One Man's Opinion On Embeding Reporters

Too Close for Comfort? -- Colombian Journalism Review

Tom Ricks and the military’s new philosophical embeds.

Thomas E. Ricks has a photograph of a general—Ulysses S. Grant, looking haggard and defeated in Cold Harbor, Virginia—on the wall of his office. His shelves are filled with books about Dwight Eisenhower, William Westmoreland, and other generals. A husky, bearded, fifty-four-year-old with faded eyebrows, he looks a bit like a general himself, and sometimes talks like one. “I’d be wary of the media,” he says, describing how a commander might feel if a journalist wanted to embed with his unit in Iraq. “And I’d also remind my troops that the media is one of the things that we’re fighting for.” Ricks is intimately familiar with the mindset of people on both sides of the great divide that separates the military from the media, and he can speak with authority about their different perspectives.

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My Comment: A long article .... but a joy and pleasure to read. If the media business and how the media covers conflicts is what interests you .... this article is a must read for you.