By: Ari Berman Late Friday morning, Chuck Holmes, foreign editor at Cox Newspapers in Atlanta, told
E&P his two reporters still in Baghdad "joked that they seem to be in the quietest place in Iraq at the moment." Now that's changed, with the current massive air strikes on the city.
Holmes said Cox management wanted to pull the reporters out of the Iraqi capital earlier in the week but the editorial staff deemed it more difficult and dangerous, at that late date, for the reporters to flee and risk detainment. Now the two reporters are staying put, even as four of their colleagues from CNN were ordered out of the city Friday by Iraqi authorities.
As actions intensify in Baghdad, embedded reporters in southern Iraq are moving rapidly with troops. As the military secures the south of the country, one of Holmes' embeds in Kuwait City claimed the Pentagon was talking about moving reporters from Kuwait City to Basra. Reporters would drive their own vehicles, protected by military escorts.
During a dark and dusty eight-hour trip through the Iraqi desert with the 1st Marine Division,
Dallas Morning News reporter Jim Landers wasn't sufficiently aware of what was going on to file a story, International Editor Tim Connelly said. When the Marines reached Basra, Landers' battalion commander shared information, including details on enemy fire, that allowed him to quickly dictate the story.
Connelly said his reporter and photographer filed good stories under tough circumstances: "We wouldn't have been able to convey such precise information without embeds. Our people wore chemical suits all day, through the night in the desert in what I imagine was not a comfortable ride, but we're glad to have them there."
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