thedrifter
02-10-03, 06:54 AM
By Marni McEntee, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, February 9, 2003
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Covering front-line action in any war with Iraq would rank as the assignment of a lifetime for many journalists.
The question is: Will reporters who are more accustomed to typing than marching be able to keep up with a typical soldier on a real-world battlefield?
The answer depends on whom you ask.
“How does a young captain who commands an A-team feel about having a reporter going along with his men in a fast-moving, fluid situation?” asked retired Army Col. Laird Anderson.
“C’mon. Most reporters are not in that kind of shape,” said Laird, a former Special Forces soldier and professor emeritus of journalism at American University.
Department of Defense officials have said they intend to allow certain journalists to live, eat and move with troops in battle if war begins in Iraq. They call that process “embedding.”
One public affairs officer recently told an editor that any journalist selected for the job better get used to working with little sleep, sporadic meals and fast-moving conditions.
To help journalists get a glimpse of things to come, the military has offered a series of training sessions to teach reporters how to read maps, do road marches and quickly put on a gas mask. So far, hundreds of journalists from around the world have gone through the training.
Stars and Stripes reporter Sandra Jontz, who covers the Pentagon for the newspaper, attended one such “media boot camp” at Fort Dix, N.J., in late January.
“The 45-minute calisthenics session done on one frigid morning solidified for some that gym memberships just might be a good idea,” Jontz said.
But, she said, it also served as a lesson about ways to prepare more thoroughly for the job.
“The training taught most of the 60 journalists that while we aren’t quite ready, we certainly are not incapable of covering the front line.”
The military has faith that the press corps will make the grade.
“I think that we’ve tried to show the media who have been through the training and covered training opportunities [in Kuwait] the challenges associated with covering units that are on the move,” said Col. Rick Thomas, who heads the public affairs shop for the Coalition Forces Land Component Command in Kuwait.
“I absolutely believe that the reporters who will be embedded will in fact keep up with the troops. If we did not think otherwise, I don’t think we would try embedding as many reporters, and we would try to embed.”
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Dan Hetlage put it a little more succinctly:
“They’re not going to be able to count on the Marines to drop a rifle to carry a sat phone and a camera,” Hetlage said. “If they can’t keep up, they get left behind.”
Sempers,
Roger
European edition, Sunday, February 9, 2003
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Covering front-line action in any war with Iraq would rank as the assignment of a lifetime for many journalists.
The question is: Will reporters who are more accustomed to typing than marching be able to keep up with a typical soldier on a real-world battlefield?
The answer depends on whom you ask.
“How does a young captain who commands an A-team feel about having a reporter going along with his men in a fast-moving, fluid situation?” asked retired Army Col. Laird Anderson.
“C’mon. Most reporters are not in that kind of shape,” said Laird, a former Special Forces soldier and professor emeritus of journalism at American University.
Department of Defense officials have said they intend to allow certain journalists to live, eat and move with troops in battle if war begins in Iraq. They call that process “embedding.”
One public affairs officer recently told an editor that any journalist selected for the job better get used to working with little sleep, sporadic meals and fast-moving conditions.
To help journalists get a glimpse of things to come, the military has offered a series of training sessions to teach reporters how to read maps, do road marches and quickly put on a gas mask. So far, hundreds of journalists from around the world have gone through the training.
Stars and Stripes reporter Sandra Jontz, who covers the Pentagon for the newspaper, attended one such “media boot camp” at Fort Dix, N.J., in late January.
“The 45-minute calisthenics session done on one frigid morning solidified for some that gym memberships just might be a good idea,” Jontz said.
But, she said, it also served as a lesson about ways to prepare more thoroughly for the job.
“The training taught most of the 60 journalists that while we aren’t quite ready, we certainly are not incapable of covering the front line.”
The military has faith that the press corps will make the grade.
“I think that we’ve tried to show the media who have been through the training and covered training opportunities [in Kuwait] the challenges associated with covering units that are on the move,” said Col. Rick Thomas, who heads the public affairs shop for the Coalition Forces Land Component Command in Kuwait.
“I absolutely believe that the reporters who will be embedded will in fact keep up with the troops. If we did not think otherwise, I don’t think we would try embedding as many reporters, and we would try to embed.”
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Dan Hetlage put it a little more succinctly:
“They’re not going to be able to count on the Marines to drop a rifle to carry a sat phone and a camera,” Hetlage said. “If they can’t keep up, they get left behind.”
Sempers,
Roger