October 31, 2002 Feature
Story
Utah State Journalism
Professor Examines War
and the Press
Sweeney and National Geographic Report ‘From the Front’
 After
September 11, 2001, when the National Geographic Society wanted
a close look at how we learn about war, the editors called on
Mike Sweeney.
Sweeney, a Utah State University journalism professor and media
historian, teamed up with the National Geographic Society to
produce a stunning and comprehensive picture of how journalists
go to war, and how they tell the rest of us what horrors and
heroism they see there.
The result is "From the Front: The Story of War,"
a compelling, 320-page examination of war and the role of journalists
and photographers who have risked their lives to record the
images and stories of conflict from the front lines, and send
them back home.
"For two centuries journalists have gone to war,"
Sweeney writes. "Many…have fought their own battles
against government and military officials because they think
the public has the right to know the news....When they succeed—when
they get it right despite all obstacles—war correspondents
can shake the world."
As befits a National Geographic product, this history of how
humans have recorded and told the story of war is stunningly
illustrated with some of the most famous—and some much
rarer— images of some of the greatest armed conflicts
of all time. What is different about war in recent times is
that it is often not only recorded by journalists in the line
of fire, but almost instantaneously reported back to the home
front.
"From Homer’s Iliad to The Song of Roland to Tolstoy’s
epic War and Peace, the story of war has always been a central
part of the human narrative," observes the book jacket.
"Only in the past century and a half has this story been
told as it unfolded, by a close-knit yet highly competitive
group of brave men and women who have ventured to the front
lines armed with a notebook or a camera as it unfolded."
The photographs that accompany Sweeney’s overview of the
press at war are stunning—photojournalists prone on the
ground as they aim cameras at armed rebels in South African
in 1994; beautiful and regal lines of troops, canon and cavalry
in the 1800s; pipe-smoking reporters in suits—like William
Shirer, reporting on Adolph Hitler during the early days of
World War II; children in wartime rubble.
Sweeney’s book examines journalists at war from the Crimea
to Kuwait to the terrorist attacks of September 2001. His work
tells the story of the wartime storytellers from Richard Harding
Davis and publisher William Randolph Hearst’s "splendid
little" Spanish-American War in the late 1800s, to correspondent
Ernie Pyle, Edward R. Murrow and Margaret Bourke White’s
coverage of WWII, to the journalism of the Vietnam era to how
the world came to know the events of 9-11.
The theme throughout Sweeney’s book focuses on how we—those
who were left back at home or who studied war in later generations—heard
the news and, eventually, learned the truth of war.
From the Front offers extraordinary photography, maps, artwork
and compelling text, including firsthand accounts by journalists
on the scene. Among many memorable moments, the book reveals
a close-up view of the ill-fated charge of the Light Brigade
and, later, Custer’s last stand; it remembers the Spanish
Civil War, including accounts of Ernest Hemingway; relives the
London Blitz, with a focus on broadcaster Edward Murrow; and
documents the horrors of the Vietnam conflict.
The book contains stunning, often graphic, photographs from
the archives of Life magazine, from London’s Imperial
War Museum, and from dozens of archives and private collections.
Also featured are photo essays by renowned photojournalists
such as Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White and Larry Burrows,
as well as text essays by several noted journalists, including
Morley Safer of CBS on the torching of Cam Ne and Paul Steiger
of the Wall Street Journal on the death of his former colleagues
Daniel Pearl, Dial Torgerson and Joe Alex Morris.
Award-winning author and journalist David Halberstam, no doubt
reflecting on his own experiences under the guns in Vietnam,
honors those who have brought home the story from the front.
"[T]hey do it for a combination of reasons," Halberstam
writes in the foreword to Sweeney’s book. "It is
a great story and it’s where the action is, and it is
for a journalist the ultimate test of resourcefulness and courage,
and it puts you in the company of other exceptional people taking
extraordinary risks.
"But in the end," Halberstam says, "there’s
something more than that at work, and though it’s often
unstated . . . it is about a larger purpose and a belief that
where there is violence and suffering the rest of the world
needs to know."
Sweeney, whose 2001 book Secrets of Victory examined censorship
and the press in the United States during World War II, says
this wider look at the press during wartime has opened his own
eyes and understanding of the potential and responsibility of
journalists during times of crisis.
"As this book shows, some journalists have had a profound
impact, becoming as famous and influential as generals, admirals
and world leaders," Sweeney says. "But there are many
little-known figures just as important.
"Doing this book has helped me appreciate the sacrifices
that sometimes are made in the name of God and country. Not
just by soldiers and sailors, but also by journalists. They
never have to go to war. They do so voluntarily, because they
believe that the public that decides to fight, should know what
it is fighting for. Take the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.
Did you know that through the end of 2001, more journalists
had been killed by hostile forces in Central Asia than American
soldiers?"
Sweeney, a top U.S. expert on issues of press, censorship and
wartime, is a veteran newspaper journalist. He joined the USU
journalism faculty in 1996.
Book Information: Sweeney, Michael S. FROM THE FRONT: The Story
of War: Featuring Correspondents’ Chronicles (Washington,
DC: National Geographic Books, November 2002) ISBN 0-7922-6919-5
Writer: Edward Pease, (435) 797-3293; tpease@cc.usu.edu
Contact: Michael S. Sweeney, (435) 797-3292
Photo from the Billings (MT) Gazette, courtesy of the Hard
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