Wait, Marines embedded with reporters?

Orange County Register staffers are being asked to let Marine Corps PIO's turn the tables a bit and do ride-alongs with the journalists. Here's the newsroom memo:

From: Dennis Foley/OCR/FREEDOM
To: 03/12/2009 02:53 PM Newsroom Associates
Subject: ATTEN-HUT! Marines want to jobshadow journalists. Volunteers, take one step forward. HOO-RAH!

From Marine Capt. Barry Edwards:

I am contacting you to coordinate an opportunity to collaborate with the U.S. Marine Corps’ Los Angeles Public Affairs Office during our 2009 Senior Leaders West Coast Media Symposium being conducted March 16-20 in Redondo Beach, California.

On Thursday, March 19, we would like to assign four (4) of our symposium participants to news crews with your organization to provide invaluable experience in “a day in the life of…” a news staff. The participants are at your disposal to witness your day’s events – from the drone of morning meetings to the thrill of chasing down a story – and will be available to participate in and observe events throughout the day.

The symposium intent is to provide Marine commanders tools to foster communication via mass media with the American public. One of the ways we hope to prepare them for the communication process is by developing their understanding of the civilian media cycle. Our goal is to do a role reversal and embed the Marines to give them a taste of your frontlines of the news cycle. Your assistance is crucial to provide the experience and develop understanding.

Please let me know ASAP -- dennis

Dennis Foley
Reader Engagement Editor

Another sign of the new order: Register reporters have also been asked to hand out "express ads" coupons to potential advertisers in their communities.