The apathy of a great majority of my fellow citizens towards this war in Iraq is killing me. Partially, but not entirely because my son gave his life there, but because I remember the phrase, “If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention”. Well most people are not actively outraged so I have to wonder why they aren’t paying attention. I sure don’t question their patriotism or love of country, like so many might, but perhaps more Americans would be more interested in the day-to-day success and failures of our troops in Iraq if its status was really reported to us by the mainstream media. Maybe Americans would take a more active interest in either continuing the war or ending it somehow if it was on their radar every day as it was in the 60′s during the Vietnam War. The Pentagon learned their lesson from that war and now their efforts to keep a strangle-hold on the “message” over the last four years have gutted the mainstream media. The MSM just rolled over and forfeited their credibility permitting a darkness where there should be questions, truth and light.
So… Where is Ernie Pyle when we need him? Right now, some younger readers are asking why we need the help of some relative of Gomer Pyle’s. Still younger readers are wondering who either one is.
Ernie Pyle was a Pulitzer Prize winning War Correspondent in the 40′s and no relative of Gomer. He covered WWII right up front in the mud with the troops and reported it like he saw it. He would be considered embedded today, but unlike today, he had no restrictions on what he could report. He was not alone in this but Ernie Pyle was the most widely read reporter in the world at the time. Last spring I read his 1944 book, “Brave Men”. I found it in a box of old books from my father-in-law’s house. I rescued it and it is now on my bookshelf. Ernie Pyle wrote in a clear homespun style about each and every soldier he met. He always gave the soldiers name and hometown address so the folks back home could say, “Hey, that’s my son, brother, husband, kid next door!”, and he told in detail what that guy and his unit were doing and how the unit helped the war effort. Every soldier and officer knew him on sight. He slept with the troops, he ate with them and he was with them in battle. They loved and respected him. He went in with the troops on the beaches of North Africa, Sicily, Anzio and Normandy, through France and then after Germany surrendered he went to the Pacific. Sadly, he was killed on IE Shima in 1945. His last words to the officer who was with him were, “All you all right?”
Where is Ernie Pyle when we need him? The answer to that question is that he is still there at the front. He is an amalgam of the self-supported free-lance journalists working at the front. He is embedded with the troops, humping through and choking on moon-dust. He is talking with the troops, facing the same threats they do, risking his life writing about the troops, He is writing about the encounters with the Iraqi and Afghani people they meet and help. He doesn’t work for the mainstream media. He is supported by contributions from people like you and me who want to know just what is really going on there. He may be conservative or he may be liberal or somewhere in between, but most importantly he is American and he is there with his butt on the line. His outlet just like ours is the internet. Answers, truth and light. The Battlefield Tourist, A Long War Journal and Matt Sanchez in Afghanistan are just three who do this for us. There are more and they all deserve our support. If it wasn’t for them we might completely forget the damn thing was going on.
It’s amazing to read over those three blogs and I’m so grateful for those links. There really does need to be a stronger journalistic force over there forcing people to pay attention to what was going on. I was so happy for any update that Scott gave that you posted because it told the TRUTH about what was going on over there. It wasn’t all fluff talking about how yet another politician paid the troops a “surprise visit”. It was real.
Comment by Linda — December 12, 2007 @ 10:38 am |
Ed…As a member of the MSM, I cannot help but respond. My gut reaction is to wonder where you’ve been looking for Iraq war news. I report the bombings and Pentagon troop movements day in and day out on NPR. The information is well covered (I think) in the main newspapers..the Post and NYT. According to ‘reporters without borders..
http://www.rsf.org…more than 200 journalists and media assistants have been killed trying to get you information on the war since its start in 2003. (2 are missing and 14 have been kidnapped)
I wonder if the apathy you cite doesn’t come from a societal change..a change in culture. The lack of a draft sure leads to complacency for the military-eligible. And, it is the administration America voted for that supports a Pentagon that has kept the media from uncontrolled, up close observation of the war. We got what we voted for.
Need I add that it unrelentingly dangerous for a civilian to walk the streets of baghdad, looking for news…most media outlets won’t let their reporters go out much..for fear of losing them to a bomb.
I’m not satisfying your complaint…just suggesting you try not to blame the messenger.
It’s a way-different time from Ernie Pyle’s day…and a way-different war.
ps…there ARE books about the soldiers out there. May I suggest: “What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by Soldiers Who Fought It.” Also “Back From Iraq: A U.S. Soldier Speaks.”
Love you…and keep writing! It’s wonderful.
