Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/16

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Subject: RE: [Leica] f/8 and be there - segueing into Military Censorship and Freedom of The Press
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 00:26:31 -0400

The interesting thing about this, and some of my seniors - or historians on
the list - please correct me if I'm wrong, is that Vietnam was really an
aberration in terms of the astounding amount of freedom given journalists,
print and photo alike. As recently as The War To End All Wars, journ
alists - particularly the photo variety - were heavily censored and
controlled. (there's a reason, besides clunky equipment, that you don't see
combat photos of WWI and see very few dead Doughboy photos. Things loosened
up somewhat in WWII, but the hand of the censor was still present and heavy.
But in Vietnam it was a whole new ballgame - shooters and writers had almost
total freedom, and Army helicopters to get them to the scene of the fighting
in real time. Vietnam was the first war in history in which those on the
homefront were confronted on a daily basis with the real horrors of war -
and you know the impact that had on the conduct of the war. The heavy handed
censorship in the Gulf War was a direct result of, and reaction to, the
journalistic freedom of Vietnam. The leaders of the US Gulf Campaign cut
their military teeth in Vietnam, and they were damned if they were going to
let journalists do to them what they felt had been done in Vietnam.
Unfortunately I would guess that the Gulf War marked a return to more
"normal" military/press relations, and doubt that we will ever again see a
major US war in which the media have the kind of freedom and access they did
in Vietnam.

B. D.
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