"embed" and "shock and awe"

[Frank Abate]

For the details on one journalist's view of NOT being embedded, see the
article in the Globe and Mail:

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030322/FCCOVB/

. . . which Vida M already cited.


It seems to me that the military use of embed and embed with is a fairly
natural sense development of the verb.  The fact that -bed is part of the
word was perhaps a reason for choosing it (by whomever at the Pentagon chose
it), but clearly the verb embed has a standard sense that is not far from
the new application.

The "embedded" journalists (more than 600, according to the G and M article,
some 100 not Americans) are asked to sign an agreement that they will not
report certain things while they are with their units.  Though the author of
the G and M article objects to this, it is standard practice.  Clearly,
given the instancy of the videophone and other means of broadcasting live
video (not to mention audio) from the field, the safety of the troops would
be severely compromised if their position and numbers and such were known.
In fact, I was surprised to watch the live shots from a moving convoy, on
MSNBC the other day, reported by David Bloom (I will be amazed if he and his
crew do not win a Pulitzer), where, given the fact that the sun was out, one
could determine their compass direction by the shadows from the vehicle and
the time of day.  He also reported the size of the overall convoy -- some
20,000 troops and 6,000 vehicles.  His description of the length of the
convoy reminded me of the description of the size of the Persian army in
Herodotus, where it took days (said one observer) for their column to pass
by a given place.

Despite what the G and M journalist feels, I think that having real
journalists (and many of them, and not all from the US) right there with the
troops will result in far more accurate and thorough reporting than in the
prior Gulf War, where only "pool" coverage was allowed.  The military cannot
control what these journalists say, nor what they will write AFTER they are
no longer embedded.  And they will learn a lot, obviously, about the US
military and how it operates (and the Iraqis, too) by actually being with
the troops.

Don't miss the creative invention in the NYT today, where one finds
reference to the Oscar broadcast last night as "Shlock and Awe" [sic].

This one is not going to go away soon, it seems.  But then, I thought that,
too, about the macarena.

Frank Abate