WASHINGTON, 21 February 2003 — In preparation for a potential war against Iraq, the Pentagon is assigning reporters slots with combat units.
The media mobilization is the largest since World War II. Over 350 news organizations have applied for 600 correspondents to be “embeds,” or embedded in military units. About 100 are from foreign and international news organizations, including Arab News and Al Jazeera.
The decision to allow front seat access to the press follows bitter complaints of inaccessibility during the first Gulf War. It also raises new questions regarding rules of engagement — what the press can and cannot cover.
According to a Pentagon document outlining some of the rules of journalistic engagement, reports of live, continuing action cannot be released without the permission of the commanding officer.
There will be strict prohibitions on any reporting of future operations or postponed or canceled operations, the document further states. The date, time and place of military action, as well as the outcomes of mission results, can be described only in general terms. Other ground rules have yet to be spelled out.
The decision to let the press corps mingle with the military is a sharp about-face from the restrictive news policies the Pentagon has maintained since the Vietnam War. During the Gulf War, for example, only pool reporters, journalists “pooled” from a group, were given front-line access.
Whether the Pentagon’s policy change was in any part an effort to increase US civilian support of what is currently viewed by many as an unpopular war, or to counter possible Iraqi claims of American atrocities is not clear. But reporters are being told it has the full support of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Last week, the Pentagon allocated the slots to newspapers, news agencies and television networks. This week the organizations must give the names of correspondents selected to fill the assignments, and are offering the same inoculations against anthrax and smallpox already given to armed forces.
The “war” journalists will not be allowed to carry or fire weapons. And, unlike many World War II and Vietnam correspondents, they will not be issued military uniforms, although they can buy their own fatigues. They must also purchase their own helmets, flak jackets and boots, but will be given so-called “NBC gear” to protect them against nuclear, biological and chemical attacks. They will also share their units’ transport, food and accommodations. Journalists may not travel in their own vehicles.
During the past two months, the Pentagon trained 232 of the journalists for combat conditions in four separate week-long boot camps on domestic military bases.
Arab News and other media organizations applied to attend the “media boot camp,” but were told the Pentagon had “run out of time” to train more.
Gulf War I was a milestone for TV journalism, and CNN emerged as a major news force, covering from “inside enemy lines.”
Now, new technological improvements will increase the flow and amount of information, and the ease with which reporters can produce it.
Some of TV news’ new war zone devices will include laptop editing systems and small digital video cameras. During Gulf War I, satellite dishes weighed 2,000 pounds, now satellite dishes weigh about 60 pounds, fit into a small suitcase and can be set up almost instantly.
There are also the more common wireless Internet connections, hand-held satellite phones and videophones, which makes one wonder how the military will be able to censor the information, and how viewers will react to raw coverage.
For journalists being sent to the front line, this new Pentagon reality means new dangers: exposure to bullets, munitions and chemicals are a real possibility. So, too, is the threat of being kidnapped and held as a human shield. This battle could also be longer and more dangerous than its predecessor. Unlike in 1991, ground forces will most certainly move into Baghdad, and engage in dangerous urban warfare.
The Pentagon is now deciding what correspondent goes where. Army Major Timothy Blair, in the Department of Defense’s Office of Public Affairs, said that the key access decisions would come down from the Pentagon itself, where matches would be made based on a news group’s circulation and reach.
