CBS CAMERAMAN DETAINED FOR INSURGENT TIES (Instapundit)

Instapundit ^ | April 9, 2005 | Instapundit

[68skylark]

CBS CAMERAMAN DETAINED FOR INSURGENT TIES: The Mudville Gazette has a roundup, and Robin Burk has some observations:

All of the major news outlets need to be taking a deep and critical look at the way in which they have been using locals to report news in Iraq. Whether it be hiring the translators that used to be paid by Saddam (and still may be linked to the Ba’athists) or the ‘freelancers’ that reported for CNN and other outlets from within Fallujah and elsewhere, if the networks are going to pay these people and take their reports at face value, then they are also morally and ethically aligned with them.

Many Americans see the press as not neutral, but actively opposed to U.S. war efforts. The press doesn't seem to appreciate the depth of the problem.

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails:

The story isn't that CBS is employing terrorists. The story is that no one is surprised CBS is employing terrorists. What's more, I suspect that most Americans, say about 52% of them, feel that most of the MSM outlets with any presence at all in Iraq are employing terrorists.

Indeed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Roger Simon has some Pulitzer-related thoughts.

[68skylark]

This story has not received the coverage it deserves (no surprise).

Even if this particular cameraman turns out to be innocent, I think a lot of us still feel the MSM is pretty much an auxiliary force for the terrorists and their information operations.

[jbstrick]

"This story has not received the coverage it deserves (no surprise)."

Wait until next week.

[softwarecreator]

No kidding, you know that the MSM will bury it.

[68skylark]

I love The Belmont Club.

That blog has some related thoughts about cameramen who seem to work for terrorists, and the Pulitzer Prizes they win for their efforts.

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[maine-iac7]

I think a lot of us still feel the MSM is pretty much an auxiliary force for the terrorists and their information operations

most of us can still remember Saddam's CNN mouthpiece in Desert Storm...

[68skylark]

Wait until next week.

What do you mean by that? Is the MSM going to become pro-American next week? If so, it's about d***ed time.

[FreedomPoster]

>>I think a lot of us still feel the MSM is pretty much an auxiliary force for the terrorists and their information operations.

4-5 of us, from my tennis team, were discussing this latest CBS case, this AM, while milling about before/after our matches. The disgust with the mainstream media was palpable. It wasn't just me, the lonely FReeper, it was everyone there.

[Always Right]

It is only a story if the US does something wrong.

[lilylangtree]

CBS cameraman? Not surprising given the likes of Dan Blather and CBS doing its best to cover for him.

[Ramonan]

What is new or different? The Alphabet Networks have been trying to destroy the US for the last 45 years!

[citizencon]

"No kidding, you know that the MSM will bury it."

But, we won't let them. FReeper Power!

[softwarecreator]

Right. It worked for the Rather-Gate and it will work now!

[Polybius]

In 1987, Peter Jennings and Mike Wallace were asked during a PBS series on "Ethics in America" if they would try to warn U.S. troops walking into an ambush that they were filming.

Ogletree pushed Wallace. Didn't Jennings have some higher duty to do something other than just roll film as soldiers from his own country were being shot? "No," Wallace said flatly and immediately. "You don't have a higher duty. No. No. You're a reporter!"

[Steve Van Doorn]

Don’t forget Kosovo where it was the Media that gave the only validation for us to be in the war which the filming was a farce and they knew it.

The media is not on our side.

[Steve Van Doorn]

I would like to add, they are not 'neutral' as they claim to be. They state all the time of being neutral but when they worked in Kosovo to produce a huge lie it was proof to me where they stand.

This story of the Cameraman working with insurgents just backs up the point they are not neutral but working on a side and in this case against us.

[68skylark]

That's a good example. But we've had more extreme examples from the real world.

It's possible that the AP caused or facilitated some murders that wouldn't have happened otherwise -- by agreeing to be there to take photographs. The dead were Iraqi election workers -- just trying to build a better country for themselves and their neighbors. For this, the AP won a Pulitzer.

[Americanexpat]

In 1967 we were passing through a Viet village and a camera crew came up and the reporter asked my buddy to set fire to one of the hootch's. I told my friend that this a-hole was just using him to get some propaganda for his evening newscasts. That night I reported it to the CO and they went out on the first chopper the next morning.

Haven´t trusted the news media since then.