[Lance Romance]

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

[freedomlover]

I'm sure the rear-echelon media guys are working nonstop to rewrite as much history as they can.

[Incorrigible]

At least he went further than the pansy in this thread:

Why I told the editor: just get me out of this hell...

[mvpel]

Another testimony to the sheer genius of embedding journalists.

[Mr. Lucky]

This young man's rather full of himself, isn't he?

[Blood of Tyrants]

The Pentagon was very shrewd in allowing reporters in with the grunts. They knew that shared danger would bring down liberal prejudices faster than the reporters could write about the hardships abd battles.

[Gritty]

Well, we're making progress.

We ought to invite these guys to the shooting range for a few afternoons.

[Mrs. P]

In the end, it will be for someone else to decide. Big thinkers in both the media and the military will at some point begin to analyze whether the embedding program worked, from their various perspectives.

I can hardly wait to hear from all the big thinkers in the media what I'm supposed to think of the bias of these embedded reporters.

Did a dozen reporters actually die in combat? I don't remember reading that anywhere before. It will be interesting to hear how they are memorialized compared to the military. Gee, I'm so cynical.

[smith288]

He put himself in the position of that age old journalistic question:

"Would I tell my own countries army that the enemy is on the other side of the hill?"

Well, this guy became an American and a survivor (even if for selfish reasons) when he was in this very situation. Im glad he did what he did (pointing out snipers), he may have saved precious lives.

[Doctor Stochastic]

The question is whether the coverage I provided during the war was tainted as a result.

The fact that he is willing to ask the question shows that his coverage wasn't tainted.

[RetiredArmy]

Mummm, found out what real combat is like. Not the same as the movies I guess.

[Lee Heggy]

Getting a good look at the elephant does change one's perspective.

[January24th]

"Look up Stockholm syndrome in the dictionary, though..."

Well, to be precise, the reporter wasn't captured, held against his will, threatend by his "captors" and with no hope of rescue. He volunteered, he was being paid, he could have left if he really needed to, and was surrounded by people of superior morals and good will.

He is not "suffering" from Stockholm Syndrome, he is benefiting from being in excellent company...something rarely found in most newsrooms. It must feel strange to him.

[mrsmith]

Funny that no reporters have ever been worried that by being embedded in liberal news organizations that they would identify with them and that their reporting would be tainted.

"Look up Stockholm syndrome in the dictionary, though, and you'll get a pretty good idea about what I was going through in those first hours away from my liberal editors. I had lived so closely for so long under such extreme circumstances with the liberal journalism school professors and liberal editors, that I had begun to think and feel like a socialist. "

[_Jim]

Where were the headquarters Johnnies then, I smugly asked myself this week as I walked the former headquarters of the Iraqi secret police, now home to the US Marines' First Division. Probably drinking coffee, eating hot meals, sleeping on cots in canvas tents, and moving arrows around on wall maps.

Dosn't this come off a little bit like a Hackworth opening?

[ClearCase_guy]

Stockholm syndrome -- the situation where a hostage actually starts hoping the Bad Guys win. This reporter (a BUSINESS reporter for the Globe!) seems to feel that he was a victim of this syndrome when he started feeling warm thoughts toward American soldiers.

[_Jim]

Look up Stockholm syndrome ... I had lived so closely for so long under such extreme circumstances with the Second Battalion, 11th Marines, fighting their way through Iraq, that I began to think and feel like a Marine.

Stockholm Syndrome involves being held by captors and adopting their 'way of thinking' ...

[Beck_isright]

"Like the soldiers who fought on the front lines of this war, I just want to go home at this point to spend time with my family and think about something else for a while."

That's what being a professional soldier is all about. You do your job and when the time comes after the bleep is over with, you just want to unwind. Maybe now they will hold back their "baby-killer" mentality of the 60's era of journalists, like Ted Koppel.

[theDentist]

Did we sell our souls as journalists for access...?

They do it all the time. It was becoming a joke in the Clinton WH.

[BlessedBeGod]

I did more than just empathize with the soldiers. I helped them in the battle.

Congratulations, you've turned into a real American.