Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Careful what you wish for
The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town
A paranoid, they say, is a person in possession of the facts.
...This invasion was thus designed to root out the very weapons we hoped�and at the same time feared�that he possessed. And we journalists were coming along not only to witness any chemical nastiness that might ensue but also, presumably, to breathe it.
With this embed program, the Department of Defense was embarking on a public-relations experiment of unprecedented size and scope. It remained to be seen how much latitude would be afforded the media once the bullets began flying, but by the look of things the Pentagon truly wanted us to be right there on the battlefield, free and unfettered, reporting precisely what we saw.

As opposed to on the rooftop of the nearest four-star hotel reading press releases. WWII-era war correspondents knew what you're going through. A fellow could get killed out there.

Perhaps too many of your immediate predecessors were complaining too much about being kept too far from the action.

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