Reporting America at War

War reporters could have taken their cue from photographer Robert Capa who once said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." War is the ultimate news event and for over a century America's best reporters have clamored to get close to the story, in spite of danger, the risk of death, and near constant government censorship. In the early 20th century, war was still thought of as a grand and glorious adventure, and dapper, globe-trotting correspondent Richard Harding Davis won fame covering America's "splendid little war" in Cuba and other brushfire wars. The "war to end all wars" posed a bigger problem, as governments censored reporting, not just to protect national military secrets, but also to shield citizens from the full horror of poison gas trench warfare. WWII's "good war" found reporters willingly accepting government restrictions as the necessary price to further the cause of victory, and director Stephen Ives' outstanding Reporting America at War devotes considerable time to celebrating Ernie Pyle, a plain spoken journalist who chronicled the daily lives and deaths of the dogface GIs who endured unspeakable hardship and fought for their buddies as much as any great war cause. But it was the "police action" in Korea that created the schism between our government and war reporters, a "credibility gap" that cracked wide open during the Vietnam war, evolving--as Walter Cronkite, Morley Safer, and others describe it--into an increasingly toxic relationship. With the advent of new technology, the "embedded" reporters in Iraq, for instance, can bring immediacy and sensation, but do they provide any insight? Reporters, former government officials, and historians offer perspectives on the eternal dilemma of the government's need to protect secrets versus the public's right to know. Well-organized, timely, thought-provoking, and loaded with excellent war footage, this is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)