Fair enough, but there has been a feeling around here that even the most basic information is classified. After today, Franks will be turning most of the briefings over to the telegenic Gen. Vince Brooks–the second-in-command for operations here. Franks is too busy running the war and, besides, he’s never been fond of the press or military personnel who are drawn to the Klieg lights. Franks of course from the Vietnam era, when relations between the military and the press hit their lowest moment. Franks doesn’t even like retired military yakking on the tube about potential military plans. CENTCOM has been so tight lipped that when I asked for Gen. Brooks’ first name I was told by a sheepish public affairs officer: “I’m not allowed to give you that information.” I looked it up on the Web.
The military has never been known for doling out information, but the embargo early this week had everyone frustrated. “This has been the longest 48 hours of my press relations career,” says Jim Wilkinson, Frank’s top communications aide. He said reporters were getting so desperate for information, they were accosting him in the bathroom. (He has taken to going across the compound to an outdoor Port-O-Potty.)
The war between the military and the media this week at CENTCOM is mostly a boring inside tale. Who ultimately cares about a bunch of whiny reporters complaining that they aren’t getting any information? But there is a bigger principle at stake. The military is thrilled to have reporters embedded with troops-streaming back compelling footage of Iraqi surrenders and high-speed blitzes through the desert. Franks himself was reportedly a proponent of that new embedding policy. It’s a smart move: reporters are unwitting participants in the military’s psy war against Saddam Hussein and it makes great TV. Those slice of war images are dramatic, but they don’t tell the bigger picture. That, Franks apparently reasons, is for historians, not journalists. The general himself would rather run the war as anonymously as possible. But that’s unlikely in this era. Already we got one personal tidbit out of the general. “When I got up this morning I looked at my computer and I realized that my wife had sent me a “happy anniversary” note this morning…..and I had forgotten to send her one.”
The press corps and CENTCOM had started to kiss and make up a bit by Saturday, but earlier this week,Operation Iraqi Freedom felt more like Operation Ignore Free Press. Overnight Thursday, word had come in of the first combat casualty, a U.S. Marine. There were also reports that four other U.S. soldiers and eight Britons had died in a helo crash. True to their word to be open with the press, one British spokesperson started to give interviews early Friday morning. In fact, the first combat casualty was confirmed by a Brit not a U.S. CENTCOM source.
There seemed to be hope that the information lockdown would loosen up. The news came Friday that the Brits would brief at 5 p.m. and the Aussies would join them. The Brits started setting up in the brand new briefing room, readying their props–seals of the UK forces. Initially there was some resistance to the idea from U. S. officials that it might look odd that Franks wasn’t doing the first briefing. But with news breaking and the press corps griping about the lack of information (on the air), the Americans figured that the Brits going out first would be at least tout the “coalition” idea. “We should build a statue to Tony Blair on the mall,” quipped one CENTCOM source.
That idea quickly crumbled. U.S. officials changed course and put the kabash on any briefings by anyone. The Australians initially resisted, but ultimately caved too. Instead, the Aussie public affairs officials took their own reporters outside the fenced-in press area and gave them a private briefing. They were supposed to be out of eyesight, but other reporters spotted their colleagues over the fence and created a stir. Top U.S. reporters–like ABC’s George Stephanopoulos–were reduced to standing on concrete slabs and peering through barbed wire at the distant Aussie scrum. Other reporters then interviewed the Aussie reporters about what they hadn’t been told. The Today Show’s Matt Lauer didn’t even show up on base Friday–there was too little information and the technology was better at the Sheraton Hotel. “We’re getting more information from the bell hops,” one of NBC’s huge team here quipped.
Finally, when Gen. Richard Myers announced from the Pentagon briefing room back in D.C. that there would be a Saturday briefing here, a cheer went up in the press center. Today’s briefing was a decent introduction to the much ballyhooed plasma screens that show battle damage. Reporters weren’t shocked or awed, but they were pacified–for awhile. Franks, an old style general, has refused to play along with slick communication types from the White House who want him at the podium more. But he seemed to deal with the mob just fine without too much handling. He even made fun of me for using the word “scramble” in a question.
