Idea Lab

Basetrack in Limbo as Embeds Removed Due to Map Concerns

by Matt Farwell
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Over the weekend we learned that someone, somewhere, decided that Basetrack's journalists would have to go. So after we posted up the letter, we scratched our heads and wondered why. Actually, we're still wondering, especially since we received this note from the Marine Corps public affairs office in Afghanistan: Teru, Good chatting with you.  As discussed, we very much appreciate the Knight Foundation's efforts in highlighting the important work of our Marines and Sailors of First Battalion, Eighth Marines over the past six months in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.  Your team has not been disembedded; media ground rules were not violated. ...

• February 10, 2011
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The War After the War Plays Out for Veterans in Psych Ward

by Matt Farwell
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Basetrack is following the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, 1-8, for their tour in Musa Qala, Helmand, one of Afghanistan's most dangerous and strategically important locations. The goal is to tell a small fragment of their story in real time, as it unfolds. We aim to create a connection between the Marine strapping on his helmet and heading out on patrol and the public who have little or no personal stake in the war. For the Marines and their families, there is a perception that no one cares, that no one even remembers there is a war going on. (For more...

• January 12, 2011
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From Fighting in Afghanistan to Blogging for Basetrack

by Matt Farwell
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

ser·en·dip·i·ty [ser-uhn-dip-i-tee] -noun 1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. 2. good fortune; luck: the serendipity of getting the first job she applied for. 2007 I'm sweating despite the snow on the ground. I'm at the wheel of my humvee, silently begging the platoon leader on my right to stop the banter that gets us through most long missions. The missions are routine now, a year into a 16-month deployment to Afghanistan, but I still hate this drive.  A photographer from a national magazine rides with my infantry platoon up into the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan, in the Omna...

• November 30, 2010
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