Angry reporters finally get to a story after it is all but over
"Suppose I told you," the Pentagon briefing expert boasted to a roomful of officers, "that on this raggedy clump of hills and beaches, we are going to humiliate one of the most arrogant powers in the world today ..."
"You don't mean . , .?"
"Yes, gentlemen, I do mean—the American press."
That was New York Times Columnist Russell Baker's fantasy version of the state of conflict between U.S. military authorities and the press last week. But for many of the 400-odd American reporters and photographers trying to get a firsthand look at the invasion of Grenada, it was hardly a fantasy at all.
To evade the U.S. military's ban on all reporters during the first days of fighting, ABC-TV Correspondent Steve Shepard and Producer Tim Ross spent $5,000 to hire a fishing boat that would carry them the 160 miles from Barbados to Grenada. "It was awful," said Ross. "We spent 30 hours on a 35-ft. boat in 15-ft. seas." As they neared Carriacou, a small island just north of Grenada, the Navy forced them back.
"This Navy jet came over and made a couple of runs at us," said Ross. "First it just waggled its wings. Then it made a lateral pass. Finally it opened the bomb doors, and the pilot dropped a buoy about 30 ft. ahead of us just to show what else he could drop and how close he could drop it."
Another fishing boat chartered by ABC Correspondent Josh Mankiewicz halted when a U.S. destroyer cut across its bow. "I got a good look at that gun on the foredeck and decided that we were simply outclassed," said Mankiewicz. "I know force majeure when I see it."
The commander of that force majeure, and of the Second Fleet, was Vice Admiral Joseph Metcalf III, Annapolis-trained ('51) and a recipient of the Legion of Merit. He made no secret of the fact that he was responsible for the censorship—and made no apologies either. Said Metcalf to protesting reporters: "I'm down here to take an island. I don't need you running around and getting in the way." And to anyone who tried it, he added a personal shot across the bows: "We'll stop you. We've got the means to do that."
NBC Correspondent Richard Valeriani ruefully recalled waiting in Barbados: "We couldn't cover the story. You can't cover a story unless you're there. All we could cover was what we were being told about the story."
Since only a small handful of journalists, including TIME Correspondent Bernard Diederich, had managed to get onto Grenada as the Marines landed, the vacuum caused by the censorship was quickly filled by amateurs telling their stories over ham radios to eager ears in the U.S. Notable among these was Mark Barettella, 22, of Ridgefield, N.J., a student at St. George's University medical school. While U.S. military communiques were reporting relatively light resistance, Barettella throughout the first two days of the operation broadcast vivid accounts of combat around his room at the school; he included descriptions of heavy firing by U.S. planes and Cuban antiaircraft and even the caliber and types of weapons used.