"Shock and Awe"

[Alice Faber]

Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>Most outrageous indeed.  Another term that should be nominated in some
>category or other is "embedded," especially by us linguist types.  And just
>today I heard that there are some independent journalists (unembedded, or
>not embeds) in Iraq, but I've forgotten the term for them--isolates?
>

I just read an article on this, by one of the "isolates", Geoffrey
York of the Toronto Globe and Mail. His brother is a friend of mine
and posted the article to a private mailing list we're both on. The
term he used is "unilateral" and says that it's on his credentials. I
can't find the article that Ian posted on the Globe and Mail's web
site, so here are the opening paragraphs:

>KUWAIT CITY -- In bright red letters, my U.S. military accreditation badge
>announces that I am a "unilateral."
>
>It's a reminder of my lowly status, designed to make certain that no
>gatekeeper accidentally allows me any privileged access to the American
>forces. Unilateral is the Pentagon's bureaucratic term for the distrusted
>rabble of independent-minded journalists in Kuwait, those who are unable
>or unwilling to "embed" with American military units. We are outsiders,
>powerless and marginal, lacking any propaganda value in Washington's media
>strategy.

Ian says this is in today's paper, so perhaps the site hasn't been updated yet.
--
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Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963