While on the one hand a war with Iraq could be the “ultimate e-war, with its satellite-guided munitions, night-vision goggles and pilotless drones,” some, like CNN’s Kevin Sites, worry that an electromagnetic-pulse weapon the military may be developing to disrupt communications could force reporters to rely on outdated tools. “The prospect of such a weapon is the bogeyman of TV network news executives’ dreams because it could affect the media’s equipment — and with our reliance on satellites and microwave technology, TV is particularly vulnerable,” writes Sites, who’s embedded in Kuwait. “We journalists worry that we would have to revert to technology that hasn’t widely been used to cover news since the mid-to-late ’70s.”
