Embedded reporter comes away from front lines torn

Boston Globe | 4/22/2003 | Scott Bernard Nelson

[rwfromkansas]

Interesting point of view.

You may be right.

[Howlin]

the story seems to tell of a liberal reporter who suddenly realizes how noble the military really is.

And seems embarassed about it.

He wasn't sure to where I was referring

Perhaps he can work on his grammar now that he's home.

[_Jim]

I think his point is that fear has a way of changing one's perspective.

THEN he should have stated so. To fail, then, in his attempt to convey that is to have failed utterly as a writer - this man's paid vocation. I think he's now trying to justify what he wrote while embdedded - now that he's back among his liberal 'friends' on the cocktail circuit.

[Timmy]

If these guys are so worried about "objectivity," why didn't a bunch of them get embedded with the Republican Guard units?

[kaboom]

I wonder if a Marine in combat would think less of a Marine in the rear-echelon. Doubtful. There might be some bragging rights and stories of pure hell, but I would imagine that most Marines would appreciate the shared experiences that they had to become Marines regardless of what their tasks were.

A better question would be, Does the combat soldier respect some ride-along-johnny reporter more than any rear-echelon volunteer soldier who has trained to perform an assigned task AND hit a target?

[kittymyrib]

I think you're right. This is a mea culpa for seeming to have switched sides during the war, now that he is back home with the Boston Globe's America-haters. Otherwise, why in the world would he write this drivel? He is no Ernie Pyle.

[July 4th]

There were plenty of freelancers who got into Iraq and were running around on their own selling stories to news nets. Several were killed, as well as the handful we know about by name that were oficially embedded.

[Tailback]

Another testimony to the sheer genius of embedding journalists.

Many of these embeds were young and made a big name for themselves with their reporting. They will be around a LONG time and will always remember their Iraq experience. Whoever thought of this should be given a raise.

[ido_now]

Most people who have been embedded, regret it in the morning.

[meema]

I am so glad that we had the embeded reporters. It had to have the effect of, at the least, new respect for our military.
When I first heard Tory talking about this months ago, I thought she had lost her mind. {I remember Vietnam...}
It worked out wonderfully, and I appreciated the pieces of the war that I could see live on tv. David Bloom was my favorite...R.I.P. I surfed constantly.

[Stone Mountain]

Pansy huh? I take it your wartime experiences are more heroic?

You are correct sir! In fact, my post in that thread says as much.

I read through the thread but don't recall any mention of your wartime experiences. Which post are you referring to?

[Incorrigible]

No, I meant your sarcasm is correct.  I have no heroic military deeds to speak of.

Again, I made the error of parroting the majority of the posts on that thread and that is what I regret.