But Flynt is not the only one working to get as much access as possible. Correspondents for the tabloid TV program “Inside Edition” and MTV were among the roughly 200 reporters who recently participated in combat-training boot camps sponsored by the Defense Department. Networks haven’t finalized specific programming details–Nickelodeon, A&E and Black Entertainment Television will provide niche coverage–but " ‘Inside Edition’ is planning to go with our strength: telling the human drama," says Jim Kelly, a producer. “We’re going back to the GI Joe, Ernie Pyle style of war coverage, bringing the scene home from the perspective of the fighting men and women in uniform. Telling the war from their point of view.”
For the first time since Vietnam, in fact, journalists will mingle with combat troops and support units to cover the action, some from the front lines. MTV, which used air time for videos like “Give Peace a Chance” during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, has 24-year-old Gideon Yago positioned in Kuwait. Since November the network has been airing daily news packages on Iraq, answering questions such as “Who is Saddam?” and gauging the mood of young GIs who are being sent to the Middle East. It seems as if the Pentagon is taking MTV’s war coverage seriously. It offered the network frontline access to action in Iraq, but MTV has so far declined. Legions of TRLers should soon be asking, “Like ohmigod, Gideon, why?”
