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, Prochnau, William W. Once Upon a Distant War. 1994. New York: Times Books, 1995. Waugh, Evelyn. Scoop. Boston: Back Bay Books, Rollyson, Carl. Nothing Ever Happens to the 1999. Brave: The Story of Martha Gellhorn. New Woodward, Bob. The Commanders. New York: York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990. Pocket Star Books, 1992. Roth, Mitchel P. Historical Dictionary of War Journalism. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.  –    •  /  • 

M EDIA S TUDIES J OURNAL [ 126 ] SUMMER 2001 $8 M IN THIS ISSUE EDIA MEDIA STUDIES War reporters “find themselves caught up in an environment where rocket-

propelled grenades have replaced swords, and cell phones have replaced telexes. S It’s a new world for war correspondents—one in which new rules and new TUDIES technology often clash with past conventions and ideals.” —  .  OURNAL J J OURNAL RECENT ISSUES OF MEDIA STUDIES JOURNAL

The First Amendment, Fall  The 45 words of the First Amendment—unchanged since ratification in 1791—give Americans the right to freely express ourselves through speech, faith, petition, assembly and the written word. While the public generally supports these freedoms, its commitment some-

times wavers because of concern about violence, racism, children’s exposure to controversial Front Lines and Deadlines content and other issues. The challenge is to apply the First Amendment’s fundamental free- doms when original intent runs headlong into new technology and shifting societal interests.

Courage, Spring/Summer  > If history is usually written about the winners, stories of courage are usually written about the 12 famous. Yet some of the bravest actions of journalists are unknown—obscured by the passage of time, hidden by veils of anonymity or buried by systematic repression. This issue aims to correct that imbalance by telling the tales of the not so familiar, those who worked on the mar- gins of popularity, who blazed new but solitary paths or who left fleeting legacies. Their lives and their work are a reminder that tests of integrity usually occur far from the spotlight. 73361 64950 08 Campaign 2000, Winter  The campaign of 2000 was preceded by other elections when spin, invective, scandal and deficient reporting sometimes seemed to overwhelm the best in American journalism and Front Lines and Deadlines American democracy. In the belief that foresight is better than hindsight, our writers injected informed analysis and suggestions into presidential and congressional races at the start. By perspectives on war reporting understanding where the currents of the time have taken journalism and politics, the news ❖ media will be better able to navigate a desirable course in the future. Harold M. Evans, Tad Bartimus, Edith M. Lederer, Jacqueline E. Sharkey

After the Fall, Fall    on the long view ❖ George C. Wilson, James Kitfield, Jane Kirtley, The changes that swept Central and Eastern Europe in 1989 passed with relatively little blood- Robert Sims, Peter S. Prichard, Patrick J. Sloyan, Derald Everhart shed, and if history had ended then there would be cause for easy optimism. But in the endur- ❖ ing battles with censors and would-be censors that bedevil emerging democracies, new ques- on the pen and the sword Tom Gjelten, Judy Woodruff on right and wrong tions appear. Not only is there much for journalists to cover, in some places the fate of journal- Timothy J. Kenny, Donatella Lorch, Gary Knight, Susan Moeller on the price paid ism is still an open question. This issue explores not just the epic events of 1989 but the new ❖ stories that emerged in that region in the 1990s.

T HE F REEDOM F ORUM