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Subject: Clarinet: Bombs on Baghdad, news pools cover mess hall
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** Topic: While bombs fall on Baghdad, news p **
** Written  3:59 pm  Feb  7, 1991 by peg:ianp in cdp:mideast.media **
/* Written 10:55 am  Feb  6, 1991 by clarinews in peg:clari.fighting */
/* ---------- "While bombs fall on Baghdad, news p" ---------- */
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[Provided for USENET readers by ClariNet Communications Corp.  This
copyrighted material is for one-time USENET distribution only.]

        JILL CAMP, Eastern Saudi Arabia (UPI) -- Allied air forces shot down
four Iraqi warplanes Wednesday and pummeled the Republican Guards with
tons of bombs but the military activated quick reaction News Pool No. 11
to cover the grand opening of a shiny new mess hall several hundred
miles to the rear.
        It was an illustrative example why journalists covering the war
against Iraq are increasingly angry about the way news coverage is
managed. The military decides when to activate pools -- the small group
of news people who represent all other journalists covering the war --
and where they will go.
        In essence, the military, not journalists, decide what is the day's
news.
        ``This sucks,'' said Jack Payton, the foreign editor of the St.
Petersburg Times, after covering the opening of the Prince Turki Dining
Hall at Jill Camp near an airbase in eastern Saudi Arabia. ``This pool
stuff has got to get real.''
        Even Maj. Gen. Gus Pagonis, the logistics chief for Operation Desert
Storm, seemed surprised by the presence of reporters at the opening of
the shiny new mess hall, where he snipped a red, white and blue ribbon
and later cut a three-tiered 8-foot by 3-foot cake.
        ``You guys are getting desperate for stories,'' he quipped before
answering reporters' questions. ``That's the only time anybody talks to
me.''
        The general, who supplies beans and bullets for combat troops, was
asked about whether he would be able to continue supplying the massive
bombing campaign of Iraq.
        He said he really didn't supply anything to the Air Force except
fuel, and since that is one thing Saudi Arabia has plenty of, he didn't
anticipate any problems.
        The new mess hall, painted battleship gray with a circular
centerpiece of steak sauces, salad dressings and salt and pepper
shakers, was designed to serve 1,100 soldiers at a time and about 4,000
per meal.
        While urging the pool reporters to take along their gas masks in the
event of an Iraqi chemical attack, the military public affairs officers
in charge forgot to warn the news people of the other hazards of the
job.
        UPI photographer Joe Mahoney dipped his camera lens in frosting while
trying to get a shot of Pagonis and a Saudi military official speedily
cutting the massive three-tiered cake.
        ``When I was coming over, I was worried about getting sand in my
cameras,'' he groused later. ``They warned me about the sand, but not
the icing.''
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