About Charles Jones, author
Charles (Chip) Jones is an award-winning journalist and author. Boys of '67: From Vietnam to Iraq, the Extraordinary Story of a Few Good Men was named the top biography of 2006 by the Military Writers Society of America. His second book, Red, White or Yellow? The Media & the Military at War in Iraq will be published by Stackpole Books this September.
In Red, White or Yellow? The Media & the Military at War in Iraq, Jones applies more than 25 years' worth of reporting experience to write a detailed, in-depth chronicle of the media's coverage of the war. He set out to investigate charges of bias from both ends of the political spectrum, and to delve into the motives of the journalists who covered the 2003 invasion along with those who took on the tough assignment of writing and photographing the American occupation at a time when the country quickly lost interest in the war. Jones' goal is to help readers better understand an often-baffling conflict. In doing so, he gives the reader a front row seat to watch the tragic drama unfolding from the Baghdad slums to the protected Green Zone to the Pentagon, and out into the arid, war-torn terrain of western Iraq.
Jones interviewed dozens of leading journalists, TV correspondents, and military leaders, as well as soldiers and Marines on the ground. He also provides a first-person account of his own experiences as an embedded reporter with the Marine Corps in Camp Fallujah, Iraq, in the summer of 2007.
Among his findings:
Reporting on combat in the era of 24/7 media -- with a growing web of Internet-based news and opinion outlets -- sparked suspicions and allegations of liberal and conservative bias alike -- charges that can be backed up in some cases and refuted in others. What's beyond dispute is that the mainstream media failed to properly report the Bush Administration's rationale for the 2003 invasion, taking the bait about WMDs put out by Bush and his sophisticated cadre of spinmeisters. There are numerous lessons to be learned for readers and journalists alike, but perhaps the main one is the importance of major newspapers and broadcasters becoming more vigilant about using unnamed administration sources who manipulate news coverage.
Red, White or Yellow? takes a hard look at the major media's sins of omission and commission, all in an effort to let thoughtful readers gain new insights about this long war whose outcome will help determine who is elected the next American president.
The invasion of Iraq, and its messy, ill-planned aftermath, left a minefield of difficult, often unexplored issues for the military's public affairs specialists who must balance the public's right to know -- a staple of American democracy -- with the military's need for operational security. Jones provides an in-depth profile of one Marine Corps public affairs officer who defied conventional wisdom in dealing with the media and Al Qaeda alike.
By 2007, much of the early enthusiastic coverage of the 2003 invasion had been scaled back to more limited, and at times unreliable, reporting from the Green Zone in Baghdad. This was the result of cutbacks by American newspapers and television stations, creating an information void that began to be filled by a growing array of bloggers. Charges of pro-military bias followed.
Because of the all-volunteer military, a chasm has opened between them and the media. This information gap has left many service members baffled by their home country's fixation on vapid starlets such as Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton while young people are still fighting, and dying, in Iraq.
Jones tells the dramatic, inside story of New York Times Baghdad correspondent Damien Cave, a talented young reporter thrust into a dangerous firefight with an Army Stryker platoon in early 2007. In the early days of the much-vaunted "surge" of American forces under Gen. David Petraeus, Cave witnessed and chronicled the death of a beloved platoon leader. The story of Haifa Street in Baghdad led to an unexpected backlash in the States, and Cave's temporary expulsion by Army officials. Cave's story shows the tough decisions made by a reporter writing in the spotlight of international attention, and the less-visible grief of a dead soldier's family back home.
Iraq provides object lessons for the media's role in covering future wars, including the importance of not bowing to public and political pressure as most American media did in 2003. In this respect, the old days of Yellow Journalism -- when William R. Hearst's newspaper empire beat the war drum more than a century ago -- were repeated with the Iraq invasion.
More about Charles (Chip) Jones:
His first book, Boys of '67: From Vietnam to Iraq, the Extraordinary Story of a Few Good Men was published by Stackpole Books in 2006. It was named the top biography of 2006 by the Military Writers Society of America.
In 1999, Jones, the son of a Marine Corps general, returned to his roots with the military. He began talking with his first cousin, Marine General James L. Jones about his career as a Vietnam-era Marine. Gen. Jones went on to become Marine Commandant and NATO commander.
These discussions led to more than six years in the research and writing of Boys of '67. Jones has worked as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor, and is currently a free-lance writer and communications consultant in Richmond, Va. He recently completed his third book of military history, due for release in spring, 2011: WAR SHOTS: From Tarawa to Iwo Jima, Norm Hatch's Marine Camera Crusade.
He is a graduate of the University of Kansas and holds a Master of Arts degree in English from Hollins University. He is married with three children.