Transcript
BOB GARFIELD: We're back with On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone. The dangers to so-called unilateral reporters -- those not embedded with the military -- are well-acknowledged. At least 3 are dead; several others are missing and presumed dead. Still more are wounded. But embedded reporters have regarded themselves as somewhat better protected, tucked within coalition forces. On Friday, however, the first embedded reporter, the Atlantic Monthly's Michael Kelly, was killed in a humvee accident in Iraq. Every week for the last five we've checked in with NPR's John Burnett embedded with a Marine command battalion, but as reporters there were increasingly closed off from information, he looked for an assignment closer to the action. Recently he managed to obtain a slot with an artillery unit, quickly moving just behind the front line. When we spoke to him on Thursday, he was 20 miles from Baghdad and moving fast.
JOHN BURNETT: This is kind of the cat bird seat. This is a pretty good place to be. We saw some amazing things beside the road of a town where there'd been a big battle and fires and smoldering tanks and you know all the things that you expect to see in a battlefield which I'm finally seeing, which I never saw when I was with the headquarters battalion. Once you get away from this kind of constipated attitude everybody has in the command headquarters, everything kind of loosens up and so people - you know there are, there are junior officers, there are lieutenants and there are sergeants and they're all happy to talk about what's going on. I mean within a few hours of leaving the, the command headquarters - I'm not going to say who - but they showed me a map of the entire battlefield and they showed me all the, all the blue pieces which were the American troops and all the red pieces which were the Iraqis, and this is the stuff that I've been wanting to see for weeks now! You know what the hell is happening on the battlefield?
BROOKE GLADSTONE:I can imagine though that even sitting among the troops right behind the front line of the battle you're probably wondering what's going on -- on the other side.
JOHN BURNETT: One of the unnatural things about the embedding process is we don't get a sense of how Iraqis are reacting to this really enormous invasion! You know all the highways north completely full, bumper to bumper with U.S. military vehicles. And I, you know, I see them on the streets and I just wish I could get a translator and jump down there. This is what I usually do when I cover a war zone is to kind of mix with, with the local population, and we can't jump back and forth and talk to town folk and cover the military at the same time. It's either/or. And as far as I know, there's only one reporter who is able to do that: Dexter Filkins with the New York Times. He's a lone wolf. He's a unilateral. He's traveling with one of the fighting regiments. He, he has been able to unofficially embed himself and he's stopping and talking to Iraqis. You know how people in the towns are reacting to the Americans. He's getting great stuff, and I'm envious.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:One advantage at least of being embedded is that you feel safer than you would wandering on your own out in the field. Do you think at this point that if you could, you'd give it up to go out and see how the other side of the battle line is taking this?
JOHN BURNETT: No. Actually it's the exact opposite Brooke. We are getting very close to Baghdad. Twenty minutes before I called you we had a gas alert. We all had to go to a level called Mach-4 which means completely encasing ourselves in protective gear and a mask, and there was a very real hit on one of the--chemical/biological monitors here, and we're very aware that-- you know the closer that U.S. troops get to Baghdad, the higher the possibility is that they will get hit with, with chemical weapons. And so-- I really want to be around security specialists, if you will, at this point.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:We have talked earlier about the risk of embedding not just to your life and limb but also the risk of over-identifying with troops and the sort of American bubble view of the war. What do you think that a reporter in your situation can give the American people that they couldn't otherwise get from a unilateral, say.
JOHN BURNETT: In the first place, I understand that there are very, very few unilateral reporters who have done as well as Dexter Filkins with the New York Times. There are very few up here. I mean just a bare handful. Most of the information that people are getting are from the embedded reporters. And again, it's a bit of a distorted relationship - yet more than anything else I think it reflects what happened in, in World War II and Vietnam where you just had journalists who lived with the troops and told their story as they went into combat and came into harm's way. So-- it's a big stranger with all the rules, but essentially we're doing what war correspondents have always done. I think.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: John, thank you so much.
JOHN BURNETT: It's my pleasure, Brooke.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: NPR's John Burnett is with an artillery unit. When we spoke to him Thursday, he was headed to Baghdad.