Posted on 03/19/2003 1:39:16 AM PST by HAL9000
Nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers have demanded that the Pentagon defend its decision allow TV journalists to accompany U.S. combat units in Iraq, saying it may serve no other purpose than to advance the heated ratings war.Among those signing a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raising questions about the plan to "embed" journalists with U.S. military forces was Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
With President Bush expected to order an attack on Iraq sometime Wednesday, TV news networks, too, are grappling with the issue of access, including how much they will actually have.
News executives said Tuesday they are ready to provide special, continuous coverage once war starts, relying both on "embedded" news teams and the numerous correspondents stationed in and around Iraq.
CNN and CBS could have a competitive edge in the first days of the conflict, as they were the only networks that still had official teams reporting in Baghdad as of Tuesday evening. The Iraqi capital is expected to come under extraordinarily heavy attack.
For the first 24 hours of the war, the major broadcast and cable news networks have agreed to share footage coming out of Baghdad.
ABC and NBC pulled their remaining teams out of the city at the beginning of the week, saying the situation was far too dangerous. CBS and CNN said they continue to monitor developments. Fox News was kicked out by the Iraqi government last month after the United States expelled an Iraqi journalist assigned to the United Nations.
"At this point, the value to our worldwide audience is greater than the risk. If the balance changes, we will leave," a CNN executive said. CNN was the only U.S. network to have had an official Baghdad bureau before recent hostilities. Also, one of the team members speaks Arabic.
REACHING FOR RATINGS?
All sides are watching to see how the Pentagon's embedding program works. More than 600 TV and print journalists are with military troops poised to invade Iraq.
The Pentagon has strict rules of what can and can't be immediately reported, including location of troops or casualties.
But not everyone in Washington is convinced that the massive press deployment is a good idea.
In the two-page letter to Rumsfeld, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) took issue with a recent interview conducted by ABC "World News Tonight" anchor Peter Jennings with troops on the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border. He said Jennings seemed to focus on worst-case scenarios, raising the anxiety level.
"Providing media access to our troops is necessary to assist in providing accurate information for the American public and other nations. However, we must be mindful that reporting facts is quite different from generating an emotional story for ratings purposes," stated the letter.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis said the embedding program would play a crucial role in the pending war to remove Hussein from power.
"We recognize the value of having independent journalists say in an unbiased way what the truth is. It's an important program, and we stand by it. I think it's something that the American public will benefit from by having a true understanding of what is going on," Davis said.
ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said Jennings is a veteran journalist who was "simply doing his job, and doing it quite well."
While ABC, Fox and NBC may have pulled their official correspondents out of Baghdad, all have made contact with journalists who have opted to wait out the action.
The Arabic news channel Al Jazeera is likely to have better access to war action in Baghdad than are American networks.
Comrade Petrov strikes again!
I don't expect to see any coverage from Baghdad after our electro-magnetic bombs disable every electrical circuit in the city.
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