U.S. Army Used Media Cover in Iraq for Own Ends

[donsu]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&e=12&u=/nm/iraq_usa_journalists_dc


-snip-

At a three-day military-hosted conference on the media's role in Operation Iraqi Freedom, officers said the Army arranged for an embedded U.S. television crew to film airborne troops embarking in the desert in hopes that Iraqi commanders would realize how far north U.S. forces had advanced.

And when phony Iraqi government claims that American troops were pinned down hundreds of miles from Baghdad appeared to stiffen Iraqi resistance, an Army tank commander rounded up journalists for a televised "thunder run" through the city to prove that the U.S. force -- and not Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) -- was in charge.

"I just wanted them to report what happened. If having the media report accurately is using them, then they were used," said Col. David Perkins, who as commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade had organized the tank foray into Baghdad specifically to garner publicity for the U.S. advance.

"The main intent ... was to get the story out," he added. "I don't know why anyone would want anything other than that."
-snip-
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shouldn't these reporters get military pay, wear uniforms, carry guns and kill people? what a farce.

[neuvocat]

1. I remember on C-SPAN

the dad of one of the soldiers in Iraq was a Green Beret. They always had embeded reporters so what they would do is become friends with them in order to more easily manipulate them.