BOB GARFIELD: War makes strange "em-bed" fellows. If the Pentagon is placing journalists with forward units partly to direct the focus on individual dramas and away from the big picture -- what happens when the press, of its own volition, lets sympathy for the troops affect editorial decisions? Recently veteran radio producer Helen Borten found herself weighing the human toll of challenging material when her story subjects -- soldiers at Fort Benning, Georgia -- shipped out for the Persian Gulf. Her documentary about family life on a military base, 'Love and War,' is being broadcast on selected public radio stations this month -- minus some of Borten's most damning reportage. She joins me now. Helen, welcome to OTM!
HELEN BORTEN: Thank you. Good to be here.
BOB GARFIELD: When you first set out to do this story, September 11th hadn't even happened yet. At this point, what was your vision for the documentary?
HELEN BORTEN: With this, the subject was simply family life in the military. I had never been on an army post or any military installation. I mean it sounds rather innocuous, I guess. I didn't have any agenda. I just wanted to find out what it was like.
BOB GARFIELD: No agenda, but certainly some inkling that all would not be hunky- dory.
HELEN BORTEN:Well I felt there'd be stresses that these families were subject to that civilian families are not, and I felt that would be the area of interest.
BOB GARFIELD:Well you finally arrived at Fort Benning to work on your piece, and you hear some fairly dramatic stories, and you heard some people recounting stories of genuine pain. Let's listen to a little bit of that.
FEMALE SOLDIER: I've had a soldier that I was working with tell me stuff that is just so obscene I can't even-- you know, just walked up to me, whisper it in my ear -- "I want to do this, this and this to you" and I mean you've just got to--you have to get -- you have to have a thick skin to be in the military. You can't just be like oh, God - he harassed me! I gotta go and complain and-- cause you'd be complaining all the time.
HELEN BORTEN: Is it always only verbal?
FEMALE SOLDIER: No. [CLIP OF TROOPS MARCHING & CHANTING]
BOB GARFIELD: Now 'Love and War' was not a Capra-esque view of life in the military. [LAUGHTER] The final documentary was not a pretty picture of military life -- and yet it could have been a lot worse, couldn't I?.
HELEN BORTEN: Exactly. I mean I guess you could say I softened it somewhat.
BOB GARFIELD: Tell me what is not in 'Love and War' that we might have heard had you edited it differently.
HELEN BORTEN:There are some botched childbirths, for instance, that would be shocking in a civilian hospital. The wife of a captain was very eager to tell me about her experiences when she was working in a family support group. She has since stopped doing that because she is totally disillusioned about it.
BOB GARFIELD: Let's hear a bit from her.
WIFE OF ARMY CAPTAIN:Families are affected not by policy; they're way more affected by the individuals in the chain of command. So if a first sergeant or if a company commander doesn't care and doesn't want to know about it, nothing is going to happen. Absolutely nothing. I think if a woman came to now, I wouldn't even bother. I'd take her outside the military.
BOB GARFIELD: Well that is powerful and indicting.
HELEN BORTEN: Mm-hm.
BOB GARFIELD: And yet it doesn't show up in the final cut of 'Love and War.' Why isn't it there?
HELEN BORTEN:As I was working on this piece, the troops were deployed. This Third Infantry Brigade were the first ground troops to be sent over to Kuwait, and these were my people! These were the young people that I had been interviewing, and suddenly certain issues, by comparison, seemed less significant. The context had changed. With these young men and women putting themselves in harm's way right now, it didn't seem appropriate to me to have a piece over-balanced, overweighed with different ways the Army might mess up.
BOB GARFIELD: How much of this decision was based on deference for people who were going to put their lives at risk in defense of the country?
HELEN BORTEN:I wouldn't use the word "deference." I, I think maybe "respect" or "sympathy" would be more appropriate. I suddenly realized that you can't be in this business without being one remove from reality. There's self-deception with every one and it - I just kept running into it! Every combat soldier I spoke to - I said well what was it like? I mean you're seeing all these dead bodies and, and you're shooting them at close range - you know, they all said it was unreal. And I think that goes with the territory - that goes with war. I suddenly realized when the news came that they were being shipped out that I, too, had shared in that sense of unreality. It really wasn't real to me that - that's really I guess why I changed the piece. I was shocked into realizing this is real.
BOB GARFIELD:So in the end-- you went to Fort Benning after nearly a year of effort to get there, and you walked away with riveting testimony about spousal abuse and about the Army's handling or non-handling of it -- and you leave it on the cutting room floor. What does that tell us about the practice of journalism and what does it tell us about your approach to telling the story?
HELEN BORTEN: I feel that I was doing my job. It involves judgment, and judgment calls; decisions like this happen all the time. There's lots of stuff that I've cut out of other pieces that in themselves were riveting, but they did not belong in the piece -- they made no sense. I mean it was simply that you, that you have certain decisions to make, both creative and content-wise, and you try to make the best decision.
BOB GARFIELD: All right. Well Helen Borten, thank you very much!
HELEN BORTEN: Thank you!
BOB GARFIELD: Helen Borten is the producer of 'Love and War,' a documentary airing this month on selected public radio stations nationwide. [MUSIC]
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Up next, how one young filmmaker learned how to do the Sundance and how Bob learned to stop worrying and love Homeland Security.
BOB GARFIELD: This is On the Media from NPR. (MUSIC)