In his 1995 book On the Front Lines, Michael Emery discusses the difficulties American foreign correspondents faced in trying to factually report international news in the 20th Century. EmeryÆs main notion is that as a democracy, the United States depends on a free press to inform the public on foreign policy issues and wars. A major concern is that the stories filed by the journalists often fail to get printed. Emery blames this on a number of factors ranging from the inexperience of some journalists in foreign affairs, the indifference many publishers and editors have regarding international news, government censorship and lies, and even self-censorship. In spite of this, he commends the efforts of the many correspondents who managed to get vital news to the public. The bookÆs major theme is the heroic efforts of foreign correspondents in spite of the many difficulties they faced getting their stories to the public in the 20th Century.
Another theme that Emery carries through the book is the damaging role of politics regarding the public right to know. He quotes a journalist who covered the Vietnam War as saying, ôWe tried to write the truth, and were denounced for it (by the U.S. military and government)ö (p. 139). The difficulty filing a story after it was written is yet another theme. In the chapter on the Korean Conflict, Emery writes, ôThe main difficulty faced by any reporter was filing the dispatchö (p. 100).
In writing his book, EmeryÆs methodology included dividing the content according to separate events. He uses case studies to get his points across. The book devotes seven chapters to various conflicts and wars of the 20th Century, from World War I, to the rise of Stalin, to World War II, the Korean conflict, Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador and the Middle East. In each of the seven chapters Emery discusses the events and the historical and global context of each conflict before he describes the news co...