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USU journalism professor examines war and the press By
Ted Pease LOGAN -- After September 11, 2001, when the National Geographic Society wanted a close look at how we learn about war, the editors called on Mike Sweeney. Sweeney, a Utah State University journalism professor and media historian, teamed up with the National Geographic Society to produce a stunning and comprehensive picture of how journalists go to war, and how they tell the rest of us what horrors and heroism they see there. The result is From the Front: The Story of War, a compelling, 320-page examination of war and the role of journalists and photographers who have risked their lives to record the images and stories of conflict from the front lines, and send them back home. "For two centuries journalists have gone to war," Sweeney writes. "Many...have fought their own battles against government and military officials because they think the public has the right to know the news...When they succeed - when they get it right despite all obstacles - war correspondents can shake the world." As befits a National Geographic product, this history of how humans have recorded and told the story of war is stunningly illustrated with some of the most famous-and some much rarer-images of some of the greatest armed conflicts of all time. What is different about war in recent times is that it is often not only recorded by journalists in the line of fire, but almost instantaneously reported back to the home front. "From Homer's Iliad to The Song of Roland to Tolstoy's epic War and Peace, the story of war has always been a central part of the human narrative," observes the book jacket. "Only in the past century and a half has this story been told as it unfolded, by a close-knit yet highly competitive group of brave men and women who have ventured to the front lines armed with a notebook or a camera as it unfolded." The photographs that accompany Sweeney's overview of the press at war are stunning-photojournalists prone on the ground as they aim cameras at armed rebels in South African in 1994; beautiful and regal lines of troops, canon and cavalry in the 1800s; pipe-smoking reporters in suits - like William Shirer, reporting on Adolph Hitler during the early days of World War II; children in wartime rubble. Sweeney's book examines journalists at war from the Crimea to Kuwait to the terrorist attacks of September 2001. His work tells the story of the wartime storytellers from Richard Harding Davis and publisher William Randolph Hearst's splendid little Spanish-American War in the late 1800s, to correspondent Ernie Pyle, Edward R. Murrow and Margaret Bourke White's coverage of WWII, to the journalism of the Vietnam era to how the world came to know the events of 9-11. The theme throughout Sweeney's book focuses on how we - those who were left back at home or who studied war in later generations - heard the news and, eventually, learned the truth of war. From the Front offers extraordinary photography, maps, artwork and compelling text, including firsthand accounts by journalists on the scene. Among many memorable moments, the book reveals a close-up view of the ill-fated charge of the Light Brigade and, later, Custerıs last stand; it remembers the Spanish Civil War, including accounts of Ernest Hemingway; relives the London Blitz, with a focus on broadcaster Edward Murrow; and documents the horrors of the Vietnam conflict. The book contains stunning, often graphic, photographs from the archives of Life magazine, from London's Imperial War Museum, and from dozens of archives and private collections. Also featured are photo essays by renowned photojournalists such as Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White and Larry Burrows, as well as text essays by several noted journalists, including Morley Safer of CBS on the torching of Cam Ne and Paul Steiger of the Wall Street Journal on the death of his former colleagues Daniel Pearl, Dial Torgerson and Joe Alex Morris. Award-winning author and journalist David Halberstam, no doubt reflecting on his own experiences under the guns in Vietnam, honors those who have brought home the story from the front. "[T]hey do it for a combination of reasons," Halberstam writes in the foreword to Sweeney's book. "It is a great story and it's where the action is, and it is for a journalist the ultimate test of resourcefulness and courage, and it puts you in the company of other exceptional people taking extraordinary risks. "But in the end," Halberstam says, "there's something more than that at work, and though it's often unstated...it is about a larger purpose and a belief that where there is violence and suffering the rest of the world needs to know." Sweeney, whose 2001 book Secrets of Victory examined censorship and the press in the United States during World War II, says this wider look at the press during wartime has opened his own eyes and understanding of the potential and responsibility of journalists during times of crisis. "As this book shows, some journalists have had a profound impact, becoming as famous and influential as generals, admirals and world leaders," Sweeney says. "But there are many little-known figures just as important. "Doing this book has helped me appreciate the sacrifices that sometimes are made in the name of God and country. Not just by soldiers and sailors, but also by journalists. They never have to go to war. They do so voluntarily, because they believe that the public that decides to fight, should know what it is fighting for. Take the war on terrorism in Afghanistan. Did you know that through the end of 2001, more journalists had been killed by hostile forces in Central Asia than American soldiers?" Sweeney, a top U.S. expert on issues of press, censorship and wartime, is a veteran newspaper journalist. He joined the USU journalism faculty in 1996. Book Information: Sweeney, Michael S. FROM THE FRONT: The Story of War: Featuring Correspondentsı Chronicles (Washington, DC: National Geographic Books, November 2002) ISBN 0-7922-6919-5
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