Embedded reporter comes away from front lines torn

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

[FReepaholic]

>>...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....<<

BINGO!!!

[_Jim]

He is not "suffering" from Stockholm Syndrome ...

Kudos your direction - you beat me to the punch on this aspect!

[twigs]

The reporters who died were, for the most part, not embedded. The ones who are coming safely home have their military units to thank. Not a small reason for thankfulness, that. I heard one military member say that they would put their lives on the line to save anyone for whom they were responsible--and that included their embedded reporters.

[Gefreiter]

"I had lived so closely for so long ... with the ... Marines, fighting their way through Iraq, that I began to think and feel like a Marine. "

I read that and almost choked. I was a soldier, not a Marine, but I think it takes a big set of balls to claim that you know what being a Mairne is all about after spending a month as a hanger-on.

Furthermore, Nelson can move on to other assignments soon, wherever his career takes him. Meanwhile, many of the Marines he "served" with will remain in Iraq for some time, finish out multi-year enlistments, re-enlist, etc.

Marines will be having sand with their MREs for a good long time after this guy's back in Boston.

[caisson71]

My thoughts exactly.

[McGavin999]

Welcome to the real world Scott. Just don't lose the new knowledge you've gained.

[lawnguy]

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

There's an article in a recent Weekly Standard about the "Organization of American History Professors" that recently had a conference and started the process of rewriting the history as well. Disgusting.

[Nick Danger]

The next issue of The American Enterprise features an article by the magazine's editor in chief, Karl Zinsmeister. The AEI was the only conservative-movement organization whose publication was awarded an "embedded reporter" slot for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

You can read an excerpt of the article here, and you can also order the issue on-line from that page.

[Exigence]

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.

I think embedding the reporters was genius because it forced them to decide that they are Americans first and reporters second. Honest reporters have always known this, but now the ideologues are having to face this fact as well.

[myprecious]

I helped them in the battle.

There was a round table discussion series on PBS filmed several years ago. Experts from several fields would participate with a "devil's advocate" leading them through a progress of moral, political, and legal situations. One episode included a general and Dan Rather (pretty sure it was him).

The topic turned to the role of media in battle. The situation was proposed that the reporter had discovered that a group of soldiers were heading for an ambush. The question was put to Rather - Would you alert them of the pending doom?

Rather answered without blinking. No. My job is to report the events, not participate. That would be unethical.

[Senator_Blutarski]

What is most interesting to me about these "how being imbedded changed me" articles is how the authors seem to imply that they have somehow gone over to what they had openly regarded as the dark side. --And they are surprised that the US military is neither evil nor bloodthirsty. These people were clearly not prepared to find that reality didn't match their deeply harbored prejudices.

Obviously, it is possible to break through the Ivy League brainwashing. It is sad that it takes a war to do it.

[Little Bill]

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

The Marines protected his sorry A$$, he had no weapon, and, unlike Dan Rather would have done, he alerted the troops to the source of fire. Why do these people think that reporter equals citizen of the world? Rather than some prevert/skank hack that can put words together.

[Sloth]

I wonder if I was the first person to use 'Stockholm syndrome' to describe the change in embedded reporters:

Antiwar obscenities

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To: sam_paine

Whatdya bet that reporter now believes in Missile Defense?!?!?!? Vicky Clark is a frekaing genius if this was her idea.

Yep... with their weak minds, journalists are easy pray for a sort of military Stockholm Syndrome, where high-stress, dangerous situations cause them to begin to identify with their enemy -- Americans.

12 posted on 03/27/2003 4:30 PM CST by Sloth

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[_Jim]

Kudos, Sloth.

[battlegearboat]

Testimony from a Baptism Of Fire.

He's useless to the Boston Globe now.

[RichInOC]

Embedded reporter comes away from front lines torn

Don't ask, don't tell.

[Sloth]

Wouldn't surprise me if Dan did say that, though I wonder if you are confusing it w/ a round-table discussion where Peter Jennings and Mike Wallace were asked that... First, Jennings says he would warn the Americans, then Wallace scolds him and says that's not a reporter's job, then Jennings agrees w/ Wallace that he was wrong.

[TankerKC]

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

It seems to me that he is more impressed with his own worth. His "scoffing at the rear-echelon soldiers" remark shows a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to make an operation work. Those rear-echelon soldier have paid the price to proudly wear their uniform.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

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

Most journalists are - arrogance seems to come with the territory, sorry to say.

[myprecious]

Yes! I was straining to remember, but you are correct.