Kalb: Media not responsible for bloodless war
expectation
Chicago Tribune
Shorenstein Center fellow Marvin Kalb says: "The
media did not make up the expectation that they expected this to be a
brief, essentially bloodless war. They got that from officials, from the
vice president and the Joint Chiefs chairman." A history professor
and Vietnam-era military intelligence officer tells Steve Johnson:
"The skepticism in U.S. media [about] Vietnam really did not begin
until the second year. The skepticism here is starting in the first
week. The margins that [President] Bush and the military have are
much slenderer."
> MORE KALB: ''I think there is
still a decision on the part of most reporters to give the
administration a chance to be fair to the troops in the field, to the
families. However, as we learn more about apparent strategic
miscalculations by the administration, I feel in the pit of my stomach
that the tone of coverage will change." (Boston Globe)
Posted at 11:11:47 AME-mail this
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Missing Newsday staffers' kin seek help
from Rev. Jackson
Newsday
The families of Newsday photographer Moises Saman
and correspondent Matthew McAllester have asked the Rev. Jesse
Jackson to help locate the journalists and secure their release. The
two disappeared from their hotel in Baghdad a week ago. Newsday editors
believe the two have been detained by
Iraqi authorities. Jane McAllester, Matthew's sister, says the
families decided to contact Jackson because of his success in securing
the release of other captives in wartime situations.
> McAllester risked himself time and again to
cover stories (Newsday)
> Editor says Saman is aware
of the dangers of his work (Newsday)
> Simon: Armies, others have
an obligation to tolerate journos (Newsday)
Posted at 10:49:00 AME-mail this
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A27659
Jurkowitz: Whatever Fox News is doing,
it's been working
Boston Globe
Mark Jurkowitz says of Fox News Channel's war coverage
ratings lead: "Maybe the moral of the story is that Fox has now
created a solid, unshakable constituency. Or maybe it's that the
network's cheerleading tone these days is the most welcome among a
worried but patriotic public." MORE JURKOWITZ: "It is unfair to
single out Fox News Channel for pro-American tilt or jingoism in
the early days of a war in which much of the broadcast media has
reflexively rallied around the flag."
> A TIM GOODMAN SOURCE CLAIMS:
"Fox News is utterly dependent on conservative
administrations who go around the world and beat up on people."
(San Francisco Chronicle)
> NOEL HOLSTON SAYS: "I'm
inclined to say (the BBC) is not nearly as skeptical of the war as
Fox News Channel is jazzed by it." (Newsday)
> ALESSANDRA STANLEY WRITES:
Fox News has been bullish about the war. Two days after the first
missile attacks on Baghdad, the network's morning show, 'Fox &
Friends,' displayed a still photograph of Mr. Bush talking with aides in
the Oval Office, his glasses on and his jacket off." (New York
Times/reg. req.)
> DAVID ZURAWIK SAYS:
"While Fox has steadfastly championed the Pentagon's take on
how the war has been going, CNN has been more skeptical and
independent in its coverage. The differences could be clearly seen
yesterday in the work of two veteran correspondents and anchormen,
Geraldo Rivera on Fox, and Wolf Blitzer of CNN."
(Baltimore Sun)
> RICHARD BLOW WRITES:
"Fox News has become like Voice of America with prettier
anchors." (TomPaine.com)
> Critic: MSNBC is engaged in Operation
Pulled Heartstrings (New Yorker)
> Networks spending up to
$250,000 daily to cover war (NYDN)
> Fox News exec: Network is
losing $1 million a day in ads (WashPost)
Posted at 10:20:56 AME-mail this
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A27647
Military officer says embedded reporters
are "user friendly"
New York Times
Col. David Perkins tells David Carr that the embedded
journalists "have been very user friendly. They do what we say, stay
out of the way and keep their heads down." New York Times war
correspondent Jim Dwyer says the embed arrangement is
"professionally treacherous." He explains: "You are
sleeping next to people you are covering. Your survival is based on them.
And they are glad we are here because no one would believe what is
happening to them if they just came back and told war stories. People
are willing to talk around the clock until it is time to go out and kill
people."
> JONATHAN WEISMAN REPORTS:
"The embedded reporters have helped to create problems, both
militarily and with the public's perception of the war, defense officials
say." (WashPost)
> Ledbetter: "Let's not unmake the
embeds too soon" (Time)
> Kurtz: Embedded reporters
taking flak for sympathetic reporting (WP)
> Page: "Escorted
journalists" are doing an excellent job ("RS"
transcript)
> Reuters editor-in-chief has
"uneasy feeling" about embedding (USAT)
Posted at 9:50:36 AME-mail this
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A27614
Some embedded war reporters already want
to go home
USA Today
Pentagon spokesman Tim Blair tells Peter Johnson
that a handful of the 600 or so embedded reporters have asked to leave.
''They found that this was not the best place in the world to be and
decided to leave the program, but it has been on onesies and twosies,
here and there," says Blair. CBS News correspondent Erin
Moriarty says: ''I think that without question some embeds got more
than they bargained for."
> EDITOR & PUBLISHER REPORTS
some editors are preparing fresh correspondents to relieve those in the
field if the fighting continues much longer. "We have a second round
of people lined up to go next," says Boston Globe foreign
editor James Smith. "We would probably enact that change
after four to six weeks. We don't want it to drag on, but we are planning
for different scenarios."
Posted at 9:15:39 AME-mail this
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A27599
Wolff: Military's million-dollar press
center has an OTB feel
New York magazine
Michael Wolff has figured out that he's not going to pick up many
war scoops at the press center in Doha, Qatar. "It takes about 48
hours to understand that information is probably more freely available at
any other place in the world than it is here," he writes. "At
the end of the 48 hours you realize that you know significantly
less than when you arrived, and that you?re losing more sense of the
larger picture by the hour. Eventually you'll know nothing."
> THE NEW YORK TIMES REPORTS
journalists at the press center applauded after Wolff noted that the
briefings are now being conducted by mid-level officers and the
Pentagon or commanders in the field have already released most of the
information given out at the press center briefings. (Low in story.)
(NYT/reg. req.)
> ALAN SIPRESS OF THE WASHINGTON POST
WRITES: "Officials have set up a coffee bar in the media
center serving macchiatos and lattes and a small commissary that
sells pizza and souvenir stuffed bears with camouflage vests reading 'I
love Qatar.'" (Washington Post)
> Wolff: War not just a ratings gift, but
a personal, professional plum (LG)
