Sat, Mar 22, 2003 page3

• Pentagon's PR machine big on front-line images

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  "Shock and awe" should be the code name for the Pentagon's media strategy.

  The first full day of television coverage of the invasion of Iraq revealed not the fog of war, but a firestorm of amazing combat images.

  From Navy fighter jets shown as they roared off the deck of the carrier Constellation, to grainy, green nightscope glimpses of American tanks moving across the Kuwaiti border into Iraq, television showed more live military action in one day than it did in the entire bombing campaign of the 1991 war.

  The unprecedented access to front-line action was not solely designed to snuff out complaints about censorship that tarnished coverage of the 1991 war. By agreeing to give hundreds of journalists a front-row seat, the Pentagon hoped to get reporters and viewers rooting for the visiting team on the first day out -- and build goodwill for any rainy PR days ahead.

  On Thursday, at least, the new Pentagon doctrine of overwhelming access paid off. Many European networks, including the BBC, trained cameras on refugees streaming into camps cross the Iraqi border to illustrate the human side of war. American television was more focused on dazzling combat images and the human side of US warriors.

  Journalists working without US military protection in Bagdad reported by telephone as the first wave of missiles hit government buildings in the capital, but those low-technology moments were just as riveting in their own way.

  "That was a huge blast, huge," a rattled but unbowed Nic Robertson exclaimed in Bagdad, holding out his phone so CNN viewers could hear the booming explosions around him.

  Peter Arnett, who as a CNN correspondent in 1991 was the only correspondent in Bagdad at key moments of the war, was also reporting the attack by telephone. Now on assignment in Iraq for National Geographic Explorer after being fired by CNN over an ethical breach, Arnett was back on the telephone describing the bombing to NBC, which does not have its own correspondent in Baghdad.

  During a lull, Arnett said in yet another telephone interview that the main difference he noticed now over then was that he was not as alone, with hundreds of journalists in Baghdad, most of them non-American. He said that this time, he and colleagues can rely on television images. He also noted a relative absence of censorship. "So far, officials have not demanded on screening our copy," Arnett said. "Last time, they did."

  Fragmentary images of Baghdad under fire were pieced together from network pools, news agencies, al-Jazeera and other Arab and European news organizations. In the early afternoon on Thursday, NBC quickly broadcast footage from Italian television of a burning government building while Tom Brokaw interviewed an NBC consultant, David Kay, a former UN weapons inspector.

  As the two men spoke, the screen was filled by billowing smoke and flaring explosions; viewers could hear an alarmed Italian anchorwoman talking rapidly to her colleague on the scene. "Giovanna, what is going on?" the anchor woman asked urgently. "Maybe you should go find a safer place."

  All the networks had battle images, and all the correspondents were careful to assure viewers that they would not disclose sensitive information. (Some cable news networks were less sensitive about scaring viewers with alarmist labels. MSNBC, for example, flashed the words, "breaking news," above a bulletin from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, that read, "The 101st Airborne Division is known as `The Screaming Eagles.'")

  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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