By Nicole Haley
Boston Globe reporter Brian MacQuarrie reflected upon his time embedded with the third infantry, third brigade army in Iraq and the reconstruction period that followed in the Egan Center Thursday night.
MacQuarrie discussed the challenges of maintaining reporter objectivity in what he called “the most important time of his career,” while sharing experiences with the American soldiers. The speech was part of the Ford Hall Forum lecture series, a free program for the public.
MacQuarrie said the access to soldiers and commanders was great and that he could even attend senior staff meetings where battle plans were discussed and laid out. The only restriction on his reporting was that he could not write about the Army’s current location or their plans for the next day.
The thought of spending about five months sleeping outside, eating the same food and tagging along with the same battalion of soldiers and commanders made MacQuarrie nervous. MacQuarrie said he had reservations about gaining the trust of these men who would serve as his only sources.
“The word ‘reporter’ to most U.S. soldiers sometimes has just four letters,” MacQuarrie said.
By writing stories about where they were from and what they felt, MacQuarrie said he earned the soldiers’ trust. He said that although he could only go along with the troops and see what they saw, he was aware of the criticism back in the states that accused embedded reporters of being too “gung-ho,” and presenting the war from a pro-U.S. standpoint.
Stephen Burgard, director of the school of journalism and moderator for MacQuarrie’s speech, said that in order to get both sides in a battlefield situation, it is important not to rely solely on the reports of one embedded journalist.
Burgard also said that if the Pentagon continues its experiment with embedded reporters in future conflicts that become more lengthy and complicated than Iraq, the government and the media may not continue on such cordial terms.
“When the going gets tough we’re going to have that relationship put to a more severe test,” Burgard said.
Besy Alvarez, a senior journalism major, said the reporting of embedded journalists in the Iraqi conflict did not satisfy her. Alvarez said the reporters failed to question the actions of the U.S. military.
“Every time I read the news I was reading one side and one side only and that was of the friend of the U.S. military,” Alvarez said.
In retrospect, MacQuarrie said he wished he had written some tougher stories. He acknowledged the problem of not being able to leave the battalion and talk to civilians.
“I wish I’d done more stories about what the soldiers thought about the causes of this war,” MacQuarrie said.
MacQuarrie remembered the crude jokes soldiers made about the bodies they saw lining the streets upon entering Baghdad. He said that at the time he recognized the immaturity that factored into what he saw as the callousness of some soldiers.
“It was like their video game in real life,” MacQuarrie said.
MacQuarrie said that when he left Iraq and returned shortly after the war to report on reconstruction, he was re-embedded with soldiers who expected to be home months before. MacQuarrie said he came back to a different Baghdad than the one he left behind and that he believes there has been little reporting on the positive progress there during reconstruction.
“You don’t hear about the schools going up or garbage being picked up but only about the increasing debt,” MacQuarrie said.
MacQuarrie said he hopes to follow up his reporting by attending a victory parade for soldiers to find out “how they perceive what they did in light of what occurred there.”
