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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Neal Conan of National Public Radio
Aired February 22, 2003 - 07:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: If war breaks out with Iraq, hundreds of journalists will be allowed to go into the fields with U.S. troops, and the military has been training those journalists on how to survive in a combat zone.
We're joined now by a special guest, Neal Conan of National Public Radio joins us from Jacksonville, Florida, to discuss the so- called embedding process and how it will work. He covered the Gulf War for NPR.
And Neal, welcome. Good morning, thank you for joining us.
NEAL CONAN, "TALK OF THE NATION," NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Good morning, Jonathan.
KARL: And you were actually taken as a prisoner of the Iraqi Republican Guard for a time, correct?
CONAN: That's -- yes, that was right, yes, right after the Gulf War.
KARL: So what is it about? What is the allure of being a war correspondent? I mean, obviously you saw a situation where your life was in jeopardy. We've seen -- we just had the anniversary of Daniel Pearl's death, we've seen journalists lose their life. What is the allure? Why do we want to get out there on the front lines?
CONAN: Well, we have a responsibility to tell the story. You know, there's -- the people who are paying for this war, in whose name it's being fought, have a right to know what it's really like and to get an unsanitized version. As we know, certainly in the last war and with air wars in general, all you get is the -- you know, that footage from the laser cameras, and it all looks clean, it all looks from a distance.
Well, no war is clean, and the people who are paying for it and the people in whose name it's being fought need to know what it's actually like.
KARL: Yes, when you have journalists actually embedded, which is the term we're using here, embedded with troops, going out as part of a group of troops going into battle, how does that process work? How do you separate your duty as kind of a journalist or job as a journalist and the fact that you are an American citizen? CONAN: Those are very difficult to distinguish. It's also -- there's a danger of getting too identified with the unit that you're with, and it becomes, you know, us instead of them. This is a psychological thing. You really do have to resist.
But personally, for me, if the biggest danger I'd be afraid of is doing something stupid and, you know, then soldiers coming out to rescue you, and it would hard to live with yourself if somebody was wounded or, God forbid, killed trying to do something on your behalf.
KARL: I'm sure you saw yesterday, Harold Evans had a piece on this whole process in "The Wall Street Journal." Raises very difficult moral questions, questions like, Would you, as a war correspondent going in as part of a unit, if you knew that disinformation could help your country, would you engage in it?
CONAN: This is a very difficult proposition. I can't lie to my listeners. That's a fundamental, basic thing. During the Gulf War, I was on a couple of pools. I was asked not to report a couple of things, the altitude at which people were bombing, the fact that all of the -- this one particular type of aircraft were all at one base.
Those seemed to me reasonable restrictions, and perfectly legitimate things not to report. But there's a difference from not reporting that somebody's letting their weapons loose and such -- so- and-so many feet, and actually actively telling a lie. I wouldn't do that.
KARL: Well, what about, you know, the Geneva Conventions, as I understand it, say that journalists cannot take part in the battle.
CONAN: That's right.
KARL: What, what have, what if you are out there, and you're in a position where if you did do something, whether it be helping a wounded soldier or something more proactive, knowing, again, you could help your country, help your unit, would you sit there with your pen and your microphone, or would you get in there and engage?
CONAN: I think there's a big difference between a humanitarian gesture, helping somebody who's injured or wounded. That, I think -- I'd like to think I'd do that if it was an Iraqi soldier or an American soldier. But in terms of picking up a weapon, absolutely not.
KARL: Now, of course, we had almost no access, journalists had almost no access to the front lines in the Gulf War. In Vietnam, it was quite different. In Vietnam, journalists, especially towards the end of the war, seemed to be able to go just about anywhere. The only limitation was their willingness to put themselves in harm's way.
As you know, the Nixon administration people at the time blamed the press, blamed the media for turning the tide of opinion against Vietnam.
CONAN: There's that belief. You know, there's been a lot of studies done about that, Jonathan, and every indication seems to suggest, or, you know, that in fact, in a lot of ways the media was running behind public opinion on that question, not leading it.
But, you know, the fact of the matter is, if there's a war under way and people are reporting what is actually going on, pictures of combat, that was what was different about Vietnam, that's what really distinguished it from Korea or the Second World War, was the live images that people like CNN would provide in a coming conflict.
Well, you know, that changes people's minds. And maybe that's not a bad thing, if people understand what war is really like, because the nature of war is truly brutal. There is no such thing as a clean war.
KARL: Now, Neal, you've done it before. You were there throughout the Gulf War. Are you going back?
CONAN: I'm not going back this time, or at least not in the first tranch (ph). My obligation, my first responsibility is the show I host in Washington, D.C., "Talk of the Nation," which is on every day in the afternoon. It's -- you have to do what your company -- how to best serve your company. And, you know, in this conflict I'm not quite sure that Washington isn't in the front line.
KARL: All right. And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) no doubt, especially with some of the terror warnings we're seeing.
Neal, "Talk of the Nation," an excellent show on NPR.
CONAN: Thanks very much.
KARL: Thank you so much for joining us.
CONAN: Appreciate it.
