First they polled the audience for the number who considered themselves liberal (99% present) or conservative (me, the wife and a dozen others) and the number of former military (that'd be me and maybe one other) and so on.
A lot was made of the newly formed idea of "embedding journalists" with combat units and I got up and got quite aggressive and vociferous against the idea. In typical liberal fashion, they all piled on and just tried to hammer me into the ground, arguing that in a case where millions of viewers could stay informed of the "truth" it was worth the lives of journalists (funny how the senior guys always say this...but they're not going in harm's way) and I shot right back (in front of a bunch of silently SHOCKED teachers) that I didn't give a DAMN about the lives of mongrel reporters, but as a former military officer, I sure couldn't square it against the life of the soldier who would surely break cover to drag back to cover some hapless idiot reporter and get killed doing so. And you know, they all agreed it was worth that soldier's life, too! I came back with: "Oh sure...and I suppose you're going to go to that man's wife or mother and tell them that yes her son or husband got killed trying to save our reporter...but if it's any consolation.....WE GOT THE STORY."
Slowly my fellow teachers got up and applauded me. The yellow dogs of assembled journalists suddenly realized they had lost the liberal teachers in the crowd and backed waaaaay off, glaring DAGGERS at me and my wife.
At the complimentary dinner that night I found our name cards had been rearranged into the back far corner of the room. I know this because one of our friends saw folks from the institute do this just before dinner was served and we assembled to sit. I wonder why? More telling is the fact that neither of us was invited the following year while others were.
Also, there were complaints made against me (but not my wife) by those in charge, but my Principal...just shrugged it off. He had been told to send somebody, anybody! Not only did I want to go, I was the only teacher from our school who lived close to the venue and it was held on a Saturday. So? Tough.
In a display of independence from the government, U.S. media companies should join CPJ in pressuring the Pentagon to produce a full account of the killings. With so many war stories now in question and media credibility at a record low, it's time for news professionals to get back to where they once belonged: distrusting public officials and providing accurate information to citizens so they can make informed decisions. Defending the rights of nonembedded media in wartime would be a good first step.The problem is not, having U.S. media be independent of the government. The problem is how to have democratic U.S. government which is not controlled by the U.S. media.
As a whole, journalists oppose the US.Journalists are foolhardily brave when it comes to risking mistaken defensive fire by U.S. soldiers. CNN wasn't quite so daring when Saddam was in charge, and putting people through shredders.Their lives are worth no more than our troops who have been ruthlessly murdered lately. Murders The VV couldn't care less about.
Reports of human rights abuses come in inverse proportion as the human rights abuses get more severe.
Not only so, but the information they gathered in the Palestine Hotel didn't make Peter Arnett a particularly accurate reporter of current events in Baghdad, did it? He could have just as well been in Paris, if all he was going to do was spout anti-U.S. propaganda.Propaganda that Saddam would have--might have, actually--paid handsomely for.