Overview
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 war". He describes the "hotel warriors", journalists who experienced the war mainly through televized briefings, pool reports, and CNN. He explains why the military's elaborate media handling system teetered on the verge of collapse just hours after the ground war began. And he relates the exploits of the "unilateral" reporters, who decided that the only way to get the news was to break the Army's rules.