Page 158 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

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eMBedding Journalists: how Close is too Close?

The U.S. invasion of Iraq marked a new era in the evolving relationship between
the media and their military sources. Prevented from access to the battlefield in
previous conflicts, journalists were invited by the Pentagon to accompany troops
into the theater of operation during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the inva-
sion of Iraq, over 700 embedded war correspondents from the United States
rode with American and British soldiers across the Iraqi desert and reported
from remote locations, sometimes using new cell-phone video technology, mak-
ing the Iraq war the first to be broadcast live, in real time. Critics questioned
the wisdom of what they called a loss of journalistic independence while Penta-
gon officials proclaimed they wanted the public to see what war was really like.
Embedding was a profound historical development for communication and war
reporting, and had significant influence on the way the war was reported. Cov-
erage of the Iraq invasion will have enduring effects on the ways in which the
media tell the story of war.

waiTing For war sToriEs: anTiCiPaTing
an inEviTaBLE war

With the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon promised media access to the battle-
field unseen since Vietnam. Journalists gauge their freedom to report war based
on their ability to cover military units in actual combat. In what was being her-
alded a new era of military openness, reporters expressed hopeful skepticism
about Pentagon promises to accompany troops into Iraq. In the weeks before the

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