[Itpolicy-np] Media on the Battlefield - "A Nonleathal Fire"

[Bipin Gautam]

( MAIN: http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/call/docs/07-04/toc.asp )


Introduction

GEN Eric Shinseki, former U.S. Army Chief of Staff, once said, “If we
do not speak for the Army, others will.” The media should be
considered as a component of nonlethal fires and/or nonkinetic
targeting, another tool to help accomplish the mission. The media will
write their story, with or without input from the field. It only makes
sense to engage the media to ensure the entire story is told. The
media is a venue where Soldiers can pass along command messages that
contain truthful and factual information. Soldiers have nothing to
hide. However, when attempting to carry out orders within the laws of
land warfare, bad things can happen. During these times, it is best to
confront the media and present the military side of the story.

When integrated and synchronized with information operations (IO)
efforts, PA, and the media, in particular, can be force multipliers.
However, it is important to understand the difference between IO and
PA operations. Both belong to the IO career field. IO uses deception
and, unlike PA operations, specifically targets the enemy. PA
operations must be aware of the themes and messages IO is pushing
during each phase of the operation. The intent is to leverage IO.
During the initial phases of OIF, the Coalition Forces Land Component
Command (CFLCC) always ensured PA planners were involved in the IO
working groups, especially the effects targeting board process. This
involvement ensured that the PA officer (PAO) would bring information
to the media director. The media director then would have a clear
picture of the commander’s intent and what the staff was attempting to
accomplish.

Armed with this knowledge, the media director could prioritize which
of the thousands of media queries to work on, while still maintaining
a level of fairness and equity to all reporters. (As an example, prior
to crossing the line of departure [LD], IO was pushing themes to the
enemy concerning capitulation. Knowing this, the media director pushed
reporters out to units responsible for dealing with large numbers of
enemy prisoners of war to show the enemy how they would be fed,
clothed, and provided shelter.)

There is always a tendency to overclassify information to avoid
speaking to the media. There are essentially two things you always
want to protect: timing and intentions. You must ask yourself if the
information you are providing to the media will give an adversary
something they can use against you. If operations security (OPSEC) or
safety concerns make it impossible to support a media request, then
simply say so. Reporters must understand when they can write or speak
about what they see. Units were very successful during the decisive
combat phase of OIF in allowing reporters access to command centers.
(The practice of allowing reporters in command centers will be
discussed later.)
...

“Go ugly early” is a phrase sometimes used in PA. Bad things happen in
war. There were nearly 700 embedded reporters with units prior to
crossing the LD. They saw and heard everything. There were many times
when something bad happened, and Soldiers were unsure how to respond
when a reporter was on the scene. There was an incident near the Umm
Qasr area where several civilians were injured by coalition fire. An
embedded reporter captured the scene as British and U.S. troops
attended to the injured. Initially, the troops shouted at the reporter
to get back, but eventually allowed him to continue to film as long as
he remained out of the way. The images of the Soldiers’ faces told the
story. They were concerned that they had injured innocent civilians on
the battlefield, but the film showed that the primary concern at that
point was to provide medical attention. The embedded reporter had a
right to be there to do his job, which was to report the activity. The
unit could have gained even more leverage by engaging the reporter (by
way of a short stand-up interview) with a leader on the scene who
could have released known information and delivered a command message.
The message could have included sympathy for the injured and how the
coalition makes every attempt to avoid civilian casualties, followed
by basic, releasable facts. This situation proves that Soldiers must
be able to articulate their story on the spot without violating OPSEC.
In order to do this, PA must be incorporated into home-station
training.



Preparing for Interviews

Today’s military members must be skilled at preparing for media
interviews. There are generally two types of interviews to prepare
for: the taped, stand-up interview and the print interview. During
these interviews, no one hears the question, only the response. Press
conferences are usually reserved for those higher in the chain of
command. Even at the CFLCC level, a decision was made initially not to
conduct press conferences because Department of Defense (DOD) would be
conducting press conferences in Washington, D.C., and Central Command
would conduct a daily press conference in Qatar.

Preparing for an interview is basically a negotiation. Stress to the
reporter your need for information before you begin. Ask yourself what
the story can do for your unit and the mission. Think about what phase
of the operation you are in. What themes and messages is IO pushing?
How does this story help leverage them? Is this the right time to do
the story? For example, prior to crossing the LD in Kuwait, you may
not want to do a story about how you are going to fight oil well
fires. Do not give the enemy that information yet. After you cross the
LD and have passed that phase, then proceed with the story.

