Embedded journalism during the war in Iraq has become the rage, or outrage, depending upon the person you are talking to.
Journalists are leaving their desks and like the famous WWII war correspondent Ernie Pyle, they’re aiding the United States in military operations.
Pyle, who was in the same infantry division as my grandfather, Dexter Cox, was killed by a sniper as he stepped on the island of le Shima.
Tragedy is not a new concept to journalists covering the war. Just this past weekend two influential American journalists were lost.
Michael Kelly, writer for the Washington Post and editor at large for the Atlantic Monthly was killed in a humvee accident Friday. NBC’s David Bloom died Sunday of a pulmonary embolism, while covering the war almost non-stop.
Both journalists were working for an idea that Cindy Kennard, professor of journalism at Southern California, said was being invented minute by minute.
Members of the media have found that being embedded is dangerous and as the New York Daily News reported on March 21, journalists receive incredible footage.
Information is at a max because the media receives it before they can report it. Geraldo Rivera found out the hard way that a mistake in reporting information too early can follow with a boot from the U.S. military warzone.
Journalism.org reported that 94 percent of the reports were accurate and that six out of 10 broadcasts were live and unedited accounts.This kind of reporting goes into deeper issues for many different kinds of people. It is proof we belong in Iraq for some and a reason to protest for others.
Embedded journalism is real- time reporting that holds the victor and oppressor accountable. Already chemical agents and one of Hussein’s bone gardens have been found.
The facts when shown on TV do not lie; the journalists from the ideologically different media outlets provide a wide array of reporting.
American foreign policy may be watched in action. The viewer has the chance to see diplomacy at work, the chance to see the reactions of the Iraqis to coalition soldiers.
It’s possible to watch the tenacity of democratic forces versus terrorized peoples.
Are there still real journalists like Ernie Pyle and are they patriotic?
Yes, David Bloom, Michael Kelly and other journalists who have died prove that real journalists still exists. These journalists currently covering the war are patriotic and still objective. They are journalists covering news for a democratic nation and giving a democratic story. Just being allowed to cover U.S. operations is part of a democratic country’s free press.
The atrocities committed by the Baath Party regime are now more than a United Nations debate. We see them as part of everyday television.
Baath loyalists firing on fleeing Iraqis and the brutal treatment of coalition POWs make the debate of the past year and a half come to life.
The reality of war and the reality of foreign diplomacy are embedded on the TV screens, computers and radios of Americans.
Whether we are aware of it or not, we are held accountable by the price paid for the truth by the embedded journalists.
Accountability is the undeniable fact found in the pixels and ink of the reporters on the sandy beat in Iraq.

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