thedrifter
11-27-05, 07:31 AM
Most want free press, honest look at war
Polls: Some say war reporting puts U.S. soldiers in danger
By MIKE BILLINGTON
The News Journal
11/27/2005
Some of his troops had been in an all-night firefight with North Vietnamese soldiers, and in the morning, battalion commander Frank Ianni went to check on them.
Once there, he ordered his men to search dozens of dead enemy soldiers for useful documents.
Then Ianni's men began dragging the bodies to a common grave. A reporter who saw them said he was disgusted by the sight of the bodies being dragged instead of being carried.
Ianni, who later served as adjutant general of the Delaware National Guard, ordered the reporter off the battlefield.
"We didn't have enough men to gently pick the dead enemy soldiers up and reverently place them in a grave," Ianni said. "My soldiers were exhausted. They'd just been in an all-night battle and I just didn't need someone with that attitude there at that time."
Tension between the military and journalists can increase dramatically in war zones.
Reporters often complain the military keeps them from controversial situations and sometimes lies to them.
Does the military have an obligation to give reporters full access in a war zone? Does it have a responsibility to always tell reporters the truth? What should war correspondents do with the information they get?
There are no easy answers to those questions, even for reporters who have covered several conflicts, CNN Pentagon reporter Jamie McIntyre told an audience at the University of Delaware recently.
It's not an easy question for military leaders to answer either, Ianni said.
"It's a debate that's been going on a long time," he said.
Heating up
It's also a debate that is heating up again in the United States. Relying on a steady stream of news reports from the war zone for news about Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans seem to be losing confidence in the Bush administration's ability to accomplish its objectives, according to recent opinion polls. A poll released this month shows that Americans feel less sure that this country should play an activist role in foreign affairs.
Americans generally think journalists should be able to do their jobs without interference and that the military should tell them the truth, according to opinion polls and surveys.
That does not mean they are completely comfortable with all-access, all-the-time reporting from the front lines.
Lynn Carson, a health care provider from Hockessin, for example, thinks the military should tell reporters the truth. However, she also wants reporters to exercise judgment when it comes to broadcasting or printing stories about American soldiers at war.
"I think it's wrong if secrets are given away, for example, and our soldiers are put in danger as a result," she said.
McIntyre agreed. When he spoke at UD he noted that reporters have sometimes been asked to hold a story because broadcasting or printing it too soon would put American troops in harm's way. In those situations, he said, most reporters agree to hold the story.
But there are other ways that the media can put American soldiers in danger, historian Howard Horne, a retired University of Delaware professor, said. He cited a recent Australian television report showing American soldiers burning the bodies of Afghan terrorists killed in a battle.
Islam does not allow the dead to be cremated. As a result, the images were inflammatory, Horne said. That could have led to increased attacks by suicide bombers.
Tempering the news
"Reporters are to report the news and I think the military has an obligation to tell them the truth," said Horne, a Wilmington resident. "But in my view the reporter has to be careful with when and how to report that truth. I think there may be times when reporters should temper -- not distort or downplay, but temper -- the news. They should give some regard to the ramifications of their stories."
Tom Daws, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, agrees with Horne in that respect.
"I think reporters should use judgment on any story that they report on," he said.
But not everyone trusts journalists to exercise restraint in reporting from a war zone. Reporters covering World War II, for example, had to submit their stories to military censors before they could be sent to their editors. John Hawkins, a World War II veteran who serves as the secretary of the Reserve Officers Association in Delaware, thinks that was a good idea.
"It's very important to get the facts right," he said. "That's not always done."
Ianni cited U.S. reporting of the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam as an example of how news reporters often get facts wrong. In the city of Hue, for example, the Marines won a major battle and defeated a large Viet Cong force that attacked the city during the offensive. American journalists, however, reported the battle as a defeat for the Marines.
"In fact, the whole Tet Offensive was a stunning defeat for the Viet Cong, but that's not how it was reported," he said.
The Viet Cong, however, did strike a political victory by the nature of the surprise attack, even if casualties were much higher for them than Americans.
Ask permission
In the interest of accuracy, Hawkins said he thinks reporters should have to clear their stories with the units they are covering before sending them to their editors -- even if such a practice would violate many newspapers' ethical guidelines and standards. Such standards emanate from most journalists' stance against censorship -- or prior restraint -- by the government.
Daws agrees.
"I think that sometimes stories are written to increase sales of their paper or magazine even if it means harming the warrior," he said. "Reporters should think of themselves as Americans first."
Sally Milbury-Steen, executive director of Pacem in Terris, disagrees.
A longtime peace activist, Milbury-Steen said she is surprised that so many Americans now have doubts about the Iraq war because -- unlike Vietnam -- readers and television viewers get very few images from the war zone.
"Vietnam was in our living rooms. This war is not," she said.
Contact Mike Billington at 324-2761 or mbillington@delawareonline.com.