Many reporters will want “fluff” stories. These are fine, but given
the choice, prioritize stories depending on what phase of the
operation you are in. If you have not crossed the LD yet, a story
about Soldiers training in the desert should be given emphasis over a
story about women in the Army. Remember, you need to send a message to
the world and the enemy that you are trained and ready. You can do a
story about women in the Army later. Be polite, honest, helpful, and
friendly to journalists, but remember the mission and Soldiers on the
ground. How can you help them?

When preparing for an interview, do what you do in other military
operations: gather intelligence. Ask questions such as, “What is the
story about?” What angle is the reporter after? What aspects of a
subject is the reporter interested in? Is the reporter talking to
anyone else? Will you have to augment information he has already
gotten? Will you have to refute information? How knowledgeable is the
reporter on the subject? What does he know about the military? What
type of stories does this reporter typically write? Are they pro- or
anti-military? Pro- or anti-war?

Gather background information on reporters; get their biographies.
Consider asking the journalists to send questions to you. You may have
to gather facts from other subject-matter experts on the staff to help
you articulate your side or the rest of the story. Asking for
questions also helps you prepare for what might be asked during the
interview. Brainstorm every question you think might be asked,
especially the difficult ones. Have a response for all questions.

If you cannot do the interview, tell the reporters why. More times
than not, they will understand. For example, in Baghdad a news crew
had gotten information on an effort to find a pilot downed in the 1991
Gulf War. CFLCC would often get off-the-wall requests such as this.
However, after some investigation, it was learned that a team was, in
fact, investigating the whereabouts of missing Navy CDR Michael Scott
Speicher. For obvious reasons (timing and intentions), doing the story
at that time would jeopardize the investigation. After a meeting
between the news crew and the investigating team, it was agreed to
wait until a time when the information could be released without
risking the investigation.

Know what senior leaders are saying about your operation. This helps
you anticipate questions. If you have access to the Internet, review
recent DOD transcripts. Chances are the same questions will be asked
at your level. You do not have to regurgitate the Secretary of
Defense’s responses, but you can ensure that your messages are in line
and focused on how things are from your foxhole. Military leaders must
be aware of what is being said to avoid their comments being taken out
of context. For example, if the President said yesterday, “There are
indications that foreign fighters are involved in conducting these
attacks,” and you say, “We have no indications of foreign fighter
involvement,” it would appear that you are not on the same sheet of
music. If you knew what the President’s statement was, you could have
rephrased your response to more accurately articulate your message.
The President is speaking for the entire country. Perhaps in your
specific AOR there are no indications of foreign fighters. You could
have said, “In our area, there are no indications … .” This way, you
can avoid being taken out of context. Just being aware is the start
point.

Know current events. If you are doing an interview tomorrow, what
happened in the news today that may relate to that interview? How does
that event impact what you are going to talk about? Remember, you are
the military to some journalists, no matter what the topic. Stay in
your lane and speak to what you know.


Conducting the Interview

(For the purpose of this topic, the focus will be on stand-up, taped
interviews where the question is never heard, the most common
situation for most Soldiers.)

The interview itself is all about control. You want it; the reporter
wants it. You have to learn how to structure effective answers and
control the interview. Do not be question-driven; be message-driven.
The trick is to use your messages as guideposts and not repeated
phrases. This is where skill, preparation, and experience come in. You
should be trying to articulate command messages that will positively
influence the outcome of your mission. Use the media as a “nonlethal
fire.” Help raise the morale of that young E-4 on the checkpoint. If
you have the information and it is releasable, by all means give it,
but consider what other information to deliver to tell the remainder
of the story.

Structure effective answers. You are engaging the media not only to
respond to their questions, but also to deliver a message about your
mission that is important for the world to understand. Again, you must
ask yourself how you can help Soldiers on the ground by providing
information to the media. To do this, you need to structure effective
answers or responses. You should come to the interview with about
three or four messages that you want to deliver. Think of each message
as a pyramid.

