"WELL SHEP, that noise you hear is the turret turning. We've engaged the enemy." That was embedded journalist Rick Leventhal reporting live on Fox News with the Marines known as the Wolf Pack somewhere in the Iraqi desert. Welcome to the Second Gulf War which, oddly enough, began with a truce between two very old enemies, the media and the military.
On October 30, 2002 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wandered unexpectedly into a Pentagon meeting of Washington bureau chiefs of the major media outlets. This motley group had been meeting on and off since the war in Afghanistan. As journalists always do, we spent most of the sessions complaining. Our favorite complaint: lack of access.
Secretary Rumsfeld, charming, impish, and in command had something to tell us: He was on board with the public relations strategy of embedding media with warriors. He wasn't kidding around. If there was a war with Iraq, journalists would be with the troops.
"Mr. Secretary, you talked about the desirability of having journalists embedded should there be any action in Iraq . . . Is that a core principle for you?" asked one of the chiefs. Rumsfeld replied, "Is it a core principle? Sure. It is something more than that. It's also self-serving." In Afghanistan, he said, the Taliban and al Qaeda showed great skill in news management. The best way to combat that was to have accurate, professional journalists on the ground to see the truth of what was going on. He said he already had intelligence
from Iraq that they were arranging things to mislead the press. "Having people who are honest and professional see these things and be aware of that is useful. So I consider it not just the right thing to do but also a helpful thing."
Thus began the stunning cooperation between the military and the media that led to this war being fought live on the television sets of America.
VICTORIA CLARKE, the veteran political public relations diva, had no idea where the roller coaster was taking her when she signed on to be the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Relations under Rumsfeld. September 11 changed her world and she was suddenly thrust on the stage with the U.S. military response in Afghanistan. Things did not go so well between the media and the military and the bureau chiefs really did have something to complain about.
But out of that experience Clarke did what she knew best--she went on a campaign. Her goal was to bridge the old gap between the generals and the journalists. She held forums at think tanks, she had bi-monthly meetings with the bureau chiefs, she yessed us to death. Yes, we would have dialogue. Yes, we would consult. Yes, we would get access.
Right, we all said skeptically. We knew the game; the military would never let us in. And even if it did, we wouldn't be allowed near the fighting and would either be censored or not allowed to file stories until it was over.
We were wrong.
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