Posted on Apr 2, 2015
What are your thoughts on the 24 hours NEWS cycle/embedded reporters?
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I did not want to steal the tread on "life before cell phones".
What is everyone's thought on the 24 hours NEWS cycle and having embedded reporters?
What are your experiences with reporters? Good or bad.
Obviously, a good share of you have never known anything different. My initial enlistment was in 1990 and my first MOB was for Desert Storm.
My feeling then and now is that it is not right. I do not think that everyone needs to know immediately what we have going on mission wise. But, also, citizens in general have become desensitized to the NEWS. Most, people still have no idea that we still have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and that we have been in AFG for 14 years, longer then any other War.
I have dealt with reporters often and even when they are your friends you have to be extremely careful of what you say to them and they are going to do what ever they need to or can to get the story.
What is everyone's thought on the 24 hours NEWS cycle and having embedded reporters?
What are your experiences with reporters? Good or bad.
Obviously, a good share of you have never known anything different. My initial enlistment was in 1990 and my first MOB was for Desert Storm.
My feeling then and now is that it is not right. I do not think that everyone needs to know immediately what we have going on mission wise. But, also, citizens in general have become desensitized to the NEWS. Most, people still have no idea that we still have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and that we have been in AFG for 14 years, longer then any other War.
I have dealt with reporters often and even when they are your friends you have to be extremely careful of what you say to them and they are going to do what ever they need to or can to get the story.
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Edited 9 y ago
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 3
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I think it depends on the situation. I think embedding journalists can be both a help and a hindrance. If we didn't have embedded journalists we wouldn't have one of the best documentaries about war that I've ever seen, Restrepo and the follow up Korengal.
Yet, I don't know how wise it is to embed a Giraldo Rivera or the like who want sensationalism rather than to report the facts.
Yet, I don't know how wise it is to embed a Giraldo Rivera or the like who want sensationalism rather than to report the facts.
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SCPO (Join to see)
PO3 (Join to see) Yes, we need to document, I do not disagree with that at all. But, each service does have a MOS/AFSC/Rate for journalism. I think that the journalists that documented prior to Viet Nam knew what the rules where and they worked with the troops that they were with. I feel that know it is more about sensationalism or stories that they think people want to hear/see.
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I don't personally like them. Many experiences all mostly bad. Katrina was the first one, our reporter just kept saying non sense, and making things up, exaggerating in a bad manner, then I found Geraldo, as I was guarding his motor home office, and he waited until a brand new truck came out of nowhere, to where he was at (Convention Center), a Black lady got out of the brand spanking new truck (Explorer with tinted windows and AC) and she had a baby. All I could hear was him saying how did she felt abandoned, and if she believed people left her at her own devices. Mind you this was 2100 hours, y shift just started, I just got upset so I started screaming "Don't lie Geraldo, she came on nice truck and could have gone to safety in it". There are other instances, Iraq, Afghanistan, but do hold a grudge with katie couric, at the time editor of cbs 60 minutes. Lara Logan was reporting about the afghani women in Nangarhar province, how things had improved for them, etc. We even got attacked doing that mission. That night, Ms. Logan was trying to send the report, and couric would not let her air it, instead she wanted her to go somewhere else in country where we had a few soldiers and civilians killed and report on that. I got the chance to talk to her and she was upset. Same thing with this other guy, Chris cuomo. Man, in my short army career, I have been exposed to the media lies.
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I can tell how you feel about the subject by offering 3 options, and all of them are a variation of "don't like it" and there isn't even an option for a positive angle...
Like many things in life, it's not the position, but the person behind it that matters. As a basic principle, I think that the US population should be exposed to the sacrifice that our service members go through on the front lines. It is a long standing tradition to embed reporters with military units. It's how we got the picture of the flag raising over Iwo Jima. Imagine if Joe Rosenthal wasn't there to have taken that picture.
Like many things in life, it's not the position, but the person behind it that matters. As a basic principle, I think that the US population should be exposed to the sacrifice that our service members go through on the front lines. It is a long standing tradition to embed reporters with military units. It's how we got the picture of the flag raising over Iwo Jima. Imagine if Joe Rosenthal wasn't there to have taken that picture.
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