Editor&Publisher/AP: Halberstam Finds Key Links in Iraq and Vietnam Coverage
Published: November 21, 2006
David Halberstam
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Pulitzer-prize winning war correspondent David Halberstam said Monday that government criticism of news reporters in Iraq reminds him of the way he was treated while covering the war in Vietnam.
"The crueler the war gets, the crueler the attacks get on anybody who doesn't salute or play the game," he said. "And then one day, the people who are doing the attacking look around and they've used up their credibility."
Halberstam, who wrote about Vietnam for The New York Times, joined combat reporters from The Associated Press and other news outlets at a conference at Middle Tennessee State University.
Independent-minded reporters wrote that the war in Vietnam was not going as policymakers in Washington had hoped -- and they paid a price for angering the administration.
"The attacks on us were very, very unpleasant," Halberstam said. "There was an attack on our manhood, on our politics. We were portrayed as being communists and weak."
But reporters are often vindicated over time, he said.
"I think the truth will always out," Halberstam said. "The people who attacked us are mostly forgotten; most of them have apologized."...
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