What are your thoughts on the 24 hours NEWS cycle/embedded reporters?

SCPO Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 19:17:13 -0400

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.

Response by LTC Yinon Weiss made Apr 2 at 2015 8:29 PM

LTC Yinon Weiss — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 20:29:46 -0400

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.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 3 at 2015 5:42 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 17:42:06 -0400

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.

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 3 at 2015 5:44 PM

PO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 17:44:49 -0400

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.