Spinning: The Military's Other War   

The military teaches its public relations officers how to deal with the news media.

The military teaches its public relations officers how to deal with the news media.

F or just over a week this winter, in a remote building in undramatic Suffolk, Virginia, more than 700 people from 18 countries took part in mass theater.

The dramatis personae included foreign ministers, relief workers, U.N. representatives and military commanders, many of whom played themselves. They were engaged in an inaugural affair: Simulating a massive international "peacekeeping" operation. Why? To train the commanders of tomorrow's Bosnias.

But the simulation, called "Unified Endeavor" and run by the U.S. Atlantic Command, stood out for another reason: It was the most advanced attempt yet to teach three-star officers, their staffs and particularly their public affairs officers how to deal with the media.

In the military, the phrase "the CNN effect" — the political impact of globally transmitted images of, say, a U.S. soldier's corpse being dragged through Mogadishu — is becoming a shibboleth (see "The CNN Effect," May 1996). To today's commanders, the CNN effect should be watched — and managed, if possible. If it can help it, the military is done letting other people tell its story.

When stories of, say, Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction can travel the globe in a heartbeat, commanders want to be the first to tell them. They want to color the debate, especially in delicate, inherently political operations like Bosnia, where perception is reality and tensions are high. "Tactical events take on strategic significance, because CNN makes them so," says retired Admiral Leighton "Snuffy" Smith, NATO's first Bosnia commander. Smith was a "senior mentor" during the events in late January and early February at Suffolk's Joint Training Analysis and Simulation Center.

In Bosnia, says Smith, "we learned a lot from the media. But on the other hand, again, there are some reporters who will report things with a slant... And the politicians who are giving you your guidance sometimes read the newspapers rather than the military reports. In all probability they get their newspapers first."

He adds: "You end up answering a lot of questions that come from overreacting political bodies that have gotten information out of an eight-second sound bite on television or two paragraphs in the [International] Herald Tribune that may not be correct."

The simulations show how the growing emphasis on meeting the press has become an integral part of formal training for the military's top officers.

The situation? A peacekeeping operation in "Azure," which was torn by a conflict with its secessionist province, "Turquoise." It faced a mix of past, present and future threats: chemical weapons, mass graves, displaced persons camps, war criminals and more.

Helping to make it all real was a full-fledged TV news studio, with a Tele-PrompTer, an anchor desk and talk show set. The studio borrowed footage from CNN for "news alerts" on UENN — the "Unified Endeavor Network News."

When those running the training session want to inject a surprise into the scenario, they flash a news bulletin, which helps commanders learn to "deal with bad news," says Army Col. William Braddy, Atlantic Command's deputy director for joint training.

On the print side, a handful of military reporters gathered news for the "Unified Endeavor Examiner." With UENN cameramen, they met daily at 11 a.m. news conferences, and copies of their "top stories" were published in a clipping service replicating the Pentagon's "Early Bird."

These activities train the print reporters, who normally work for military publications, for their non-simulated jobs. It also trains the public affairs people who must prepare the commanders to be peppered with questions.

The players take their roles seriously. "I walk down the halls here as a civilian reporter, not as a military journalist playing a civilian reporter," says Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dave Clark, normally a writer for Fleet Hometown News Center.

Derek Shearer, former ambassador to Finland and now a professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles, played the commanders' political adviser. He recalls convincing the brass during the exercise to remove the joking reference, on one briefing slide, to the press as "the enemy." He says he thinks military men will admit, however grudgingly, that a rapport with reporters can help form policy and inform policy makers.