Covering a War

Cody Linn
cl219110@ohio.edu

Covering a war can be a sticky situation. You can be faced with many ethical dilemmas and other issues. Some will feel that you are not doing a good enough job describing the war effort and some will say you are going too far. There is a balance you have to find, and you have to draw a line in the sand and stick to it.

One such ethical dilemma faced while covering a war as an embedded journalist is when and when not to publish the names of soldiers. The publishing of names of soldiers can be a great thing. The names of those that are published in online articles or broadcast on television will receive recognition for not only their self, but for their troop. It will show that they are really doing something and it can help garner public attention for the war.

This article does it the right way, with a database of those who have fallen as a result of what has happened in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But on the other side of the debate is when loved ones are lost and the embedded journalist knows the names of the fallen men and women. Do you publish the names? One thing you have to think about is, “Have the families been notified?” If they have not, you need to think how it would make you feel if you first found out that your loved one, whether it be your son, daughter, mother, father or any relative, died in battle through a news report. Imagine the disbelief the family would be feeling, not receiving news from the military but hearing through a broadcast or reading in a news article and not knowing if it is true or not. That would be a terrible feeling, and I would hope that no one would put me through that kind of stress.

Courtesy of capitaloutsider.com

How do we cover war?

Another dilemma would be to know what and what not to publish about plans and future plans for national security purposes. You want to inform the public about what the troops are doing to help protect the country, but you do not want to give away any information that could help the enemy. In essence you want to keep secrets, but you want to be transparent at the same time. You do not want to come across as a whistleblower, like Bradley Manning. Although he is not a journalist, you do not want to give up secrets of any kind like he did.

The life of a journalist covering war is not a simple task. You have to make sure that you are able to keep the public informed and keep the war in the public eye. However, you do not want to be so forthcoming that you give away military secrets or blow the identities of those that should not be named, such as fallen soldiers whose families have not been notified of their loved one’s passing.

You have to know how to straddle this line and do your best to not cross it, but push the limits.