Goals of this exercise

• Examine the goals and instrumental reasoning of news reporters on the one hand and their sources and subjects on the other hand.
• Discuss possible reasons why the Pentagon might have wanted to “embed” reporters with military units during the 2003 Iraq War.
• Explore the likely impact of such “embedding” on the reporter-source/subject relationship and the content of news.

Principle #1: All political behavior has a purpose. All political actors engage in instrumental acts designed to further their individual goals.

Treating government sources and reporters as political actors, what are the goals of each?

Government Source Goals
Governmental actors want news coverage and they want news coverage on their terms; that is, they want favorable coverage that promotes rather than hinders their goals.

Reporters’ Goals
Reporters need: a) access to news; b) contacts with official sources; and c) (if television) pictures to accompany their reports. In addition, reporters want discretion and autonomy; they want to control what they report.

The Source-Reporter Relationship
The competing goals of reporters and sources create an “adversarial” relationship. Reporters stay close enough to their sources to maintain access, but feel obligated to maintain their autonomy.

Embedded Reporters
During the 2003 War with Iraq, the Pentagon established a program of “embedding reporters” with military units on the ground with Iraq. Reporters participating in the “embedding” process had to agree to several “rules” established by the Pentagon.

According to Principle of Politics #4 (Political Outcomes are the products of individual preferences and institutional procedures.), the Pentagon’s “rules” for embedded reporters had likely effects on the coverage the war received.

Rules for Embeds

• Reporters have to undergo intensive military training.
• Embedded reporters must agree not to report sensitive or strategic information.
• Embedded reporters cannot rotate in and out of their embedded status with a particular military unit
• If embedded reporters rotate out of their unit, their news organization loses its spot in the unit.

Question 1: How did the “embedding process” allow the Pentagon greater control over their relationship with the press? What goals did they further by doing this?

Question 2: How did the “embedding process” allow reporters the opportunity to achieve their goals? What goals did they have to compromise to participate?

Question 3: What was the likely effect of “embedding” reporters with military units on the traditionally adversarial relationship between journalists and their subjects?

Number of Embedded Journalists

• At the height of the military offensive, there were almost 800 American journalists “embedded” with military units in Iraq.
• After the “fall of Baghdad,” the number of “embedded” journalists dropped to less than 190 journalists.
• By 2006, USA Today reported that there were as few as 31 journalists embedded in Iraq.
• Over 20 reporters “asked to leaved, but changed their minds when reminded the[ir news organizations’] spots would evaporate.”

Question 4: Considering the goals of reporters, what explains the decline of embedded reporters (by about 75%) after the fall of Baghdad and in the ensuing years?

Question 5: How did the “rules” governing embedded journalists have their intended effect in maintaining coverage of the Iraq war? How did this help the Pentagon achieve its goals? What reporters’ goals and considerations made this work?

Citations

• Timothy E. Cook, Governing with the News (University of Chicago Press, 1998).
• Mark Memmott, “Reporters in Iraq Under Fire There, and from Critics” USA Today March 22, 2006.
• Joe Strupp, “Embeds Muster Out of Military” Editor & Publisher, April 28, 2003, p. 9.
• Joe Strupp, “Embeds Get No Relief, DOD Says” Editor & Publisher, April 7, 2003, pp. 7-8.