Embedded Reporters

Background: Back to the Future?

Embedding arose out of an atmosphere of mistrust on the part of both the media and the military following the Vietnam War. As the United States was officially there “by invitation” of the South Vietnamese, journalists had relatively free reign to do their jobs. The conventional wisdom amongst government and military leaders was that uncontrolled access and uncensored reports from journalists had contributed to both battlefield difficulties and decline in public support for the war effort, which led the Pentagon to take a more heavy-handed approach to news media in subsequent conflicts. Supposedly learning from the British experience in the 1982 Falklands War, the U.S. military, citing national security and safety of the armed forces, greatly limited media access to military operations. For example, journalists were effectively kept at bay until two days after the U.S.-led invasion of the island of Grenada in 1983. A new pool system—where select journalists were allowed on the scene, and to file reports back to others not so selected—was first used during the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989. In practice, it effectively prevented journalist access to the battlefield until much of the conflict was over. The system was more comprehensively and successfully implemented during the 1990–91 Gulf War against Iraq, during which the U.S. military and “host” governments in the Middle East strictly limited where and when journalists could go and what they could report from the front.

Journalists bristled at these limitations arguing that they unduly restricted freedom of the press and their ability to inform the public independent of government spin. Some attempted with limited success to work for a compromise between greater media access and legitimate government restrictions on information to protect the mission and safety of the troops. After the Gulf War, Pete Williams, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs (and later an NBC news reporter) and his staff met with members of the press to develop new guidelines for coverage of operations that emphasized the role of independent reporting and access so as to avoid journalistic “sharing” of information, which was a major complaint about pools. Some of these policies were rendered moot by better transportation and communications abilities of media organizations. This was shown by coverage of Operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1992–93, where in one instance journalists were already on the beaches covering a U.S. amphibious landing as it happened, leading to more resentment by some in the military. Nevertheless, members of the military began to argue for commanders taking a more active approach to media relations by preparing for military operations with the media in mind and seeking constructive engagement with the media rather than defensive avoidance or conflict.

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