Sydney Schanberg on embeds

Quick follow up from an earlier post about Greg Mitchell’s new book about the run up to Iraq and the role of the media, a raft of reporters wade in to the whole “to-embed or not-to-embed debate. Sydney Schanberg has his say,

“Em-bed-ded,” said Sydney H. Schanberg [the New York Times journalist known for his reporting in Cambodia in the 70’s and from the film the Killing Fields], savoring the word’s many ambiguities and connotations. “Embedded means, ‘You’re there.’ It also means, ‘You’re stuck.'” … “You’d rather not be hampered at all,” he admitted, “but as a journalist, and a realist, I don’t expect to walk into the military’s shop and break all the china. You’re a fool if you believe that. But the military, on the other hand, must recognize you are a professional.” link