Apparently the island will have to wait... Arnett gets a new job for a British Newspaper - to stay in Iraq and report!
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/31/...nett/index.html
As for Geraldo and the rest of the inbedded reporters, I was watching an interview on a Canadian station where one media type suggested that having the media in with the troops was the best possible thing - less media roaming around randomly pissing off soldiers, less chance that they say anything bad, and zero chance that they will report anything that hasn't been sanitized by the military. The "reporters" basically are nothing more than "dear diary" types right now... as soon as the shooting starts, they head for cover or are wisked away from the front lines.
The guy being interviewed suggested that it was like "cheerleading"... getting the Whitehouse a ton of very controlled media time to tell their side of the story of the war... and to get you those lovely heart string pulling calls home from the front, where they get a soldier on the video phone, and put a wife / husband / GF/ BF / other fmaily member on the other side so they can gush on each other for a few minutes... is it news or just sad theatre?
For some reason I remember the 1991 coverage being way more "gonzo"... more intimate... felt more like someone was going to drop a bomb right next to me. This all seems a little to sterile to be a war.
Alex