Frontline students

Students from the University of Indiana descended upon the Frontline Club this week to meet and talk with New York Times London Bureau Chief John Burns. John treated them to a talk about his experiences as a war reporter and about “embedding”. One of the students, Rosemary Pennington, blogged her thoughts about the talk and her time at the club,

“Ernie Pyle was embedded,” Burns said, referring to the fact Pyle traveled with soldiers during World War II. “They didn’t call it that then, but it’s what it was. He was given rations, a uniform.”
And it was an accepted way of doing things. Burns said he’d like critics of the current practice of journalists embedding with the military to not be so ready to condemn.
“Many of the critics of embedding lack an historical perspective,” Burns said. “And the American military have placed no restraints on me. I’ve been able to do the things I wanted to do.” link

The students are visiting London as part of their journalism course and are following “In the footsteps of Ernie Pyle”. They’ll be visiting “London, Normandy and Paris, visiting historical WWII sites and other points of interest.”
Picture by Tim Street