Media Stars Discuss Wars -- Vietnam and Iraq -- in Panel tied to 'Chicago 10'

By: Emily Vaughan This wasn?t the first time that the war is Iraq was compared to the Vietnam War. But 40 years after 1968, considered by many to be one of the pivotal years in the 20th century, Thursday?s panel discussion, "1968 to 2008 Journalism at a time of War," in New York City drew some fitting comparisons from the likes of Christopher Hitchens, Sebastian Junger and Dexter Filkins. People gathered at the Vanity Fair and Participant Media-sponsored event at the Independent Film Center to discuss the media coverage in both wars, talking about what had changed and what hadn?t.

Despite the pedigree of the panelists, Hitchens dominated the discussion, and his habit of interrupting the panelists or admonishing them to ?keep it terse? and if at all possible ?witty"-- and also talking over comments by audience members a-- led a few grumblers in the crowd to head for the bar before the discussion ended. Hitchens fielded many of the questions himself, at one point joking that th MTV panelist was ?too young? and Filkins and Junger were ?too pretty? to answer.

Thursday?s panel was just one of many Citizen Summits around the country, organized to promote "Chicago 10," a partly-animated movie about the trial of anti-war protesters arrested for inciting to riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. The movie opened today (drawing mixed reviews). The panel discussions, which each focus on a different topic, started in Los Angeles on Feb. 20 and have since been held in San Francisco and Chicago.

Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, and the producer of "Chicago 10," introduced the panelists, drawing the comparison himself between two ?unpopular wars? in an election year. The panel included bestselling author and Vanity Fair contributing editor Sebastian Junger, New York Times Middle East correspondent Dexter Filkins, Vanity Fair international correspondent William Langwiesche and MTV VJ Suchin Pak. Vanity Fair contributing editor Christopher Hitchens moderated.

Hitchens, opened the night describing what he remembered of 1968 a year when ?every time you turned on your transistor radio? you would hear bad news: the American Embassy being surrounded in Saigon, Martin Luther King Jr. or Bobby Kennedy being assassinated. ?It was the year when people stopped taking the government?s info for granted and started paying attention to journalists who might know better,? he said.

The often heated conversation was fueled in part by Hitchens' antagonistic comments such as ?I would have believed we would have gotten more applause for an anti-al Qaida remark, but this is liberal America." The comments veered between discussion of the media coverage of war and discussion of the Iraq and Vietnam Wars themselves, as the panel fielded questions from Hitchens and the audience. A consistent theme was the less vocal reaction today, especially among young people. ?Where are the protests?? was a question asked multiple times.

Pak noted that young people seemed to be less interested and less informed about the war, despite the efforts of journalists and bloggers. ?Many young people are cut off from what?s happening over there, even though they have access to more information than ever before.? Pak?s MTV audience in particular is hard to interest. ?These are people tuning in to watch music videos, and it?s like we?re feeding them medicine,? she said.

But Junger said Vietnam and Iraq are very different. The draft sent many people overseas who didn?t want to go, as opposed to today?s professional army, and incidents like the National Guard killing students at Kent State University don?t happen now. ?American soldiers were in Vietnam, but there was a bit of Vietnam going on at home. And whatever the political situation is now, it?s not that,? he said.

Reporting the war is much different now too. Unlike Vietnam, reporters aren?t siding with the troops against the commanders, Junger said. Langwiesche said everyone is very open, especially at the ?front lines? (though he notes the term is not quite applicable in a war like this). He hasn?t experienced censorship. There are only two rules, Filkins said, ?you don?t report your position and you don?t report the names of the dead before their families are notified.? He thinks that?s pretty reasonable.

Filkins noted that the information isn?t as contradictory ?with one story from the State Department and one for Vietnam and (the newspaper) didn?t know what to do with them so they ran both.? But, the problem lies in reporting both sides, American and Iraqi, equally. ?You can?t walk into a bar when you?re surrounded by men with guns? and expect to talk to Iraqis, he said. Reporting on the military is easy, Langweische agreed, but getting the larger story is the real challenge. ?I don?t think we know what the story is yet,? Pak said.