The war: The new reality TV

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It seems like every retired general is serving as a consultant to a network these days. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, may also be able to get a cushy network job when he retires from the military, but he may have a bigger role to play than most of his colleagues. He is most likely to oust Mark Burnett as the king of reality TV.

American TV watchers have become enamored with real-life events unfolding on the small screen. Whether it’s a bachelorette’s quest for love, a survivor’s play for the money or an idol’s search for stardom, millions of us have become addicted to the latest trend reality in programming. The war with Iraq is no different.

We have seen battle, but we have never experienced the breadth and depth of images, sounds and first-person accounts like the ones playing out in this conflict, 24/7. Reporters are in the midst of the ground fights, they’re standing on the runways of the air campaign and they have seats at every Pentagon and White House briefing.

Everything is live. Very little seems to be getting in the way of beaming the battle back into our bedrooms. Anchors interrupt generals, reporters and analysts to alert us to every new air-raid warning and casualty total.

Even though many Western journalists last week left Baghdad either on their own or after being expelled, about 100 journalists are reportedly still in the Iraqi capital. At various points over the weekend CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel each showed as many as four simultaneous live images from Baghdad. Viewers watched live reports from National Geographic’s Peter Arnett and ABC’s Richard Engel. We heard sirens screaming and saw bombs dropping. It looked and felt like war. Was it too real? One former general said it looked like a video game.

Anchors who “parachute” into Kuwait and Qatar don’t help the glamorization of this new reality series. The “Today Show’s” Matt Lauer just needs his “Where in the World Is Matt Lauer” theme song to turn his coverage into the familiar ratings-time road trip feature.

While more than 1,000 journalists are “independents” and functioning on their own in Kuwait and Qatar, the 500-plus “embedded” journalists, reporting directly from American military units, are the ones who have added significantly to our program. We’ll leave the debate over sourcing and independence for another time and concentrate now on our new reality series.

The pictures that embedded crews beam back include tank columns rolling along the desert, U.S. soldiers in firefights and missiles being launched from American ships. Never before have viewers seen combat action this close and immediate. It does not get any more real.

Many embedded reporters, while attempting to provide an impartial view of the war, have become part of the story themselves. At times their reporting can be mesmerizing. That’s been the case with many correspondents with the 3rd infantry division. ABC veteran Ted Koppel has been clear-headed, concise and insightful. NBC’s David Bloom has also distinguished himself. Sitting on a tank in southern Iraq, his description of life as a soldier pushing toward the front was better than any image from a Hollywood script.

Unfortunately, the cast of characters in this drama now includes American POWs, soldiers who have lost their lives and tearful relatives. We can be sure that as this reality series unfolds there will be many more additions to the script. We are captivated by the drama and will surely keep watching this program, whether it ends after a few episodes or is picked up for the entire season. When it’s all over, our television viewing and expectations of reporting will never be the same. And perhaps Gen. Myers will have that network job offer after all.

MJ Bear is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at American University and runs an online consulting firm, mjbear.com. She is a founding board member of the Online News Association and is the former Vice President for Online at NPR.