January 27, 2003
TOPIC: Pentagon's Plan to Deploy Journalists in Iraq Reminiscent of VietnamMedia and War expert at Centre College compares front line media blitz in Iraq to coverage not seen since Vietnam War.
Clarence Wyatt, a media and war expert and associate professor of history at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, says that, while the Pentagon's proposed plan to embed reporters and photographers with combat units in the event of a war with Iraq will grant the American public the most open coverage of U.S. military action since the Vietnam War, Americans should remain very skeptical consumers of that news and information.
Wyatt says, "Ever since the Vietnam War, the press has been mostly excluded from the battlefield. In Grenada, Panama, and the Gulf War reporters received information at tightly controlled briefings and were denied access to other sources." Wyatt believes that the proposed plan is "definitely an improvement in press access to combat action," but warns that Americans will still need to question the information they receive from the news media. "By attaching reporters to combat units," he says, "the military can actually have a greater ability to control the picture of the war that the American public gets. Even the most aggressive and public-spirited journalist will find greater challenges in reporting the news." They will run into "barriers erected not just by the government and military, but also by the managers and owners of news organizations themselves. It's not that the government, military, or journalistic leadership will necessarily lie to the public--but getting the whole truth is another matter."
Wyatt is the author of Paper Soldiers (paperback: University of Chicago Press, 1995; hardcover, W.W. Norton and Co., 1993), an acclaimed book on the American press during the Vietnam War. He retains a strong interest in present-day Vietnam and his opinion pieces about American diplomatic history have appeared in numerous publications.
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