US/IRAQ: War has not yet have been declared but an army of journalists, known as "embeds", has been mobilised by the Pentagon and has been getting its marching orders for service in the Gulf. "Embed" is military jargon for a reporter who will be embedded in a specific unit of the US forces. He or she will live, eat, sleep and travel with the unit, will not be allowed to move around independently, and may not return after leaving. Nearly 500 are being embedded, among them 100 from foreign media, including the Arab
The idea of integrating journalists into the military structure, as happened last in the second World War, was endorsed by Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and the top brass. They see it as an improvement on the pool system used in the 1991 Gulf War, when a pool reporter would be taken to the "front" and would share his material. Vice President Dick Cheney was defence secretary at the time. He told the Freedom Forum that it was the best-covered war ever, because the American people saw "through the magic of television" what the military was capable of.
However, generals like Wesley Clark said it was a huge mistake not to let Americans see big victories like the tank battle fought by the 1st Armoured Division. For critics like John McArthur, author of Second Front, an account of censorship in the Gulf War, the pool reporting made Desert Storm a "crushing defeat" for freedom of the press.
Pool reporters were not allowed to provide a single eye-witness account of a battle. By the time they were taken to the scene of action, Iraqi bodies had been removed or ploughed underground.
In the Vietnam War, journalists had free access to soldiers and civilians, and "through the magic of television", viewers were able to witness what the military was capable of, a major factor in turning Americans against the war.
The new system raises complex questions for journalists. Pentagon official Victoria Clarke said she believed the "embeds" would do the "right thing" and would have a full appreciation of the need to safeguard operational security. Reporting will focus attention on the troops, and "embeds" will develop personal relationships with soldiers and sailors. Technically, the flow of information should be better, because of satellite telephone imagery, but reports of live, continuing action cannot be released without the permission of the commanding officer.
"Embeds" are also forbidden to have their own vehicles so they cannot move around independently. The portents are not good. In Afghanistan, several embedded journalists at a marine camp were locked in a warehouse when "friendly fire" hit soldiers nearby. Self-censorship may also be a bigger factor today than in the Vietnam era, when scepticism ruled. The best journalists then considered it patriotic to be impartial, and rejected Gen Westmoreland's call to "get on board". After 9/11, many American journalists climbed aboard.
CBS anchorman Dan Rather told David Letterman: "If he [George Bush\] wants me to line up, just tell me where." The word "we" is used frequently by reporters to describe American forces. On the cable news channel, MSNBC, a reporter at Ellsworth Air Force Base described war planes taking off for Iraq as "the sights and sounds of freedom carried on the wind". Another ended an interview with the captain of a departing aircraft carrier with the words, "Thank you, Sir, for the work you are doing." And MSNBC is considered more impartial than Fox television, which dominates the cable news ratings.
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MANY Americans get a different take on world events than Europeans because they watch and hear different news. The networks' coverage of the anti-war demonstrations last weekend underlined that, with a Fox television presenter describing the crowd in New York as "serial protesters". Networks may see their job as selling the war, wrote Paul Krugman in the New York Times. Another big factor shaping American views is radio.
Under the 1996 Telecommunications Act, corporations can buy up as many radio stations as they want. The two biggest now own more than 1,400 stations, with centralised play-lists and "world-in-a-minute" news broadcasts on local stations where the staff have been fired. The most widely broadcast talk shows are hosted by conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, Sean Hannity and Howard Stern. Limbaugh, obsessed with "feminazis" and "environmental wackos", is heard on 650 stations with more than 15 million listeners, and is currently whipping up sentiment against both Saddam Hussein and Jacques Chirac. He is so popular with the administration that President Bush invited him for a sleep-over at the White House.
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MANY of the most conservative voices on American radio turned up at a convention of religious broadcasters in Nashville recently, where Bush was introduced as "our friend and brother in Christ". His affirmation that "I welcome faith to help solve the nation's deepest problems," was greeted with cries of "Amen".
Bush praised the "deep and diverse religious beliefs" of Americans but called the Christian gospel he shared with the broadcasters "words of truth". References to God pepper Bush's remarks. In almost every speech he uses a standard line, "We don't believe liberty is America's gift to the world; we believe it is the Almighty's gift to mankind." Former presidents have emphasised their religion, like Jimmy Carter, the first born-again Christian president, but Bush, who found Jesus in 1985, is bringing religion more into his policy decisions and chipping at the wall between church and state. He has supported funding for faith-based charities and schools, and has cut off financial support for abortion rights.
Bush no longer affirms, as he did in 1993, that heaven is open only to those who accept Jesus Christ as their saviour. But his terminology comes straight from evangelical Christianity. A big influence in Bush's life is Houston tele-evangelist, the Rev James Robison, who has prayed with the President over the telephone.
In one call, according to Robison, Bush asked him, "Did you hear my heart? Did it sound like God's heart? That matters to me. . . I want to know if what's in my heart is coming out of my mouth."