Hotel Warriors: Covering the Gulf War

by John J. Fialka

During America's Civil War, accounts of the Battle of Bull Run reached New York within 24 hours. During the Gulf War, reports took three or four days - sometimes two weeks - just to get from the front lines to the nearby press headquarters at the Dhahran International Hotel. From an insider's perspective, Fialka tells why the Marines had a better plan than the Army for getting news back from the front - and how even good plans go awry in the fog of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0943875404
• ISBN13: 9780943875408
• Release Date: March 1992
• Publisher: Woodrow Wilson Center Press
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 4.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Important book

This short book is a must read for anyone interested in journalism. In fact, it is an important book for anyone interested in the value of getting accurate news.

Press coverage has come along way since this report

Fialka served as a reporter during the first Gulf War in 1991. This small volume documents the trials and tribulations of FIalka and other members of the press corps dealing with the military, which in most respects was wary of the press, based on experiences lingering from Vietnam. However, Fialka has more criticisms...his own peers in the press share an equal blame in his eyes, based on the way they handled themselves within the press pool, frequently trying to one up the other. He also criticizes the press organizations who sent reporters with no experience dealing with military matters to cover, what up to this point, was the largest military story since the Vietnam War.Fialka does have some positive things to say: his praise for the Marine Corp's ability to handle the press stands in stark contrast to that of the US Army. He also praises the tenacity of the reporters that bucked the pool system to get the real story, even risking their own lives to do so.THis book is an interesting read, based on the complete reverse situation recently demonstrated in the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom. It would be interesting to see what Fialka would say about his brethren who were embedded, and how that may or may not have contributed to getting the best face on a story.A quick read, and if you can cut through some of the "its not fair" dialogue, a good review of press operations during the first Gulf War.