Comment by MJ Cochran — December 12, 2007 @ 11:12 am |
As another member of the MSM (as well as a freelancer), I can tell you, without a doubt, that while what Ms. Cochran says is true, there is tons of stuff omitted and done so purposely. I have physically heard reporters talk about not filing this story or that because, “…they won’t want it”. I have physically heard journalists complain out loud when their news, never makes the news. I have also know for fact that pictures of death and destruction sell much better than soldiers handing out candy. While there are many shades of the MSM, a vast majority are right out of the description Ed alludes to, in my opinion.
One other thing I will add: We have very few restrictions on what we can and can’t shoot. Only once in my career have I had my equipment taken or filmed looked at previous to release. Most are self-restrictions; journalists understand OPSEC regulatioons and generally respect them. Ernie Pyle, on the other hand, was subject to all sorts of censorship… as were all the photographers of that day.
Comment by David Tate — December 12, 2007 @ 12:28 pm |
I just wanted to add another recent experience to this topic to clarify my position a little more. Recently while in Baghdad, I ran across a journalist for a major London daily. He was wondering to a colleague of mine whether the main border train crossing at Al Qaim was still open or not.
Soon, he found out it was and decided it was no longer a story, so he moved on. Point is, had this crossing been closed, it would’ve made a story that his editors would publish. The result: Reporters are far less interested in a succesful border area than one that has been closed due to fighting.
Another example: The recent security success in Iraq is partly related to the “Concerned Citizens” program. At first, the story was not about success, but about how the US is forming Sunni militias and arming them (both allegations I have personally investigated and found to not hold widespread truth). The headlines talked about how the Americans were just handing over money to former insurgents, but didn’t talk about how the program worked or the reasoning behind it, or the socio-economic issues involved. To this day, I still see NBC reporting how the US is arming the “Concerned Citizens”.
Anyway… just a couple of recent examples.
Cheers.
Dave
ps – sorry about the spelling my first post, it was a five minute quickie at the end of lunch!
Comment by David Tate — December 12, 2007 @ 1:11 pm |
First, let me say that it is wonderful to have these comments from journalists. In answer to MJ, the only print media I read usually is the Washington Post and news magazines. . My assumption is that the Post is, as a world class newspaper, representative of what is going on in other “good” newspapers. For the most part the Post does not provide what I considered deep coverage of the troops. We do get the stories about bombings and troop casualties when they happen. The Metro section does print articles on local soldiers killed, as I can attest, as well as the burials in Section 60 at Arlington. For the most part though, there is no day to day “this is what our guys are doing” stories, at least not front-page news. As for NPR and PBS, I consider them the best reporting going and in particular, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. The NPR Newsroom, Morning Edition and All Things Considered also provide good stories and lots of them. I did err in allowing the impression that I included them in my comments about the MSM. I do not.
But, the four broadcast Networks’ news reporting is in my opinion lacking depth and in some cases is just plain propaganda. This last comment reserved for FOX. So it is not like there is no reporting going on.
I guess my point is that in comparison to past war reporting, Vietnam in particular, the character of the print and TV broadcast news is different and lacking. I think this is a result of both the Pentagon controlling the message and the MSM not resisting that control as much as it should. The stories that David Tate brings us are to me both personal and news. His photographic essays and video reporting help me to visualize and thus better understand such a foreign place. Bill Roggio at The Long War Journal concentrates on politics and everyday occurrences in Iraq that control the course of events there and Matt Sanchez’s recent article on the Trauma Centers in the war zone was fascinating. Today, everybody is working under the OPSEC rules and to violate them would cost them the ability to be there at all. Nobody wants to give the enemy a tactical insight by reporting the wrong things. Perhaps Ernie Pyle had OPSEC rules too by way of the censorship and his respect for not tactically compromising the war effort. Everybody was on that same page then as now. Ernie knew what he should get out, could get out and how to get it out. I was just trying to make the favorable comparison.
BTW, MJ, you sound fantastic after your five week hiatus….
Comment by Ed Kirkpatrick — December 12, 2007 @ 2:26 pm |
Ed, I just read your entire blog, and I’m hooked, and I’m sorry I haven’t read it earlier. (My basement project is within days of being finished, and maybe then I’ll be able to at least open all the e-mail in my inbox.)
I want you know that I have Starland’s original LP recording from 1976, never touched by a phonograph needle, titled “Starland Vocal Band” in its unopened cellophane wrapper, still in the bag from the Harmony Hut store where I bought it. I was so overwhelmed by their beautiful work that, as soon as I bought their record and played it, I went and bought a second copy, to keep forever in mint condition, and I have kept it.
Keep on writing, Ed!
Comment by Bruce Deppa — December 12, 2007 @ 9:05 pm |
Hey Bruce!
Your Starland LP has even more value sitting in that Harmony Hut bag. I just read an obit, I think, of the matriarch of the family that ran that joint. I think it closed long ago. /mj
Comment by MJ Cochran — December 13, 2007 @ 6:15 am |