KARL: Great.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 22, 2003 - 07:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: If war breaks out with Iraq, hundreds of journalists will be allowed to go into the fields with U.S. troops, and the military has been training those journalists on how to survive in a combat zone.
We're joined now by a special guest, Neal Conan of National Public Radio joins us from Jacksonville, Florida, to discuss the so- called embedding process and how it will work. He covered the Gulf War for NPR.
And Neal, welcome. Good morning, thank you for joining us.
NEAL CONAN, "TALK OF THE NATION," NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Good morning, Jonathan.
KARL: And you were actually taken as a prisoner of the Iraqi Republican Guard for a time, correct?
CONAN: That's -- yes, that was right, yes, right after the Gulf War.
KARL: So what is it about? What is the allure of being a war correspondent? I mean, obviously you saw a situation where your life was in jeopardy. We've seen -- we just had the anniversary of Daniel Pearl's death, we've seen journalists lose their life. What is the allure? Why do we want to get out there on the front lines?
CONAN: Well, we have a responsibility to tell the story. You know, there's -- the people who are paying for this war, in whose name it's being fought, have a right to know what it's really like and to get an unsanitized version. As we know, certainly in the last war and with air wars in general, all you get is the -- you know, that footage from the laser cameras, and it all looks clean, it all looks from a distance.
Well, no war is clean, and the people who are paying for it and the people in whose name it's being fought need to know what it's actually like.
KARL: Yes, when you have journalists actually embedded, which is the term we're using here, embedded with troops, going out as part of a group of troops going into battle, how does that process work? How do you separate your duty as kind of a journalist or job as a journalist and the fact that you are an American citizen? CONAN: Those are very difficult to distinguish. It's also -- there's a danger of getting too identified with the unit that you're with, and it becomes, you know, us instead of them. This is a psychological thing. You really do have to resist.
But personally, for me, if the biggest danger I'd be afraid of is doing something stupid and, you know, then soldiers coming out to rescue you, and it would hard to live with yourself if somebody was wounded or, God forbid, killed trying to do something on your behalf.
KARL: I'm sure you saw yesterday, Harold Evans had a piece on this whole process in "The Wall Street Journal." Raises very difficult moral questions, questions like, Would you, as a war correspondent going in as part of a unit, if you knew that disinformation could help your country, would you engage in it?
CONAN: This is a very difficult proposition. I can't lie to my listeners. That's a fundamental, basic thing. During the Gulf War, I was on a couple of pools. I was asked not to report a couple of things, the altitude at which people were bombing, the fact that all of the -- this one particular type of aircraft were all at one base.
Those seemed to me reasonable restrictions, and perfectly legitimate things not to report. But there's a difference from not reporting that somebody's letting their weapons loose and such -- so- and-so many feet, and actually actively telling a lie. I wouldn't do that.
KARL: Well, what about, you know, the Geneva Conventions, as I understand it, say that journalists cannot take part in the battle.
CONAN: That's right.
KARL: What, what have, what if you are out there, and you're in a position where if you did do something, whether it be helping a wounded soldier or something more proactive, knowing, again, you could help your country, help your unit, would you sit there with your pen and your microphone, or would you get in there and engage?
CONAN: I think there's a big difference between a humanitarian gesture, helping somebody who's injured or wounded. That, I think -- I'd like to think I'd do that if it was an Iraqi soldier or an American soldier. But in terms of picking up a weapon, absolutely not.
KARL: Now, of course, we had almost no access, journalists had almost no access to the front lines in the Gulf War. In Vietnam, it was quite different. In Vietnam, journalists, especially towards the end of the war, seemed to be able to go just about anywhere. The only limitation was their willingness to put themselves in harm's way.
As you know, the Nixon administration people at the time blamed the press, blamed the media for turning the tide of opinion against Vietnam.
CONAN: There's that belief. You know, there's been a lot of studies done about that, Jonathan, and every indication seems to suggest, or, you know, that in fact, in a lot of ways the media was running behind public opinion on that question, not leading it.
But, you know, the fact of the matter is, if there's a war under way and people are reporting what is actually going on, pictures of combat, that was what was different about Vietnam, that's what really distinguished it from Korea or the Second World War, was the live images that people like CNN would provide in a coming conflict.
Well, you know, that changes people's minds. And maybe that's not a bad thing, if people understand what war is really like, because the nature of war is truly brutal. There is no such thing as a clean war.
KARL: Now, Neal, you've done it before. You were there throughout the Gulf War. Are you going back?
CONAN: I'm not going back this time, or at least not in the first tranch (ph). My obligation, my first responsibility is the show I host in Washington, D.C., "Talk of the Nation," which is on every day in the afternoon. It's -- you have to do what your company -- how to best serve your company. And, you know, in this conflict I'm not quite sure that Washington isn't in the front line.
KARL: All right. And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) no doubt, especially with some of the terror warnings we're seeing.
Neal, "Talk of the Nation," an excellent show on NPR.
CONAN: Thanks very much.
KARL: Thank you so much for joining us.
CONAN: Appreciate it.
KARL: Great.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
