Media and War Critique

New Conflicts Offer New Angles and Continued Risks

Embedded journalism offers the media a front row seat to military operations, but at what cost?

Operation Iraqi Freedom was America’s second military presence in Iraq, but this time things were different.
Unlike the Vietnam and the Gulf War, the second occupation of Iraq gave new access to military operations for media outlets. Some 600 US and British Journalists became “embedded” with military units and would report from their locations.
Much has changed since America first began fighting its wars, and as a result the American media and military have continued to grow at odds, “During the short, successful Spanish-American War of 1898, reporters, if anything, led cheers for the military. Throughout World War I, journalists considered themselves part of the war effort, not independent observers. This pattern of press and military cooperation continued through World War II”, says a report from the Constitutional Rights Foundation.
The Vietnam War often referred to as “the living-room war,” gave America its first glimpse of warfare that had never been achieved.
A large portion of the American public was against the war. The US media for perhaps the first time received support for its critique of the military effort.
“Media criticism was a big deal, and most were critical of the military,” said Donald Kirk, previously a foreign correspondent for The New York Times and author of Who Wants To Be The Last American Killed In Vietnam?
Since the Vietnam era, technology has changed significantly for the media, military and consumers. Access to information is not only instantaneous but almost without any constraints. Reporting can be viewed in real time from anywhere in the world and stories can be published the minute the last key stroke is pushed.
Use of speedy reporting has perhaps seen its greatest exploitation in the US-led Iraq war.
The act of embedding select journalists within military units is seen as a catch-22 by many. In an article published by Kapi’olani Community College, associate professor of sociology Neghin Modavi explains that one of the major concerns for embedded journalists is the loss of objectivity through the relations that are formed with the troops they are connected to; “This they say, often results in reduced objectivity on part of the reporter and the practice of self-censorship,” said Modavi.
The article continues, “Some argue that today’s technology and the large number of journalists covering the conflict may counter some of the drawbacks that were associated with earlier embedded journalist practices,” said Modavi. “Thus the sheer number of immediate and live reports may provide some sense of the big picture for consumers of news.”
On the other side of the spectrum, some journalists have crossed the ‘line’ according to military officials with material they have published.
Senior Fox News Correspondent Geraldo Rivera violated perhaps the strictest of guidelines facing journalists when he drew an approximate picture in the sand of his and the 101st Airborne’s location and where they were headed during a television broadcast. The military strictly prohibits the release of information regarding sensitive military operations for obvious reasons.
Where the line begins to gray involves what many journalists consider outright censorship on the military’s behalf.

4,000 US Death, and a Handful of Images, an article from The New York Times explores the increased military influence on graphic images released from Iraq. In the article, freelance photographer Zoriah Miller explains why he was banned from Marine Corps-controlled areas of Iraq after publishing photos of killed Marines; “It is absolutely censorship,” Mr. Miller said. “I took pictures of something they didn’t like, and they removed me. Deciding what I can and cannot document, I don’t see a clearer definition of censorship.”
In the article military officials explain that censorship was not the case, rather, that Mr. Miller had broke embed rules, though preliminary investigations could find no such proof.
Miller’s case seems to reverberate more strongly as time passes in Iraq. The military has its agenda, and ultimately will enforce it. “There is leeway for commanders to make judgment calls, which is part of what commanders do,” said Col. Steve Boylan, the public affairs officer for Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq.
Criticism on both sides is also being felt across the Atlantic.
Early in the war, the British Broadcasting Corporation received much criticism for its alleged anti-war support. British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s director of communications Alastair Campbell made his case against the BBC. Campbell goes on to separate the BBC from other media organizations; “…there was a disproportionate focus upon, if you like, the dissent, the opposition, to our position. I think that in the conflict itself the prism that many were creating within the BBC was, one, it is all going wrong.”
Later studies performed in part by Justin Lewis, the deputy head of Cardiff University’s school of journalism on media coverage produced surprising results.
““Indeed, far from revealing an anti-war BBC, our findings tend to give credence to those who criticized the BBC for being too sympathetic to the government in its war coverage. Either way, it is clear that the accusation of BBC anti-war bias fails to stand up to any serious or sustained analysis,” said Lewis. The media industry is changing, and journalism is no exception. “Foreign correspondence is changing,” said Kirk. By how much is the question



Sources:

“Press Freedom Versus Military Censorship”
March 4, 2009 Constitutional Rights Foundation
Copyright 2009 http://www.crf-usa.org/america-responds-to-terrorism/press-freedom-versus-military-censorship.html

Seminar: So you want to be a foreign correspondent?
Donald Kirk, Foreign Correspondent; Christian Science Monitor
Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, Washington State University
2009

“Positive, negative aspects of embedded journalism” Vol:26 Iss:34 2003
Frank Munden, Kapi’olani Community College
http://kapio.kcc.hawaii.edu/archive/v36/36_24/embedded_journalism.html

Kamber, Michael & Arango, Tim. “4,000 U.S. Deaths, and a Handful of Images”
The New York Times. July 26, 2008. Copyright 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/world/middleeast/26censor.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=4,000%20US%20deaths%20and%20only%20a%20handful%20of%20images&st=cse

Stevens, Robert. BBC was most pro-war of British network. 2003
International Committee of the Fourth International
World Socialist Website. Copyright 2009
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/bbc-j10.shtml