Military-Media Relations Come of Age
Abstract
We have now run the gamut-from a hasty, makeshift pool, organized to cover the latter part of the Grenada rescue operation; through training deployments and the activation of the DoD national media pool for the first transit of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers; to the first employment of the DoD media pool during hostile action by U.S. forces, a thoroughly planned contingency that involved public affairs from the beginning as an integral part of the operation. Regional pool activities ceased in the Gulf in July of last year. In its place, a program of unilateral embarkations began to accommodate the many requests received from news organizations asking for the opportunity to send representatives to ships in the Persian Gulf. Of course, the Department of Defense and U.S. Central Command retain the option of reactivating the pool, should that become necessary. The military's planning, coordination, and execution of the media pool deployments to cover operations in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere have set the standard for future media pool operations. The evolution of pool deployments to cover both ground-based force deployments during training and contingency operations and sea-based deployments in the Persian Gulf involving all services has clearly addressed the Sidle Panel's statement of principle -- "US news media [should] cover US military operations to the maximum degree possible consistent with mission security and the safety of US forces."
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA517712
Entities
People
- Barry E. Willey
Organizations
- United States Army War College