The Media Hush

There are so many questions not being answered, it's unnerving.

"So and so has this intelligence and that intelligence, which clearly prove why we must do this and that, something we can't tell you because of operational security, but trust us, we know what we are doing."

A note on CNN's website said it all: CNN's policy is to not report information that puts operational security at risk.

I have found other sources (the BBC, as we discussed earlier, for example), but the the nagging feeling remains.

My questions are, how do you know what puts operational security at risk? How much is the American public not seeing, hearing, or reading?

Most importantly, who is making these decisions?

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My guess? In part, the Pentagon. In part,local commanders (for the "embedded" reporters). In part, editors and their instincts. And finally, the reporter on scene, who may figure out that if he/she is with the 1st Marines and broadcasts where it's going, he/she is gonna be among those at risk if the wrong people hear the report.

Certainly makes one wonder whether we, as citizens, can formulate an educated opinion on the state of affairs with so much information missing.

There are things we're not seeing? Gosh, I never would have guessed it, considering the fact that it's been non-stop War TV for the past week.

Here comes a probably not very popular opinion! To be honest, if I were in a tank in the middle of the desert fighting what is starting to look like World War III, I'd tell the reporter hanging off the back of my tank to turn his camera off and go to hell. This is not another reality TV series. Our service men and women should be able to do their jobs with dignity and a little privacy.

Beth, I doubt that would happen; Ernie Pyle and Bill Maulding were absolutely loved by the soldiers they travelled with during WW2. Soldiers want the story told, from what I can tell.

Er, Mauldin no "g"...

We all have our opinions, and that's what makes these discussions fun. Thanks for the input, Beth, although I must say that I do not agree that our service men and women should be able to do their jobs with privacy. Dignity, yes. But privacy?

How many more Armenian genocides is it going to take for the world to realize that sometimes one country's idea of "good" doesn't apply to others?

Without information, there is no way for the public to make informed decisions. Without the ability to make informed decisions, we cease to be a democracy--and isn't that what we say we are fighting for?

How easy it is to wag the dog.

Well, it was bizarre of the American news media to unanimously decide not to show that repulsive videotape released by Iraq and seen everywhere else in the world.

Futile, too, given the Internet.

I'm finding unembedded (i.e. unilateral) reporting more compelling, but usually less informative (because, of course, all the details are fed only to those journalists signed on with the Defense Department).

Newsweek (okay, I know, it's Newsweek) published a couple of dispatches from Rod Nordland, who's trying to get around without military minders. It seems a more blunt portrayal of the general environment (if not just general confusion).

But the Washington Post reports today on a unilteral journalist for the CSM that might have been a little too specific about military operational details... and has since gone missing.

This "embedded" thing is really such an absurd use of language. I wonder who gets the credit for it?

Makes me think of the poor reporters as camp-following hookers. :)

[Laughs] Albert, you are so right!

I'm surprised that the military is letting the media come along for the ride at all. Remember the Gulf War? Reporters waiting at military camps to hear how the war was going, and many times the military would just tell them what they wanted the media to tell the rest of the nation and there was no way for reporters to confirm the information given to them. At least here we're seeing some parts of the war with our own eyes and there are American reporters in Bhagdad itself while it's being bombed. Makes you wonder what we would have seen if this sort of live reports were available during WW2?

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