From: streeter@cs.unca.edu (Tom Streeter)
Newsgroups: alt.news-media
Subject: Media and War (was NBC News and Dan Quayle)
Date: 25 Aug 92 21:28:21 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina at Asheville

In article <1992Aug25.011456.10562@afit.af.mil> jswitzer@afit.af.mil (Chip Switzer) writes:
>
>I would have qualms if it was happening.  I haven't been aware of it if it
>has been.  I don't know of any U.S. effort to keep reporters out of
>Iraq, Panama, or Grenada.
>

The pool arrangements in place for Panama and Desert Shield/Desert Storm
were the result of the controversy that erupted after the press was shut
out of Grenada.  There was a pool, but it was kept on a ship at sea
until long after the shooting stopped.  Several organizations tried to
get people on the beach as soon as they realized what was happening, but
all were intercepted prior to landing.  The same approach was tried in
Panama, but it was more difficult to insulate since there were already
reporters on the ground there, but access to military sources was
limited to reporters assigned to the pools.  

Since Grenada there hasn't been an effort to prevent reporters from
existing in a particular area of hostilities, but there have been great
pains taken to limit the access reporters have to sources and locations.
While this limited access is couched in the language of legitimate
operational security concerns, much of the effort is actually an effort
to make sure the pictures match the stories being told by the
administration back home.  Flood the KKMC with local yokel reporters
"following" the "exploits" of "their boys" from their home markets while
limiting the access of militarily savvy reporters and crow that there is
unparallelled access being given.  Depend on the ignorance (in a
non-perjorative sense) of the civilians back home to lie about what they
are being spoon-fed at the briefings (namely, the infamous "Scud
launchers" which wound up being ordinary tank trucks, but exploded
gloriously all over our television screens). And for God's sake, don't
let on that there are any people being killed (just call 'em targets).

It is great sport to bash the media and make all sorts of accusations
about what a reporter would put on the air or print if given the
opportunity, but the simple fact of the matter is that there has not
been a documented instance where the operational security of an ongoing
US military mission has been compromised by press reports.  I've issued
this challenge before, and it's never been successfully met.  

The American public has the right to know the truth about what is being
done in its name.  There was a reason Congress was given the authority
to declare war, and I find it tragic that the powers of the Executive
branch have been allowed to extend that far (after all, what other
commander is allowed to commit assets at his whim?  As a field commander
operates within boundries set by superiors, shouldn't the
Commander-in-Chief have to answer to the representatives of *his*
commanders, namely the people?).  We don't elect a military dictator, we
have to have an institution in place that is capable of telling us the
truth, especially unpleasant ones.  

And before anyone goes off on me, writing me off as some sort of "the
military is evil" idiot, understand that I opposed the Gulf War because
I felt that the lives of the military personnel were too precious to
waste.  I had family and friends over there -- driving tanks, flying
helicopters, and crouching in foxholes -- and I had not the slightest
interest in seeing them killed just because George Bush has the
propensity to "fix" his foreign policy failures by invading small
countries.  Does anybody know why those hundred-or-so Americans died?
What good was really done?

That's why a freer press in war zones is necessary.  Not to get people
killed, but to make damn sure we know what happened so the leaders who
bear the responsibility for putting us there reap the rewards, bitter or
sweet.


-- 
Tom Streeter                                |   streeter@cs.unca.edu
Dept. of Mass Communication                 |   704-251-6227
University of North Carolina at Asheville   |   Opinions expressed here are
Asheville, NC 28804                         |   mine alone.
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