Stop using ISIL footage, Obama administration asks networks
U.S. bombing campaign has militants on the run, U.S. officials say.
Frustrated that coverage of the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant isn’t reflecting reality on the ground, senior Obama administration officials are urging television networks to update their footage of the radical militant group.
Senior State Department and Pentagon officials have begun contacting television network reporters to ask them to stop using “B-roll” — stock footage that appears on screen while reporters and commentators talk — showing ISIL at the peak of its strength last summer.
“We are urging broadcasters to avoid using the familiar B-roll that we’ve all seen before, file footage of ISIL convoys operating in broad daylight, moving in large formations with guns out, looking to wreak havoc,” said Emily Horne, spokeswoman for retired Gen. John Allen, the State Department’s special envoy leading the international coalition against ISIL.
“It’s inaccurate — that’s no longer how ISIL moves,” Horne said. “A lot of that footage is from last summer before we began tactical strikes.”
The effort is ad hoc for now, with U.S. officials approaching correspondents from several networks in informal settings. Representatives from CNN, NBC, Fox, or ABC did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A source at CBS said they hadn’t heard from the administration yet regarding their footage.
Since the U.S. began conducting air strikes against ISIL positions and convoys last August, America and its allies have dropped thousands of bombs against the group in Iraq and Syria. U.S. officials say ISIL fighters can no longer congregate in daylight or move in large convoys that are easily spotted — and struck — from above.
A more accurate image, said Col. Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, would be “one Toyota speeding down the road by itself at night with its headlights off.”
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