Customer Reviews

Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq

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As much I strongly admired Ms. Garrel's intrepid journalism under fire account in her book (the title however makes me think of some '60s ... club in San Francisco, a place also known as Baghdad by the Bay), and though there are many choice passages in her NPR written-word narrative, for my money and historical value, I much prefer "Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq," by Bill Katovsky and Timothy Carlson, which packs an emotional wallop of 60 interviews with reporters from across the globe, including a revealing and harrowing account also from embedded NPR correspondent Eric Westervelt. Grenades, RPGs, sniper fire, and dodging death punctuate these 60 personal stories behind the news stories from the battlefield. Talk about deadlines. Sorry, Ms. Garrels, Embedded works because it reminds me of the best of Studs Terkel.

This is a fascinating book. Skip the intro, which is too long and reads like a college paper, and dive right into the action. It's uncomfortable, nerve-wracking reading- these reporters' stories take you right to the front lines amid the chaos and the noise. Michael Herr's Dispatches was a great book, but it offered only one perspective. This book presents dozens from all over the globe, both men and women, Arabic press and US Army videographers. Most importantly, each person speaks from the heart. (My favorite was Evan Wright, the Rolling Stone reporter. He is a funny and insightful guy who doesn't take himself too seriously.) When I first heard the media would be "embedded", I thought oh no, that means "co-opted", stuck in the rear under a watchful military eye. This book demonstrates that that was not the case. These reporters were given, and/or took, the freedom they needed to send very accurate reports of this war, direct from the battlefield. They took great risks to do it, and for that I am grateful to them.

This book contains dozens of 3 or 4 page vignettes from reporters (and some others, like an anti-war activist), who covered the Iraq war. Some of the reporters were embedded and others were independent. The main theme of most of the stories is how bad the conditions were and why the reporters were exhausted and just had to go home after their gruelling five weeks of covering the war. If anything, this book will make you marvel at the courage and fortitude of the military personnel, who endure these conditions, and worse, for months on end.

Some of the stories reflect admiration for the troops and an increased appreciation of the US military and the difficult conditions under which they work and fight. Some reflect a lack of preparedness and understanding by the reporters of what they were getting into; they are apparently suprised that war actually involves killing people, or being killed by them - and the fact that, unfortunately, sometimes innocent civilians die in the process.

This book is most useful in documenting the experience of the reporters during the war, but it sheds relativley little light on the war itself, nor does it coherently address the complex relationship of the reporter and the war environment. Most of the collected stories are "all about me."

A logical idea executed brilliantly: Meld the oral history approach of "Working" to the embedded reporters and their tiny-slices-of-the-pie coverage of the Iraq War. The result is like walking in on a Baghdad reunion party attended by 60-plus of the most interesting, intelligent print and TV war correspondents, including some for the Arab press, all of them spinning yarns about dodging (and sweating) bullets on their wild 21-day spring vacations. Due to the sheer variety of perspectives, each one of them distilled down into fast-reading 3 to 10-page chunks, "Embedded" provides an overall perspective that will be tough for other Iraq war books to match. It ultimately yields a fascinating and fair look at the war. I almost can't wait for the next big act of history to occur; I'll be the first in line to pick up Katovsky and Carlson's next Turkel-like tome.

How did those two co-authors get these war journalists interviewed for Embedded to open up so candidly? When I first picked up this book, I half-expected to read boilerplate journalism-school debates about ethics, objectivity, pursuing a story. That was not the case here. Not at all. Each interview left me reeling in a cold-sweat panic: So this is what it's like to be a wartime reporter. I was right there in the Bradley Fighting Vehicles with these reporters, or avoiding ambushes in a rented SUV if I was traveling as an independent reporter. Man, what action. Remember that movie about ten or fifteen years ago, "Under Fire," starring Nick Nolte as a combat photographer and Gene Hackman as a seasoned foreign news correspondent? Well, Embedded is as cinematic, as powerful in its own storytelling way--and there's dozens and dozens of these true-life stories. What a read. This IS the book of the war.

For anyone who sat glued to the TV watching history being made, you cannot pass up this book. The correspondents' stories are often funny, often frightening, and always gripping. Learn more of each reporter's personal thoughts on being away from family, being trapped in fire-fights, and their respect for the soldiers and marines doing their jobs. Should be required reading for anyone interested in recent history. As the marines would say, "Outstanding."

The military, not without some justification believes that the US press was a major contributor to the loss of the war in Viet Nam. In conflicts after that (Grenada, Panama) the press was kept at a distant arms length. In the second Iraq war, the Pentagon granted some 2,700 reporters press credentials. About 600 of these were embedded with U.S. military units. And as all of us who watched the war, the coverage was sensational.

This book consists of interviews with the embedded journalists. They were conducted after the war after the reporters had had time to think about what had happened. About 60 of the embedded reporters have contributed to this book, that's almost ten percent of all the reporters. (I note that Geraldo Rivera who was expelled from the program for revealing future military plans is not included in the interviews). This book provides an interesting insight into the war and to the future of military-press relations.

This is an interesting book. Anyone who is interested in an alternative to the right wing talk radio and tv news should seriously consider checking out the Thom Hartmann radio show opposite Rush Limbaugh weekdays at: thomhartmann dot com / showlisten.shtml

Whether democrat, republican, or indepedent, so many of the facts out there are completely ignored by the mainstream media and talk shows. This show is one strong example of an examination of the facts regardless of your political affiliation. I am not affiliated with the show in any way, just struck by the facts so many seem to ignore.

I was in bed and I decided to read embedded and I quickly became embedded in the book. Its just a wonderful little account of the media and the war and how the western press was allowed to be in with the men. THey suffered the same fatigue and even got to weat flack jackets and halmets, but they didnt get to carry guns because the military felt the western press could not be trusted as they might turn the guns on the american soldiers(most western media is anti american, anti democracy and islamic in nature and practice). This book details the very good, loving nature of the american military and how it nurtured the reporters, giving them unfettered access to events, something the russians wouldnt do. Now we must look at something else, pertinent to this equation, the press was embedded, therefore it was protected, unfortunatly, from the evils of Saddams empire. Some of the press should have been released to expereince the torture chambers for themselves so they could have given us an unbiased account of how nice Saddams regime was.

A great book./