The challenge of discerning war news
outlined by Professor Richard Stewart

Stewart: Described searching for balance and depth in news coverage of Iraq.

PHILADELPHIA (March 3, 2004) --What "news" do you rely upon to get at the "truth" about the situation in Iraq? Are there "weapons of mass destruction" there? How do you know?

"I don’t know," Professor Richard N. Stewart told a convocation audience March 2 at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. "But then I’m not alone. Hans Blix and David Kaye, two former inspectors…don’t know either." Stewart, a self-confessed "news junkie" who scours three network news broadcasts on a regular basis and who devours the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Tribune, Newsweek and listens to National Public Radio on a regular basis, gave an hour’s worth of impressions about the media to students, faculty and friends in remarks entitled "War in the Public Eye: Reflections of a Poor, Humble Parish Priest."

Stewart was trying to background future church professionals on how to help their parishioners be appropriately discerning about the news sources they rely upon. Stewart teaches parish administration and communications at the seminary.

He gave six elements of the journalistic exercise that he hopes a story will cover well, "Who is involved? What is going on? When exactly did it take place? Where did the event take place? Why did the people get involved? How did all this transpire? One would hope that in any of the mediums by which we receive news those who report would sufficiently cover those elemental bases." Stewart noted that he finds it hard to make firm assessments of news when there are "gaps" in the flow of information. Journalism practice does have a built-in system of checks and balances.

He spent time describing such resources for news as radio, the internet and television, noting that for the purposes of his presentation, he was taking background from several books – Winning Modern Wars: Iraq, Terrorism and the American Empire by General Wesley K. Clark, Lie and the Lyin Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken, and Naked in Baghdad: the Iraq War as seen by NPR’s correspondent Anne Garrels.

He noted how Presidential Candidate George Bush, quoted by Washington Post Writer Terry Neal, had spoken to a crowd in Chattanooga, TN before the election in 2000, saying in part, "Let me tell you what else I’m worried about: I’m worried about an opponent who uses nation building and the military in the same sentence. See, our view of the military is for our military to be properly prepared to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place." It was a dig at the Clinton/Gore foreign policy that involved troops in Haiti, the Balkans and Somalia. But, Stewart noted, less than a year later the events of September 11, 2001, the news from various sources notes the Bush administration "has involved the United States in the process of nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq." As reporter Dwayne Wickham had noted in writing a story for USA Today, "What a difference a year makes."

Stewart traced the methods of war reporting ranging from correspondent Ernie Pyle’s personal accounts of troops in World War II to the notion of "embedded" reporters in the Iraqi theater.

Stewart said, "According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, over 600 journalists including Al Jazeera were embedded with coalition forces. There were many questions raised about the ability of reporters to get real stories when they would be managed by public relations specialists and by the troops with whom they traveled. The embedded coverage, the research found, is largely anecdotal. It’s both exciting and dull, combat focused, and mostly live and unedited. Much of it lacks context, but it is unusually rich in detail. It has all the virtues and vices of reporting only what you can see."

Ernie Pyle reported stories of the troops in battle action in World War II. In most stories out of Iraq, viewers of television were hearing mostly from reporters, not directly from soldiers or other sources, Stewart noted. But he added he thinks Americans were better served by the embedding of reporters process in the recent conflict than was the case in either the 1991 Gulf War or the halting access available to reporters in Afghanistan.

What advice did Stewart have for individuals seeking "reliable" news sources? In an interview after his presentation, he said, "Know what your sources are and do a background check on them," he said. "Each person has to search for his or her own balance." He suggested using a variety of sources is helpful and noted he likes National Public Radio for broadcast information. "With NPR you get longer pieces with more depth to them," he said. "I listen to it all the time. It just gives you more background to argue against or agree with."

Stewart, right, with the Rev. Michael Lozano, ’92, who recently returned from Iraq, where he served near Baghdad as chaplain to a military police battalion.