Ellie
Polls: Some say war reporting puts U.S. soldiers in danger
By MIKE BILLINGTON
The News Journal
11/27/2005
Some of his troops had been in an all-night firefight with North Vietnamese soldiers, and in the morning, battalion commander Frank Ianni went to check on them.
Once there, he ordered his men to search dozens of dead enemy soldiers for useful documents.
Then Ianni's men began dragging the bodies to a common grave. A reporter who saw them said he was disgusted by the sight of the bodies being dragged instead of being carried.
Ianni, who later served as adjutant general of the Delaware National Guard, ordered the reporter off the battlefield.
"We didn't have enough men to gently pick the dead enemy soldiers up and reverently place them in a grave," Ianni said. "My soldiers were exhausted. They'd just been in an all-night battle and I just didn't need someone with that attitude there at that time."
Tension between the military and journalists can increase dramatically in war zones.
Reporters often complain the military keeps them from controversial situations and sometimes lies to them.
Does the military have an obligation to give reporters full access in a war zone? Does it have a responsibility to always tell reporters the truth? What should war correspondents do with the information they get?
There are no easy answers to those questions, even for reporters who have covered several conflicts, CNN Pentagon reporter Jamie McIntyre told an audience at the University of Delaware recently.
It's not an easy question for military leaders to answer either, Ianni said.
"It's a debate that's been going on a long time," he said.
Heating up
It's also a debate that is heating up again in the United States. Relying on a steady stream of news reports from the war zone for news about Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans seem to be losing confidence in the Bush administration's ability to accomplish its objectives, according to recent opinion polls. A poll released this month shows that Americans feel less sure that this country should play an activist role in foreign affairs.
Americans generally think journalists should be able to do their jobs without interference and that the military should tell them the truth, according to opinion polls and surveys.
That does not mean they are completely comfortable with all-access, all-the-time reporting from the front lines.
Lynn Carson, a health care provider from Hockessin, for example, thinks the military should tell reporters the truth. However, she also wants reporters to exercise judgment when it comes to broadcasting or printing stories about American soldiers at war.
"I think it's wrong if secrets are given away, for example, and our soldiers are put in danger as a result," she said.
McIntyre agreed. When he spoke at UD he noted that reporters have sometimes been asked to hold a story because broadcasting or printing it too soon would put American troops in harm's way. In those situations, he said, most reporters agree to hold the story.
But there are other ways that the media can put American soldiers in danger, historian Howard Horne, a retired University of Delaware professor, said. He cited a recent Australian television report showing American soldiers burning the bodies of Afghan terrorists killed in a battle.
Islam does not allow the dead to be cremated. As a result, the images were inflammatory, Horne said. That could have led to increased attacks by suicide bombers.
Tempering the news
"Reporters are to report the news and I think the military has an obligation to tell them the truth," said Horne, a Wilmington resident. "But in my view the reporter has to be careful with when and how to report that truth. I think there may be times when reporters should temper -- not distort or downplay, but temper -- the news. They should give some regard to the ramifications of their stories."
Tom Daws, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, agrees with Horne in that respect.
"I think reporters should use judgment on any story that they report on," he said.
But not everyone trusts journalists to exercise restraint in reporting from a war zone. Reporters covering World War II, for example, had to submit their stories to military censors before they could be sent to their editors. John Hawkins, a World War II veteran who serves as the secretary of the Reserve Officers Association in Delaware, thinks that was a good idea.
"It's very important to get the facts right," he said. "That's not always done."
Ianni cited U.S. reporting of the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam as an example of how news reporters often get facts wrong. In the city of Hue, for example, the Marines won a major battle and defeated a large Viet Cong force that attacked the city during the offensive. American journalists, however, reported the battle as a defeat for the Marines.
"In fact, the whole Tet Offensive was a stunning defeat for the Viet Cong, but that's not how it was reported," he said.
The Viet Cong, however, did strike a political victory by the nature of the surprise attack, even if casualties were much higher for them than Americans.
Ask permission
In the interest of accuracy, Hawkins said he thinks reporters should have to clear their stories with the units they are covering before sending them to their editors -- even if such a practice would violate many newspapers' ethical guidelines and standards. Such standards emanate from most journalists' stance against censorship -- or prior restraint -- by the government.
Daws agrees.
"I think that sometimes stories are written to increase sales of their paper or magazine even if it means harming the warrior," he said. "Reporters should think of themselves as Americans first."
Sally Milbury-Steen, executive director of Pacem in Terris, disagrees.
A longtime peace activist, Milbury-Steen said she is surprised that so many Americans now have doubts about the Iraq war because -- unlike Vietnam -- readers and television viewers get very few images from the war zone.
"Vietnam was in our living rooms. This war is not," she said.
Contact Mike Billington at 324-2761 or mbillington@delawareonline.com.
Ellie