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Fair and Balanced or Yellow Journalism RED, WHITE, or YELLOW?: The Media & the Military at War in Iraq. By Charles Jones. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2008 ISBN 9780811704021, 226 pp. $24.95 (Member $22.45)
When Charles "Chip" Jones began researching a book to follow his award-winning Boys of '67 (Stackpole Books, 2006), the former Richmond Times-Dispatch staff writer decided to explore the dynamic tension shared between civilian combat correspondents and the military they covered. He soon found that it would require more than research. He would have to immerse himself in his subject. The result is a multifaceted view through a prism made up of Jones' research; interviews with combat correspondents, public affairs officers, and generals; and his personal observations.
"Initially, I explored the subject from a safe distance," Jones explains in his introduction. He interviewed The Washington Post's Rick Atkinson, Cable News Networks (CNN's) Jamie Mclntyre, and Public Broadcasting Service's News Hour host, Jim Lehrer. "However, I realized that only by venturing into Iraq would I get any sense of the actual situation on the ground."
In Iraq Jones wrestled with the ethical issues driven by an era of 24/7 media, the public's right to know what its military is doing, which at times conflicts with an individual's right to privacy. He cites Rick Atkinson's declaration after the 2003 invasion that "every soldier's death is a public event," contrasted by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's edict denying photographs of returning flag-draped coffins and the Pentagon's rules dictating that no photos may be released of the wounded without their written permission - even if they have already died. "These were tough questions for tough people inside and outside the media," Jones points out, "with no simple answers or clear-cut decisions."
The dichotomy of a military at war overseas while the public peacefully pursues inane interests at home struck Jones in Camp Fallujah's mess hall. "It didn't matter whether it was Fox News or CNN," Jones writes, ". . . the headline story in June 2007 was...