Covering All Bases
Patriotism, objectivity, and the pursuit of journalism in wartime
Since the attacks, American media organizations have taken steps to support the government. The White House press corps abandoned its practice of giving details of the president's travel schedule ahead of time. The networks acceded to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's request not to broadcast prerecorded statements made by Osama bin Laden without screening them first. And though at least 17 news organizations knew in advance when the air campaign would begin, they didn't report it.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration has been quietly putting a lid on information. Attorney General John Ashcroft warned government agencies to "carefully consider" threats to national security before releasing records under the Freedom of Information Act. And a number of federal agencies have scrubbed their Web sites clean of information that could conceivably prove helpful to terrorists. The Pentagon has kept tighter reins on the media's access both to operations and to senior military commanders than in any other recent conflict, including the Gulf War. While reporters are currently aboard two U.S. aircraft carriers participating in Operation Enduring Freedom and others have entered Afghanistan with the Northern Alliance, most must rely on briefings thousands of miles from the war zone.
That's unlikely to change. Rumsfeld recently foreclosed the hope media organizations had held out for placing reporters on the USS Kitty Hawk, where some special operations missions are based. And last week, he decided against putting correspondents in rear areas such as Uzbekistan, where sensitivity to the American presence there is already high. "This administration has been very protective of information since Day 1," says NBC White House correspondent Campbell Brown. After somebody tipped off reporters to the October 19 paratroop raid by Rangers inside Afghanistan--while it was still going on--Rumsfeld was said to be furious. "It just floors me that people are willing to do that," he said at a press briefing. U.S. News has learned that Rumsfeld's staff has quietly begun a hunt for the perpetrator, who they believe works on the prestigious staff of the Joint Chiefs. In the endless tug of war between the press and the government, some things never change.
With Richard J. Newman and Mark Mazzetti
advertisement
