War Reporting

Americans are shielded from the brutal horrors of war. American armed forces are currently involved in conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and through great distance and strong defense infrastructure, the American people are relatively safe. They are safe to enjoy sports and entertainment, and feel worlds away from the suffering abroad that seems to never end. There are some people though who have the drive to travel the world to tell gruesome and horrifying stories, as an attempt to enlighten the safe and comfortable of the world to what is really going on.
There is something about war that makes it easy to glance over in the media and in historical studies. Growing up we learn about wars in social studies classes. We learn that the War of 1812 was fought between the United States and Great Britain. We learn the political reasons behind the conflict, and the outcomes for the nations that participated. We learn history on a grand scale, nation versus nation, leader versus leader. The history of war many times leaves out the truth, that wars are not fought by nations, they are fought by people. These People are just trying to survive, trying to live fulfilling lives with their family and friends, and end up caught in the middle of political and ideological conflicts that are way greater than any one of them.

Ernest Hemingway covered many conflicts in Europe during World War II. He wrote two pieces for the Toronto Daily Star in 1923 called: “Mussolini: Biggest Bluff in Europe” and “A Russian Toy Soldier.” In these articles, Hemingway seems somewhat distant from the action of war, from the dying and suffering. He does however give his reader an interesting look into the worlds of the men who make the decisions that lead to war. Benito Mussolini, the feared and respected Italian fascist dictator of the day, is called a coward by Hemingway. “Really brave men do not fight duels, and many cowards duel constantly to make themselves believe they are brave.” He does not only succeed in making Mussolini into a coward and a “bluff,” but he also succeeds in making him undeniably human. We look back on dictators like Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini as statuesque figures of hate and greed, and sometimes we forget that they are human just like anyone else. The very important characteristic of successful war reporting through the ages is in integration of the human element into politics and warfare.

Martha Gellhorn, a war reporter who was actually married to Hemingway during World War II, also wrote very intimately about the human experience during wartime. In her article, “Dachau: 1945, The Face of War,” Gellhorn described in great detail the brutal horrors from within the Dachau concentration camp. At the time, many people did not fully believe the rumors of European death camps, and could not even imagine some of the things that went on there. Gellhorn’s story is disgusting and haunting, vividly describing the living skeletons that the prisoners had become, and the millions of faceless, nameless dead that were carelessly thrown aside to rot in the sun. She told the story of a Polish surgeon who was forced to carry out savage experiments on living subjects. Gellhorn’s story shows us the scale of human suffering that can be the result of political decisions that were backed by an ideology of prejudice and hate.

War reporting today is not just for the few brave souls who want to make a difference, but rather a profession of journalists who do their work abroad. Every major media outlet in America has correspondents in the warring regions of the Middle East. For the most part, newspaper stories about these wars, such as the Iraq War, read like textbooks. They tell of military invasions, give quotes from world leaders, and the human lives lost are limited to a number, the number of “casualties.” The way that war is covered in the American media aids the American tendency to keep distant from conflict, and leaves them with the freedom to be able to flip the paper over and read about really pressing issues, like  the lives of Alex Rodriguez and Britney Spears.

One reporter has taken war reporting to a whole new level. Kevin Sites, the war correspondent for Yahoo, leaves the politics back home and reports on the horrible things he sees and the people he encounters along the way. The way that Sites does his reporting is very different than the reporting done by Ernest Hemingway. The big difference comes because of great advances in technology. Hemingway had an amazing gift of vivid description in his writing and was able to give his readers an image of the way war affected people. Sites does not need such a gift, because he has a camera crew at his disposal. In his Hot Zone videos on Yahoo, the viewer can now be brought directly to the war zone, seeing the destruction with their own eyes. Although Hemingway had a great gift for storytelling, there is nothing more effective in media than visual images. Today’s world is so dependent on visual images to tell stories, that the great storytellers like Hemingway may become a dying breed.

War correspondents in today’s visual culture have to be careful to not include personal bias into their reporting. The coverage of America’s wars is very closely monitored, and reporting that questions the motivations and actions of the American government is not taken lightly. NBC correspondent Peter Arnett was fired because he went on Iraqi television and made questionable remarks about the US plan that was “failing” in Iraq. Arnett’s intentions were probably not to criticize the American government or to give Iraqis more reason to resist the American occupancy of Iraq. Arnett should have known what the consequences of his actions would be. A war reporter should always be able to report freely and honestly, but it is always dangerous to give personal opinions, this is true for any journalist. To make remarks like he did, and where he did it, was career suicide. Arnett may have just been trying to create an open discussion between two nations at war, but he only succeeded in losing his job.

Our visual culture has had an impact on how war is being reported. There was nothing stopping Hemingway from reporting every single thing exactly how he saw it. His work would only be noticed and criticized by the few in the world who choose to read it. Today, pictures and videos fly around the world in seconds, which leads to a culture where everything is under the microscope. In one of the Hot Zone videos, Sites tells a story of an Iraqi man who had been shot and bleeding out on the sidewalk. Site was embedded with Marine forces at the time, and one of the marines said he was going to kill the man. The marine asked Sites if he was going to videotape him shooting the dying man. When Sites replied that he felt that he had to, the marine chose not to go through with it. This marine was scared that a video of him taking that shot would be all over the news, and would tarnish his reputation.

There is no way to hide from the public’s eye today, and it is affecting how war is waged. In World War II, Soviet troops raped and pillaged the countryside on the way to Berlin to cut off Hitler. They did this because nobody in the world knew it was happening, and there was no way to stop them. In today’s world, tragedies and horrors can be combated by one click of a button. A picture may be the most powerful weapon against oppression.