Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 21, 1991                   TAG: 9102210431
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`NEED TO KNOW' SERVES MEDIA OVER DEMOCRACY

With eight years' experience as a broadcast journalist and 12 years in the military - four on active duty, eight reserve - before leaving because of a service-connected disability, I see both sides of the issue. Clearly, there is information that cannot be revealed even by the most free society: specific battle plans, time and place an assault will take place, the kind of ordnance that will be used on specific targets, etc.

Other information of little or no value to the enemy can be and is being released to the press. One need only watch CNN to see how much information the military is giving out.

The haggling over press censorship is over the gray areas, the close calls that depend on individual judgment. Mr. Kilpatrick is correct that there is an adversary relationship between the military and the press. I cannot imagine a briefing now of the kind Eisenhower gave the press just before D-Day. Reporters would be stumbling all over each other rushing for the telephones or the microphones to see who could get it on the air first.

Kilpatrick accuses the military censor of "first protect[ing] one's rear." That has an element of truth. But the censor is also concerned with protecting the rear of friends, comrades and, in today's modern army, maybe the rear of a husband or wife who is in a position to get it shot off.

Political debate takes place over weeks, months and even years. The "need to know" today, this very minute, has more to do with the competition among reporters for air time than it does with America's need for accurate information and informed debate over political and social issues. For the latter, a few hours or days will not make a substantial difference.

When there is a close call between releasing information that might put my military rear at unnecessary risk, I choose censorship every time. There will be plenty of time to report what happened after it is over. The "right to know" of that citizen back home in his armchair is not nearly as important to me as my life, or the life of a close friend or a fellow soldier. But I understand your urgency to get the story. You journalists have your egos and maybe even a Pulitzer Prize at stake. GLENN R. NEAL ROANOKE