Marine PR guy finally sees the value of war
correspondents
Weekly Standard
Marine public affairs officer Maj. Chris Hughes tells
Matt Labash: "The thing I've always liked about having media
present is it tells that Marine or soldier just how important their job
is. If CNN is in your fighting hole, what you're doing is
important. And that's tremendous. ...[Marines] don't want to die, and
not have their story told." HUGHES' LAST WORDS TO LABASH: "It's
been a long night. We're losing guys left and right. And so are
you."
> Gabler: WH knew embedded journos would be
harmless (Salon/sub-ads)
> Hamilton: "The
embedded-reportage genie is out of the bottle"
(USAT)
Posted at 8:50:10 AME-mail this
item | QuickLink:
A26717
Critic: Turn off TV and read Anderson's
"Letter from Iraq"
Washington Post
Peter Carlson says Jon Lee Anderson's "wonderfully
nuanced and humane" piece in
The New Yorker describes what it felt like to be living in Baghdad
in the days before and after the start of the bombing. "He writes
about the mad rush by reporters and U.N. officials to leave Baghdad after
President Bush's 48-hour deadline, which caused gridlock at hotel
checkout desks and drove the price of a taxi ride to Jordan from $200
to $700 to $1,300."
Posted at 8:17:35 AME-mail this
item | QuickLink:
A26714
NBC execs hope war coverage will save
struggling MSNBC
USA Today
NBC chief Robert Wright says of MSNBC: ''They're
really in a league of their own right now. (NBC) is like the older
brother who gets all the limelight. MSNBC doesn't get as much limelight
or credit for what it does.'' David Lieberman writes: "If NBC
dominates the [war] story, the thinking goes, viewers may take another
look at MSNBC -- much in the way the 1991 war boosted the public's view
of CNN." OUCH!: ''CNN has a shaky video phone which looks
like a bad video game," says NBC News boss Neal Shapiro.
"Fox has a camera that tilts and is grainy and gets blinded by the
dust."
Posted at 8:02:38 AME-mail this
item | QuickLink:
A26711
Pentagon briefings no longer well
mannered, genteel affairs
New York Times (reg. req.)
David Carr says the quick end to the Pentagon-press honeymoon
isn't without precedent. "One week after the United States entered
Afghanistan and encountered a surprising level of resistance, the word
'quagmire' began to appear in news reports." Defense Watch Magazine
editor Ed Offley tells Carr that young, inexperienced reporters in
Iraq are providing "shrill and nervous coverage." PLUS:
Amy Harmon on war weblogs, Jacques Steinberg on newspaper
coverage of the war, and Jim Rutenberg on TV news and war.
> Pentagon losing its ability to control
news, says Zurawik (Baltimore Sun)
> Pentagon claims journalists
are taking the war out of context (Hearst)
Posted at 7:45:44 AME-mail this
item | QuickLink:
A26708
Soldiers, others give eyewitness war
reports via weblogs
Wall Street Journal
Relatives of soldiers are posting e-mails they're getting from
Iraq, too. "In all, the glut of information from the Gulf -- from
the important to the trivial -- is creating a dizzying panoply of detail,
as well as half-truths," write Matthew Rose and Christopher
Cooper. They say the Army is considering incorporating blogging into
its secure network where troops communicate with each other and their
families. That system would shut out the public.
> Beam's putting together his own war
coverage with assorted media (BG)
Posted at 7:16:43 AME-mail this
item | QuickLink:
A26705
Additional items for March 25, 2003
> Al-Jazeera launches bare-bones
English-language Web site (WSJ)
> NY Post gossip Johnson gets
a drink in his face at Oscars party (WP)
