Jul
17
2008
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Written by JD Johannes
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Friday, 18 July 2008 |
Headline from Bloomberg: 'Soldiers Killed in Valor, Buried in Shadows'
The column by Margaret Carlson then goes on to explain how U.S. Soldiers and Marines are buried beyond the eye of the press--and that the DoD is to blame.
I would reverse the equation: Why are there so few stories of valor in the media?
As a one-man-filmmaking crew I go to Iraq and film those stories of valor.
Why don't billion-dollar news organizations like Bloomberg do the same?
I'll tell you why. It is dangerous and difficult.
For me to tell a story of heroes in combat, first I have to be with them in combat. That means I have to be with an infantry unit at a small combat outpost, go out with them on missions and then keep the camera rolling and framed up while the mayhem that is combat happens around me.
It is much safer to sit back and have an Iraqi stringer call in the story via a cell phone.
It is much safer to stay in the fortified hotel.
It is much easier to write a column in the United States about a book you read at the beach.
The media has no interest in stories of valor, of heroism.
If they did, you would actually see some on TV news and read them in newspapers.
The media will complain that it is not economically viable. To that I say look to the right.
Hmmm. I'm closing in on beating a major Hollywood director. And I'm just one crazy dude with a camera.
The DoD may intentionally be burying Soldiers in the shadows--but the media is guilty of ignoring the valor.
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Jul
16
2008
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Written by JD Johannes
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Wednesday, 16 July 2008 |
In quantum physics there is a formula for determining how much the locating and measuring of a particle effects the particle itself.
In the social sciences, it is called the Observer Effect .
For a war correspondent embedded in an infantry unit the question of the observer effect cannot be dismissed.
Which was the point of my brief comments earlier this week on HBO's mini-series Generation Kill .
How much did Evan Wright's presence with Marines from the 1st Recon Battalion affect what happened, especially in light of his being an always on print reporter?
The exact same question could be pointed at my documentaries filmed as an embedded reporter in Iraq.
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Jul
13
2008
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Written by JD Johannes
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Monday, 14 July 2008 |
"Stop scribbing, it encourages him," the team leader Brad Colbert says to embedded reporter Evan Wright in HBO's miniseries, Generation Kill .
And that scribbling may be the downfall of the entire enterprise.
In the course of making four documentaries about Iraq, I've learned that Soldiers and Marines will 'perform' for a reporter.
That is one of the hazards of the embedded reporter system.
I've had a built in advantage--the Eagle Globe & Anchor tattooed on my shoulder. I've been one of them and I don't care for the acting.
As a filmmaker embedded with grunts, I have a simple policy--if the camera is rolling they are obviously on. During an interview they know it is the real deal.
But I spend a lot of time without the camera on.
A print reporter like Mr. Wright is always on and therefore the temptation for young men to perform for him is always there.
And in the sheer volume of living with grunts 24x7, there will be a lot that could be missed, misunderstood and misquoted.
In the documentary I'm editing now, I disect one raid/firefight. The whole operation took 90 minutes, but conveying all the moving parts, audibles, complex details and events subject what Julias Caesar called "the fortunes of war" is next to impossible.
And that was for one 90-minute raid with the added benefit of video tape.
In the 21 days of major operations, there was too much detail to be covered in the 384 pages of Mr. Wrights book or 8 hours of a miniseries and the neccessity of creating an entertaining narrative guarantees much will be glossed over, simplified, ignored or discarded.
Throw in the opportunity for the young men to perform 24x7 and you have a Polaroid photo of warfare--small field of view with a fuzzy focus where you may never know what was real and what was a performance.
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Jul
11
2008
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Written by JD Johannes
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Friday, 11 July 2008 |
'The Church of Lazlo' is one of my favorite radio programs.
Syndicated from Seattle , it also airs in Kansas City where I listen to it.
Lazlo and his side-kicks, Afentra and Slimfast, are talented radio personalities who have perfected their craft.
And they are unabashedly liberal and discuss politics almost every day.
But, their on-air presence is so good, that a conservative like me, will put up with the liberal talking points to hear to the rest of show.
Under a re-institution of the fairness doctrine, the stations that air 'The Church of Lazlo' would have to provide air-time for opposing political views.
That means an alternative rock station that carries the 'Church of Lazlo' would have to carry a show with conservative for several hours a day. An openly conservative DJ on an alternative rock station is a recipie for ratings failure.
Or, in the alternative, all the politics in 'The Church of Lazlo' would have to go away.
I am not sure how much the liberal politics plays into audience attraction/retention--but if it didn't, the show would have been off the air a few years ago. Obviously, the politics works. Which is good for the fans, good for Lazlo and company, good for the advertisers and good for the radio stations.
Under the fairness doctrine, 'The Church of Lazlo' would be stifled, or an equal amount of time would have to be given to a DJ whose show would probably flop.
If the liberal politics is part of the draw of the show, then ratings would suffer, which would not be good for Lazlo & Company, advertisers or the radio stations.
