From WNYKRC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. As the world holds its collective breath in anticipation of war,

hundreds of journalists are filing into divisions of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines as embeds.

The military's new accessibility has been hailed by news organizations, but some

reporters waiting to decamp with the troops are torn between enthusiasm for the assignment

and the risk it may pose, not just to life and limb, but to journalistic objectivity.

NPR's John Burnett has been embedded with the Marines, and he joins us on the line from Kuwait City.

John, welcome to the show.

Well, thanks for having me, Brooke.

Where are you standing right now?

I'm actually standing on the front porch of the Hilton Hotel in Kuwait City, which

overlooks the Persian Gulf, and we're sitting there waiting to embed with the troops, watching

the waves and waiting for our call.

What is the role of the battalion that you'll be embedded with?

I'm going to be with the headquarters command of the first Marine Division, which is going to be the brain of a front-line spearheading force

that is going to be one of the first over the border into

Iraq if this war takes place. So I think it's going to be a great place to be to get a bit of a

larger picture. And that's one of the toughest things about covering this is every reporter will

only see what his unit sees. And we are locked into our units. The embed

rules say, you may not leave. You can't go wander off into an Iraqi village and interview

people about, you know, if you had any civilians hurt. Are you turning against Saddam? We can't

do that. We have to stay with our military unit. The non-embedded reporters will do that.

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