[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 26, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S4399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   COVERAGE OF THE WAR ON TELEVISION

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, let me make one final point while I am in 
the Chamber.
  I came to talk about this budget and the $12 trillion of debt that 
this budget document heads us toward. Let me make one final point. I 
watch the television coverage every morning, as do most Americans, with 
respect to the war. And my thoughts and prayers are with our soldiers. 
My thoughts and prayers are with the innocent folks in Iraq. We have no 
quarrel with the Iraqi citizens. This is with Saddam Hussein and his 
regime.
  It breaks my heart to see casualties on any side. But one of the 
things that concerns me, in the mornings when I watch this coverage, or 
in the evenings before I retire and I watch this coverage, is there are 
a number of retired generals and admirals and others who stand before 
the cameras, showing us, on the maps, exactly where our troops are 
moving, exactly what the strategy is, saying: Here is the route to 
Baghdad for this division and that division.
  I ask myself: I wonder if that is in the interests of the American 
soldiers fighting in Iraq. I just wonder. Do we need to have retired 
officers, with pointers, pointing to maps and saying, ``Here is where 
this division is going; here is where I think it is going to be,'' and 
some saying, ``I disagree with the current strategy''?
  I worry a lot about whether the information provided to the other 
side--the information provided to our adversaries from that kind of 
briefing that goes on on every channel, every network, by retired 
officers, who know a great deal about battle plans--I wonder whether 
they should be offering that precise analysis of exactly where troop 
movements are on television morning, noon, and night.
  The 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week coverage on this is something I think 
provides information to the American people--and I think we want 
information--but I do not believe anyone wants information disclosed 
during this 24-7 news cycle in a manner that would in any way alert the 
adversary about what is happening.
  I worry sometimes, when I see this on television: Is this healthy? Is 
more information made available, by retired generals and admirals and 
others who are analyzing troop movements, than really should be made 
available to our adversaries? I just ask the question. I think it is an 
important question to ask. I intend to ask it this morning in the 
Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, where I will return in just a few 
moments.

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