A lot people who are focused on the AM dial, forget that there are lots of Lazlos on the FM dial.
Moreover, radio stations will have Lazlo on the FM and Limbaugh on the AM side.
Case in point. KRBZ-FM, which airs 'The Church of Lazlo' is an Entercom station. In Kansas City, Entercom also owns KMBZ-AM which carries Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Mark Levin and Neal Boortz.
Entercom carries Lazlo because he is perfect for their FM alternative rock station and Limbaugh because he is perfect for their AM talk station.
Obviously, Entercom is an equal opportunity profit taker.
Those who want to bring back the fairness doctrine need to remember that it applies to the Lazlos on the FM dial as well.
And just like watered down AM talk doesn't work, a watered down 'Church of Lazlo' wouldn't be nearly as fun to listen to.
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Jul
10
2008
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Written by JD Johannes
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Thursday, 10 July 2008 |
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First a review of the staged combat.
This is actual Marines in real combat .
This is a real live firefight with real bullets.
HBO seems to prefer the staged version better. And I'm sure there will be plenty of raves about how 'gritty' it is and captures the 'essence' of combat.
But this is not the essence of combat--it is real combat .
(HT: Hotair Headlines)
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Jun
30
2008
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Written by JD Johannes
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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
As a blogger who produces orginal content--as in original reporting, TV and Documentaries from Iraq--I am fearful of the decline of newspapers and the hard news sections of the major TV/Cable networks.
As crappy as they are, at least they are something.
The Cable/TV networks essentially give away products for free in the hopes people will watch them then sell the audience to advertisers.
As a business, the goal is to put out the product that gets the most eyeballs for the least expense.
Two "strategists" bickering is some pretty cheap TV. I remember clearly eating breakfast in the Camp Fallujah chow hall as two "strategists" one Democrat, one Republican, bickered over the success of the troop surge in Iraq.
I'm sure it was all relatively cheap and an easy way to fill four minutes of airtime.
The problem is, those two "strategists" had never been to Iraq, and knew absolutely nothing of any value about Iraq. On an important foreign policy issue, where people make decisions based on inputs from the news media, the inputs from the two "strategists" could have only made people less informed.
Covering Iraq in person, on the ground, outside the wire, off the major bases and outside the hotel is difficult, dangerous and more expensive than having two clueless strategists bicker about it.
As ad revenues drop and audiences diversify, free news content of any meaningful value become scarce and meaningful, fact-based information will be commoditized.
The people who really need to know will pay for proprietary reporting which will not be made available to public in a detailed and useful form.
In some ways, the DVDs I sell are a form of that. If all a person cares about is that the troop is working, they will not buy my DVDs. If they want to know how and why it worked, they will buy the DVDs.
What this does is lend more power to the the few organizations who will provide orginal content--fact based content to those who will pay for it.
Oil traders will pay money to know what exactly is going on in Nigeria or Iran. But it does not pay for a news organization to gather and deliver it to a mass audience when two "strategists" spouting opinion can produce an audience for far less.
Over time, more opinions will be based on fewer facts in areas where the facts are expensive to obtain.
I am not sure how or even if the trend can be reversed. The audience seems content to watch the opinions on TV.
The newspapers are dwindling, and that is a function of on-line availability of generic news and a negative reaction to bias in the delivery of information.
Hard news is, as Glenn Reynolds says, still the killer app of the major media organizations, but as long as it is more profitable to put out opinion--two strategists bickering is what we will get.
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Jun
05
2008
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Written by JD Johannes
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Thursday, 05 June 2008 |
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I will be on the Ed Morrissey show this afternoon.
Here are a few clips from the documentaries we will be discussing.
Danger Close
Baghdad Surge
Anbar Awakens
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May
20
2008
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Written by JD Johannes
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Tuesday, 20 May 2008 |
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In the national wires and in the my local paper there are stories about legislation to modify the GI Bill.
(I was a beneficiary of the GI Bill in the previous decade.)
In reading these stories, I can see how people are easily confused by the concept of a GI Bill that covers tuition and one that provides a monthly payment. In most cases, the monthly payment would exceed full tuition.
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May
11
2008
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Written by David Chavarria
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Monday, 12 May 2008 |
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As a producer (among other titles) of the Outside the Wire documentary series, people often ask me the difference between our documentaries about Iraq and other documentaries.
I tell people that JD embeds long term with our troops...he never just goes in, gets some soundbites and goes somewhere else. I usually add the story about the News Director who told me, after we sent him a tape, that JD's footage should have been shot using a tripod...yeah, like JD's going to set up a tri-pod in the middle shootout in Nasser wa Saalam. The News Director didn't get the whole 'this is actual combat in Iraq' thing.
But, just the other day, I found another answer to that question people often ask me. The difference is neatly summed up in a quote from this GQ article about Errol Morris' documentary about Abu Ghraib prison, Standard Operating Procedure .
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