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Rail Baron
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Quote:
RUMSFELD SET UP; REPORTER PLANTED QUESTIONS WITH SOLIDER
Thu Dec 09 2004 11:49:38 ET
Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, now in Kuwait preparing to enter Iraq, and is filing articles for his newspaper. Pitts claims in a purported email that he coached soldiers to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld questions!
When reached Thursday morning, various Chattanooga Times Free Press staffers offered 'no comment' on the development.
From: EDWARD LEE PITTS, MILITARY AFFAIRS
Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 4:44 PM
To: Staffers
Subject: RE: Way to go
I just had one of my best days as a journalist today. As luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough see I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. I was told yesterday that only soldiers could ask questions so I brought two of them along with me as my escorts. Before hand we worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have. While waiting for the VIP, I went and found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.
So during the Q&A session, one of my guys was the second person called on. When he asked Rumsfeld why after two years here soldiers are still having to dig through trash bins to find rusted scrap metal and cracked ballistic windows for their Humvees, the place erupted in cheers so loud that Rumsfeld had to ask the guy to repeat his question. Then Rumsfeld answered something about it being "not a lack of desire or money but a logistics/physics problem." He said he recently saw about 8 of the special up-armored Humvees guarding Washington, DC, and he promised that they would no longer be used for that and that he would send them over here. Then he asked a three star general standing behind him, the commander of all ground forces here, to also answer the question. The general said it was a problem he is working on.
The great part was that after the event was over the throng of national media following Rumsfeld- The New York Times, AP, all the major networks -- swarmed to the two soldiers I brought from the unit I am embedded with. Out of the 1,000 or so troops at the event there were only a handful of guys from my unit b/c the rest were too busy prepping for our trip north. The national media asked if they were the guys with the armor problem and then stuck cameras in their faces. The NY Times reporter asked me to email him the stories I had already done on it, but I said he could search for them himself on the Internet and he better not steal any of my lines. I have been trying to get this story out for weeks- as soon as I foud out I would be on an unarmored truck- and my paper published two stories on it. But it felt good to hand it off to the national press. I believe lives are at stake with so many soldiers going across the border riding with scrap metal as protection. It may be to late for the unit I am with, but hopefully not for those who come after.
The press officer in charge of my regiment, the 278th, came up to me afterwords and asked if my story would be positive. I replied that I would write the truth. Then I pointed at the horde of national media pointing cameras and mics at the 278th guys and said he had bigger problems on his hands than the Chattanooga Times Free Press. This is what this job is all about - people need to know. The solider who asked the question said he felt good b/c he took his complaints to the top. When he got back to his unit most of the guys patted him on the back but a few of the officers were upset b/c they thought it would make them look bad. From what I understand this is all over the news back home.
Thanks,
Lee
EDWARD LEE PITTS FILED STORY ABOUT THE TROOPS BEFORE THE POW-WOW WITH RUMSFELD
Developing...
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http://www.drudgereport.com/flashcp.htm
Quote:
Editor Backs Embed in Rumsfeld Incident, but Criticizes Aftermath
By Joe Strupp
Published: December 09, 2004 8:00 PM ET
NEW YORK The editor/publisher of the Chattanooga [Tenn.] Times Free Press offered support late Thursday for his embedded reporter who has been criticized for prompting a national guardsman to ask Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld a controversial question during a visit to Kuwait.
"I think he was doing what he felt he was embedded to do: tell the stories of the soldiers of this unit," said Tom Griscom, editor and publisher of the paper. But he criticized the embed's story about the incident, which did not mention the reporter's connection to the soldier who asked the question.
The embed, Lee Pitts, sought a response from Rumsfeld about why military units in Iraq are lacking proper armor for many vehicles. A lengthy email that he wrote to a fellow reporter ended up on several Web sites, including Romenesko, the Drudge Report and E & P Online, which Griscom lamented.
"He is there to write stories, not make news himself," Griscom said of Pitts. The editor added that the recipient of the e-mail, whom he would not identify, should not have passed it along.
Griscom was communications director in the Reagan White House in 1987-1988.
He said Pitts' story on the incident, which ran Thursday, should have included an explanation of how the embed, barred from questioning Rumsfeld himself during an appearance in Kuwait Wednesday, convinced a Tennessee national guardsman to pose the question.
"In the rush of putting the story together, it was unfortunately a stitch that got lost," said Griscom. "But tomorrow, we will pick that stitch up." He has written an editor's note for the Friday paper.
Pitts has been covering the local guard unit since last summer, Griscom said, and went to Kuwait with the unit three weeks ago as an embedded reporter. Griscom said he had not spoken with the reporter since the e-mail was discovered, during a "blackout" period, but supported his effort to get Rumsfeld to comment on the issue.
"Lee has written the story about the armor problem several times, this is not an issue out of thin air," Griscom said. "We did a front page story on it last week and have done others."
The editor pointed out that Pitts only mentioned the possible question to the national guardsman, Specialist Thomas Wilson, and could not have forced him to ask it. "It is appropriate to talk to a soldier about what he would ask," Griscom said. "Then it is up to the soldier. The soldier asked the question." The question, in any case, drew loud and sustained applause from other soldiers in the town hall meeting.
In his email, Pitts wrote, "I just had one of my best days as a journalist today," and explained how he hooked up with two national guardsmen before the event. Only soldiers were allowed to ask questions of Rumsfeld.
Lawrence Di Rita, a Pentagon spokesman, released a statement yesterday noting that "Town Hall meetings are intended for soldiers to have dialogue with the secretary of defense. It would be unfortunate to discover that anyone might have interfered with that opportunity, whatever the intention."
But Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon press officer, told The New York Times that the episode had violated no rules and that no action would be taken against either Specialist Wilson or the reporter.
Still, Griscom commented that Pitts' drawing attention to himself via the lengthy email was not wise. "We ought to know," he explained, "that anything sent electronically can be passed to someone else."
He added: "One thing that bothered me was that none of my senior editors or myself were aware of the e-mail until noon (Thursday), about 24 hours too late."
Griscom would not say if the reporter who received the e-mail from Pitts, and forwarded it on, was disciplined. "We had a discussion about what we expect in relation to e-mails and I'll leave it at that," he said.
He said he had receive many calls from media on Thursday, from as far away as San Francisco, and also heard from "Rush Limbaugh listeners" along with supportive calls from soldiers' families.
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http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/..._id=1000735190 |