By: Joe Strupp Organizers touted last week's Military Reporters and Editors (MRE) conference as a success, saying the second annual gathering drew more longtime military journalists than last year, as well as sparking debates about embedding and overall Pentagon-press relations.
"Last year, we had a lot of people who had not been on the military beat and were about to get thrown into the war in Iraq," MRE President James Wright said of the three-day event in Arlington, Va. "This year, we had more of the established community of military writers. We had fewer of those people trying to figure it all out for the first time."
Attendance, which was still being tabulated Monday, was estimated to run at least 150 to 160, down slightly from last year's 180 participants, Wright said. He said the dip did not concern the group, adding that the increase in career military journalists indicated a lasting interest. "It will be a cyclical kind of thing," he said. "It depends on the times."
The conference opened Friday with the reading of the names of the 21 journalists who have died since March while covering the war in Iraq by television journalist and MRE board member Arthur Kent. Among the high points of the gathering was the keynote luncheon address by retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a Democratic candidate for president. Clark used his Friday appearance to call for an independent investigation of the Bush administration's use of intelligence before the Iraq War, calling it "twisted" and possibly criminal, according to Reuters.
"Nothing could be a more serious violation of public trust than to consciously make a war based on false claims," Clark told the conference attendees. "[The administration's] handling of intelligence and its retaliation against its critics may have been criminal."
Other issues that sparked discussion included several sessions on the recent embedding of reporters, which most journalists there supported, Wright said.
Michael Gordon,
The New York Times military correspondent, told attendees that journalists should be embedded with combat units in future conflicts, while Rear Adm. T.L. McCreary, who heads Navy public affairs, and Lt. Col. Michael Birmingham, public affairs officer for the 3rd Infantry Division, agreed.
"Embedding is a tool," Gordon said. "If it's a major theater war, it's the way in [to covering the conflict]."
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