Front-line access provided news as well as powerful imagery.
A Fox News reporter, Rick Leventhal, who is assigned to a light armored reconnaissance unit of the 1st Marine Division, spotted black smoke near Basra and reported that Iraqi oil wells had been set on fire. About 15 minutes later, CNN also reported that oil wells were burning. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld confirmed it, a bit grudgingly, at his Pentagon briefing later in the day.
War also showcases television correspondents who have the right stuff. Traveling with the 7th Cavalry, a veteran CNN war correspondent, Walter Rodgers, was taping in Northern Kuwait when an enemy artillery shell whistled over his head and hit his unmanned camera. Rodgers exclaimed "What the hell?" just as his camera exploded. By the time Wolf Blitzer got him on the telephone, he dismissed the close call as "No big deal, OK?"
But it can also be a humbling experience. Julie Chen, an anchor for the CBS Early Show, who was reporting from a Marine base in Kuwait near the Iraqi border, has little field experience.
Even though the sirens that sent her to the bunker in a chemical suit several times were all false alarms, Chen appeared flustered on camera, reading notes and and waving her hands (her long fingernails painted white, as if to signal surrender) as she described how the Marines in the bunker had helped "keep me calm." She did not talk to Marines on the segment; mostly, the camera showed a tape of Chen walking across the base in tight white pants and a turquoise T-shirt as if preparing for an invasion of St. Tropez.
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