At the height of the war, few journalists challenged the military stranglehold on facts. I broke with convention because traditional journalistic etiquette was futile while generals stonewalled and censors worked overtime. I've been criticized even by friends for going undercover. But I risked my credibility, and possibly my clean police record, by entering Dover because I believe journalism ought to be a risky business. Media organizations ought to risk contradicting military officials.
Individual reporters ought to risk their life and freedom for crucial stories.
If more journalists had openly rejected war censorship and press pools, the American public could have made informed judgments about a war they financed and supported. That's the way it's supposed to work in a democracy. And unless more of us openly challenge the military's obfuscation policy, historians may one day describe Operation Desert Storm as a victory not against the Iraqi army, but against the poorly organized forces who call themselves the free press. Jonathan Franklin is a freelance reporter living in San Francisco. His work has appeared in the Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Boston Globe and New York Times.