Billy Bob Thornton (November 17, 2001).
Media access in war (last updated January 28, 2002)
How the United States government manages the press in times of war has evolved over the 20th century. During the current conflict with Afghanistan, the United States initially restricted media access to the armed forces in Afghanistan and even locked reporters in a warehouse to prevent coverage of one incident, but then established formal procedures in December to provide access more regularly.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who served as a Republican congressman in the 1960s and then as defense secretary for the first time in the 1970s under Gerald Ford, has also taken on a greater and more visible role by conducting press briefings himself, rather than leaving such briefings to military commanders as in past operations.
Rumsfeld's involvement "is a relatively easy way to get at what you want to say in pretty quick order. It's actually a remarkably efficient use of his time. So, he understands it's important, he wants to do it. In terms of going forward, I don't know. We'll use him as much as we think is appropriate and as much as he thinks he's adding value to the equation," Victoria Clarke, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, noted during a November 8, 2001 seminar on coverage of the war on terrorism.
More controversial is the media's access to United States armed forces on the battlefield during a time of war. Journalists first accompanied U.S. troops into the field in Afghanistan on November 27, but were then locked in a warehouse on December 6 so that they could not cover troops injured by a stray bomb.
Clarke then apologized to the press in writing and promised changes such as Coalition Press Information Centers in Afghanistan to provide more information faster to the press.
"We owe you an apology. The last several days have revealed severe shortcomings in our preparedness to support news organizations in their efforts to cover U.S. military operations in Afghanistan," she wrote.
"We have a significant responsibility to provide your correspondents the opportunity to cover the war. It is a responsibility that we take seriously. Our policy remains the same as it always has been: Keeping in mind our desire to protect operational security and the safety of men and women in uniform, we intend to provide maximum media coverage with minimal delay and hassle. That has not always been the case over the last few days, particularly with regard to the coverage of dead and wounded returning to the Forward Operating Base known as Rhino."
United States policy towards giving the media access to the military has changed over the 20th century. The policy was concealment and censorship in World War II in the Korean Conflict, a battle over image but no formal censorship in the Vietnam War, changes implemented in the wake of the United States invasion of Grenada, and then strict controls during the Persian Gulf war.
During Vietnam, high-level military sources initially did not provide much information, so the media turned more to soldiers in the field and produced coverage more unfavorable to how the war was being conducted. The Johnson and Nixon administrations then turned to more regular and more formal briefings to try and show the war in a different light. Officially, however, the Vietnam War is considered the first U.S. war in the 20th century not to involve formal censorship.
After the military's invasion of Grenada in 1983, the military was much criticized for denying media access until after the fighting was all over. In response, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff formed a commission headed by Major General Winant Sidle to recommend changes for future coverage. The Sidle commission proposed that a national media pool be created to cover operations where full media access was not feasible. This pool has had limited success.
During the Persian Gulf War, the media covered the United States military's point of view almost entirely through formal briefings and through carefully managed pools that were difficult to get into and were contingent upon submitting reporting to security review before publication. As a result, press coverage was highly controlled by the military unless a journalist wanted to cover the war from Baghdad, which is what several CNN reporters did with some controversy.
Beyond politics, it is unclear whether the media has a First Amendment right of access to the military during a war. The media does not have an unlimited right to governmental information and does not have a greater right than the general public.
However, Federal District Judge Paul Freedman issued an opinion on January 8, 2002, in which he wrote that there may be a limited and highly qualified right "to gather and report news involving United States military operations on foreign soil," and that such a right would depend on particular circumstances and would be "subject to reasonable regulations to protect the safety and security of both the journalists and those involved in those operations, as well as the secrecy and confidentiality of information whose dissemination could endanger United States soldiers or our allies or compromise military operations."
This case arose when Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, sought an injunction that would force the military to allow Hustler correspondents to accompany American troops in Afghanistan. Judge Freedman denied the request on January 8, 2002, accepting that "the military situation in and Afghanistan has been a rapidly changing, fluid environment and so the support for press coverage has also passed through several phases," and that the Department of Defense is providing "some level of open access to American troops on the ground in Afghanistan," Freedman wrote. Accordingly, he rejected Flynt's request as unwarranted at this time.
Sources: A transcript of the Department of Defense meting with national media pool bureau chiefs, December 13, 2001, is available on-line here, along with a copy of Victoria Clarke's December 6, 2001 apology and memo, and a transcript of the DOD's November 18, 2001 seminar on war coverage is on-line here. Howard Kurtz, Journalists worry about limits on information, access, Washington Post, September 24, 2001. Flynt v. Rumsfeld, the opinion in which Freedman denied Flynt's request but suggested some media right of access, can be retrieved from the District Court for the District of Columbia, on-line here. A. Trevor Thrall, War in the Media Age Hampton Press, 2000). Loren B. Thompson, Defense Beat: the dilemmas of defense coverage (Lexington Books, 1991).
|
|
|
Home / Calendar
The West Wing
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
The Colbert Report
Saturday Night Live
Commander in Chief
Law & Order
*
Issues
Resources
Site FAQ
Search via Google
Ripped from the Headlines?
West Wing: Santos discusses a lawsuit about intelligent design
West Wing: Electoral map as of the 10/9 episode; Santos needs to catch up big-time
SNL: The Miers nomination
South Park: Inspired by Katrina
Boston Legal: End to assault-weapons ban
Daily Show: A 2004 study found that 21 percent of young people regularly get their campaign news from comedy shows like the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live. So, some footnotes.
NOTE: All photos are copyright their respective owners.
| |
