Chattanooga Reporter Claims a Role in Rumsfeld Showdown

By: E&P Staff One day after U.S. soldiers directly questioning Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the lack of armored vehicles in Iraq made national news, an email from a Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times embedded reporter ignited more interest after it was posted on two influential Web sites.

In the email, sent to another staffer at the paper, the reporter, Lee Pitts, describes how he helped make the tough questioning in Kuwait happen: ?I was told yesterday that only soldiers could ask questions so I brought two of them along with me as my escorts.?

The email was posted first at the Romenesko site at the Poynter Institute and then at the Drudge Report, which headlined it this way: ?Rumsfeld Set Up; Reporter Planted Questions with Soldier.?

But Tom Griscom, the Chattanooga newspaper's publisher and executive editor, commended the reporter's work today, telling the Associated Press that the question was one that members of the unit and their families wanted answered.

Specialist Thomas Wilson, a scout with the Tennessee National Guard, asked the key question at the gathering. His picture appears on the front page of today's New York Times.

In the email, Pitts notes that he had previously written two stories on the lack of armored vehicles in Iraq and ?it felt good to hand it off to the national press.? (One of his stories, exposing the fact that soldiers were scrounging for junk metal to bolt to vehicles, was published earlier Wednesday.) He added: ?The soldier who asked the question said he felt good b/c he took his complaints to the top.?

Excerpts from the text of the email as posted at Romenesko:

?I just had one of my best days as a journalist today. As luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough so I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. Before hand we worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have. While waiting for the VIP, I went and found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.

?So during the Q&A session, one of my guys was the second person called on. When he asked Rumsfeld why after two years here soldiers are still having to dig through trash bins to find rusted scrap metal and cracked ballistic windows for their Humvees, the place erupted in cheers so loud that Rumsfeld had to ask the guy to repeat his question. Then Rumsfeld answered something about it being 'not a lack of desire or money but a logistics/physics problem.'?. Then he asked a three star general standing behind him, the commander of all ground forces here, to also answer the question. The general said it was a problem he is working on.

?The great part was that after the event was over the throng of national media following Rumsfeld (The New York Times, AP, all the major networks) swarmed to the two soldiers I brought from the unit I am embedded with. Out of the 1,000 or so troops at the event there were only a handful of guys from my unit b/c the rest were too busy prepping for our trip north. The national media asked if they were the guys with the armor problem and then stuck cameras in their faces.

?The NY Times reporter asked me to email him the stories I had already done on it, but I said he could search for them himself on the Internet and he better not steal any of my lines. I have been trying to get this story out for weeks, as soon as I found out I would be on an unarmored truck, and my paper published two stories on it. But it felt good to hand it off to the national press. I believe lives are at stake with so many soldiers going across the border riding with scrap metal as protection. It may be to late for the unit I am with, but hopefully not for those who come after.

?The press officer in charge of my regiment, the 278th, came up to me afterwords and asked if my story would be positive. I replied that I would write the truth. Then I pointed at the horde of national media pointing cameras and mics at the 278th guys and said he had bigger problems on his hands than the Chattanooga Times Free Press. This is what this job is all about: people need to know.

?The soldier who asked the question said he felt good b/c he took his complaints to the top. When he got back to his unit most of the guys patted him on the back but a few of the officers were upset b/c they thought it would make them look bad. From what I understand this is all over the news back home.?