Interview pyramid graphic

Figure 6-1

The top of the pyramid shows that you should state your message. This
is your response to the first question. For a taped stand-up
interview, it does not matter what the question is. You should deliver
your most important message first. That way, if you are interrupted
later, the message is already out. No one will hear the question on a
taped interview. Many times, even if a journalist comes to you with a
specific question in mind, if you deliver a clearly articulated
message, they will use it. You may tell them something that they did
not know. It may look and sound so good on tape that the affiliate’s
editors decide to use it as their sound bite.

After delivering your message, you then need to support your message.
Provide an explanation, evidence that supports your initial statement
(middle of the pyramid). At this point provide facts, key statistics,
description of a certain program, or a supporting argument or
rationale. For example, to support a statement made about what you are
doing in western Iraq, you can talk about how many patrols you have
conducted, number of arrests made, and food and water delivered. If
your position statement is that you are doing great things, winning
the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, back the statement up with
facts the media may have overlooked.

The bottom of the pyramid is where you further expand and illustrate
your message. Give a prepared example or analogy. Using the example
above, you might want to talk about a specific raid in one of the
towns.

During this entire process your goal is to be in control of the
interview. Have the reporters follow you. Hook the reporters’
interest. Be passionate about what you are talking about. Usually the
reporter will follow you through one message (or pyramid). The skill
comes in bridging to a second or third message. The goal is to
smoothly transition to your messages so you are not repeating things.
This takes practice and experience and sometimes a bit of charm. One
key leader who uses this method effectively is Colin Powell. He uses
textbook communication skills both during speeches and while talking
with reporters. He transitions so fluidly, the untrained eye may not
notice. By not sounding like a robot, he effectively communicates his
messages and avoids losing credibility.

You have to continually bridge back to your messages. Always be aware
which questions are out of your lane. The tendency is to attempt to
answer all questions. The key is to first think about what is being
asked. If it is not for you to answer, transition back on track and
state, “I don’t know about that, but what I can tell you is … .” or
“DOD might have more information on that, but the important thing to
remember is … .” Flag or spotlight your message with phrases such as,
”First, let’s clarify the facts … .” or “Let’s look at what is really
important … .”

The hook is a tool you can effectively use to control the interview.
You want the reporter to follow you. The pyramid shows where you can
briefly stop between your initial answer and elaboration by offering a
statement such as, “You should have seen what happened yesterday...”
or “We have this new approach …,” then pause long enough so the
reporter can ask, “Well, what’s that?” This may not work easily every
time, especially with savvy reporters, but you get the idea. Remember,
you want to control the interview.


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Media-on-the-Battlefield Training: How-To
(http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/call/docs/07-04/ch-5.asp)

Select, assemble, train, and resource media role players.
Soldiers can be used, but there are great benefits to using civilians.
Civilians are less enamored by rank. Also, by using civilian media
role players, the training audience will recognize that the media are
not fellow Soldiers in disguise. The dynamic of unfamiliarity favors
realism in training for media on the battlefield.

You must train role players for media-on-the-battlefield scenarios.
Role players should be given a character description so they can act
the part. They should understand the media credential system, ground
rules, and the scenario in general. They should be capable of engaging
in dialogue to determine the essential elements of a news story. They
should be able to operate assigned news-gathering equipment, such as
cameras and personal computers. They also should be able to
independently compose a news story for print or broadcast.

Resource media role players to act like journalists. First, the role
player needs an identity badge to serve as credentials. The design of
the badge should be clearly marked “FOR TRAINING ONLY,” and should
show the individual’s photograph and identification number in
accordance with the unit SOP or scenario PA guidance.

Next, the role player needs a communications device of some type
(e.g., cell phone) so he can, if necessary, dictate a news piece and
expedite production of a news story for radio or print. A cell phone
also helps with command and control by the exercise controller. The
role player will need a digital camera, laptop computer with
word-processing and photo-editing software, and a removable drive.

If the information environment includes television replication, media
role players may require a hand-held video camera and a digital
editing system. All media role players should have the ability to
maneuver independently by automobile in the training area and be
afforded a base of operation where media products are edited,
reproduced, and distributed.

Certify media role players with a rehearsal. Assign stories, make
precombat inspections of equipment, and practice interviews.
Role-player certification ends with the production of a “replicated
newspaper” or clipsheet, television news broadcast, or radio news
broadcast.
...