by Keymaster » Tue 09 May 2006, 13:31:04
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('shakespear1', 'H')i Keymaster
Thanks for that confirmatory insight into CNN. I used to think that it was a good source of info as I also thought with regard to New York Times. That changed many years ago and definitely after entry into Iraq.

Yeah, and having interned as an embedded war correspondent in Ft. Irwin California two years ago, where the U.S. Army trains combat brigades in a virtual Iraq (they called it Calusia at the time, though troops widely referred to it as the 'Box,' an area roughly the size of Rhode Island in the Mojave Desert), I can also confirm what we already know. The Army and the largely clueless media are in bed together.
Public affairs officers (PAO's), for instance, are trained to suppress information from the press by ignoring them. That is, by making them wait for hours outside the gate of the Forward Operations Base (FOB), or telling them they have to get confirmation from their superiors, who conveniently never answer the phone. Soldiers are trained, as was well conveyed in "Jarhead," to say nothing that might compromise forward operations.
In a sense, that restriction makes sense. Wouldn't want to compromise troop locations and such. But soldiers are so terrified they might slip up and say something wrong that they zip their mouths shut completely. Embeds are censored heavily as well.
This post is off topic, but as a member of the press, its very difficult to be a mediary between the military and the public at large.
Anyway, nice to meet you too Jack. Just the facts.
Keymaster