Embed or In Bed?

24 March 2003


Pentagon's Embedded Journalists Solve PR Problem

It has taken 60 years to come full circle, but the Pentagon has finally decided to return to the days of Ernie Pyle, the gold standard of war correspondents, and simply let the reporters live with the troops. By "embedding" journalists with various front-line units, the Defense Department has solved its PR problems by making the reports part of the war-making machine. Whether the American media can handle it and remain free is another matter.

The US military and the press went to war with one another during the Vietnam conflict, and rebuilding the alliance hasn't been easy. The press started out that war believing what it was being told. Unfortunately, Robert McNamara and the rest couldn't tell the truth, that the war wasn't going to be over by Christmas (let alone Tet), that the communists weren't all gone, that things weren't always going right. This undermined the media's credibility, and the result was a press that reported the story its own way focusing on the misrepresentations of the military.

The military has always had a trump card in any argument -- "we are there, you aren't." Old sergeants complain that the long-haired professor types don't understand the need to behave in certain ways when under fire. Finally the Pentagon decided, "Well, put down the hairspray, pick up your satellite phone, Geraldo, and follow me."

Soldiers are, of course, braver than reporters (the editors of this small title included). So it is not surprising that the reporters embedded with these units are slightly star-struck by their new bunkmates. It becomes hard to tell the bad news about them. Yet, when a US Patriot shoots down a British jet by accident, or an upset member of the 101st airborne frags a superior (a Vietnam-era act of trying to kill one's superior to stay alive), the news does get reported, but on the Pentagon enjoying the benefits of the doubt. Truly a laudable result, and that is meant without any sarcasm or disrespect.

As for the media, objectivity is something that American reporters should abandon. They tend to be leftish in their politics, reporting for hard-right mega-corporations. The conflicts of interest are intense. Rather, they should simply aim for fair, give all sides of the story, and let their bias (because they do have one) show openly. Otherwise, they aren't just embedded, they are in bed with the Pentagon.