War Coverage question for state sides

[DeltAlum]

I think the post mortem on U.S. News coverage of this war will be most interesting.

During "Desert Storm," basically all of the news came from tightly controlled briefings given by the theatre commanders. It was probably the most "managed" news converage by the military in our history at least. That created a giant controversy for a government which is supposed to support a "free press."

(I'm not going to comment on how "free" news media should be -- that's another entire topic -- mostly for graduate journalism students, in my opinion)

Now, we have "imbedded" reporters with various units -- and there have been next to no briefings from Quatar. One good thing (from the military standpoint) about having reporters "imbedded" and relying on their unit for transportation, etc. is that the reporters can't really strike out on their own to cover other stories. They pretty much go where their military transportation takes them.

All of the reporters mention that they can't say certain things -- which is understandable in a tactical sense. It will be fascinating to learn just how much censorship -- if any -- they are under beyond what was agreed to beforehand. So far, I haven't heard any complaints, but seeing thing entirely from one side can lead to a pro-U.S. spin, I suppose, no matter good the reporter. (I'm not suggesting that's happening, I just see the possibility)

As for the pictures of dead and captured service people, I kind of see the situation as one of descretion. We don't release the names of people killed in accidents until the reletives are notified. And, we use good taste (well, usually) in terms of showing graphic wounds, etc.

Unfortunately, some world news media (like Iraqui TV) don't follow those rules. Of course, they are total propaganda arms of their government.

As has been mentioned on many newscasts here, it is against the Geneva Conventions to show or embarass prisoners -- which Iraq obviously has done. It could be said, I suppose, that our networks do the same thing, but I would argue that there is a huge difference between showing large groups of "detainees" walking down a road or standing behind Concertina wire than the kind of one-on-one questioning shown in the Iraqui tapes.

As I said, it will be interesting to study the coverage in the aftermath of the conflict.