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Talk on news and Iraq packs Mitchell Hall Click here to see an online streaming video of this event.
5:27 p.m., Nov. 15, 2005--The U.S. military frequently limits public information on combat operations for strategic and security reasons, and news organizations, which are often criticized by both officials and the public for being too aggressive or too passive in their coverage of the military, have occasionally contributed to a distortion of the truth in their rush to be first with the news. These were some of the highlights of a discussion of the military and the media by Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, chief of public affairs in the U.S. Army, and veteran CNN Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre before a capacity audience in UD’s Mitchell Hall on Monday evening, Nov. 14. During the talk, Brooks, who became well-known as the “face” of the U.S. Army during the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, said the military makes careful consideration of what should be given out to the media because public information can be used as an instrument of power by both sides of a conflict. “Our enemies, particularly the enemies we fight in the war on terrorism, are very aware of the nature of this environment and are very skillful at either introducing false information or posting information that will have a terrorizing effect, like a beheading on video, or several beheadings on video, or like attacking a place where journalists are located in hopes of the act being recorded and amplified, magnified globally,” Brooks said. McIntyre, who has covered the U.S. military for 13 years, countered that while the military might occasionally have good reasons to conceal some information, news organizations are often wary of information given out selectively with the sole purpose of promoting a positive image of a situation. Using his son’s high school report card as an example of how partial information can be used to mislead the audience, McIntyre said: “Stamped in red on the report card it says ‘outstanding.’ I might be very proud of that, if it were not for the fact that it actually says ‘your son has an outstanding financial obligation at the high school office.’”
Brooks and McIntyre agreed that the story about U.S. Army Pvt. Jessica Lynch, who became the heroine of the Iraq war after reports of her dramatic rescue, is a good example of how news organizations can mislead the public. Brooks said he still stands by his original account of the rescue, but “the rest of the story has been so grossly distorted from what it is the command said that it’s disgraceful and, frankly, it’s the news organizations that did the distortion, and we’ve been unable to get that reversed after several years.” “I actually agree with what Gen. Brooks has just said,” McIntyre said. “A misreported story can create a perception that lasts far beyond what you think. It’s almost like you can never correct the record. One of the things that people think is that the U.S. military inflated the story and the details about the rescue and the capture of Pvt. Lynch in order to make it into something that it wasn’t.” McIntyre said the story spun out of control after a mistaken report in The Washington Post said that Pvt. Lynch had emptied her ammunition and performed heroics when her 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company was ambushed by insurgents after taking a wrong turn near Nassiriya. "It turned out later, that did happen, but it was a completely different soldier, it wasn’t Jessica Lynch," McIntyre said. "What likely happened is that the person who spoke to The Washington Post, who wasn’t speaking on the record or officially, confused those two battle reports. That was compounded by the fact that the Post reporter that did the story ... was immediately assigned to a different story and never got back to [the Lynch story], so the Post didn’t, for a long time, correct their version of the story. Meanwhile, it became mythic."
The speakers won praise from Newark resident Bill Mee, who said that while he still believes that the U.S. should not have been involved in Iraq, Brooks impressed him and that McIntyre represented the news media very well. McIntyre said his recent proposal that CNN run a regular feature about progress in Iraq that does not usually make headlines would help provide the U.S. public with a broader view of the war and stem some of the criticism that the news media have a negative slant on the situation in Iraq. “When a plane crashes at the airport, CNN does not come on and say ‘There was a plane crash today at National Airport, but we want to remind you that thousands of other planes took off and landed safely today with no loss of life and injury,’” He said. “No, because we are focused on the thing that went wrong. There is a natural tendency to do that.” Brooks said the U.S. military, which traditionally was totally dependent on commercial news outlets, now runs its own news service in Iraq and Afghanistan to send military video, text and photos directly to the Internet and news outlets. Brooks said that the military news site [www.dvidshub.net], supported by an extensive satellite network, is not only an effective public communication channel for the military but it is widely used by commercial news organizations as a source of news and to conduct interviews with soldiers in combat zones.
Brooks drew applause when he asked the veterans in the audience to raise their hands and then thanked the two dozen or so there for their service to the country. About 650 persons attended the talk, and another 100 were turned away after the building reached its maximum occupation capacity, according to Ralph Begleiter, UD’s Rosenberg Professor of Communication and distinguished journalist in residence, who organized the event as part of UD’s "America and the Global Community Initiative." He said that he will plan for a video link to an overflow location for future talks. The talk was recorded by C-SPAN and will be shown on the cable channel on dates to be announced. Begleiter teaches courses in communication, political science and journalism at the University of Delaware. He joined the faculty in July 1999, bringing with him more than 30 years of broadcast journalism experience. He holds an honors bachelor’s degree in political science from Brown University and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Article by Martin Mbugua To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |
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