The News We (CNN) Kept To Ourselves [must read]

The New York Times ^ | 04/11/03 | EASON JORDAN

[Howlin]

I am really struggling with my feelings about the reporters in Iraq who were NOT embedded.

I have this vision of them being "hotel jockeys," letting everybody else do the work.

Plus, I just found out that they had to pay CASH -- by the day -- just so they could report and attend the press briefings.

Why don't they COME CLEAN with that stuff? It's clearly making them unreliable reporters.

I am waiting to see what happens when the embeds get back and they can tell the truth.

[Fledermaus]

Yeah, real brave when saving their own sorry a$$es.

I'm sure he'd have sat and watched million of Jews thrown into ovens.

Some objectivity!

[Howlin]

That's what they are saying.

They are walking south, away from N. Iraq; a lot of them are from South Iraq.

They said that their "commanders" took their ID.

Hmmm.

[clamboat]

I hate to say this, but turn on CNN right now. You won't believe your eyes.

Can you elighten us cube-bound? (Don't have aTV at home either.)

[buccaneer81]

When Jihad Johnny comes marching home ?...

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

OK, well, I'll post this again:

I posted this on the Command Post blog:

This pretty much gives the lie to the "brave journalists in Baghdad to bring the world the truth" claim. In fact, CNN now admits that A) they have routinely suppressed the hideous truth about the Baghdad regime precisely because there were CNN people in Iraq, and B) their presence routinely got Iraqis tortured and killed.

One wonders why they were willing to risk Iraqi lives and prostitute themselves to Saddam's regime just to be able to say, "We have people in Baghdad."

I wish I could believe they would engage in some soul-searching about this, but their arrogance and self-righteousness is such that I cannot imagine it happening.

American journalism is a cesspool.

[Maurice Tift]

Rush said stories like this would come out as soon as the war was over. This fascist regime was worse than the Nazis, the KGB, and the IRS combined. It's no wonder that the Iraqis cheered when the bombs started falling.

[Born in a Rage]

I guess to some of these a--holes, the story is more impt. than a life!

But if they did tell some of the stories the fear was that more lives would be lost. If Saddam could control our media in this way - with fear - imagine what he did to his own people. I don't know what to think about this although I'm glad that the author finally is telling his story...lets see if the network as a whole will do this now.

[nopardons]

This is just the coward's way out. With Saddam gone, CNN should have been cheering on our troops, our president, and telling these stories every hour, on the the hour, for the last two weeks; at least. This story, appearing in the N.Y. Simes, means little and helps no one.

[BossLady]

When getting the story and staying in Baghdad comes BEFORE people's lives.....it's time to re-evaluate what's important. Too little too late for this coward......

[Kevin Curry]

I am waiting to see what happens when the embeds get back and they can tell the truth.

There will be many long magazine articles and even books written by the embeds. I am very much looking forward to it.

[Howlin]

I'm convinced the embeds could have been the most brillant stroke of this war; I believe they had the proverbial "attitude adjustment" toward the military and it's going to come out in their reporting.

[whadizit]

"I couldn't being to express what I'm feeling right now."

Ditto! CNN has the blood of innocent Iraqi's on their hands!! I am so furious I would SPIT on any CNN employee right now if I could.

Willing to let a cameraman be tortured just to get a story WHICH WAS NOT NEARLY AS IMPT AS THE STORY RIGHT UNDER THEIR NOSES!!! JUST DAMN!!

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Re: Post 13

[whadizit]

"...comes BEFORE people's lives...."

I felt the same way about the reporters at the Palestine Hotel!! They had minders limiting what they could report so WHAT IN THE HELL GOOD WAS THAT??!!

[AndyJackson]

This article should be tatooed on the forhead of every liberal democrat and journalist in the United States - and in Germany and France - so that we can know what quisling hypocritical cowards these folks are. The truth! These weak imbeciles can't handle the truth. The truth is that they were weighed and measured and found wanting and there is not a fire in Hell hot enough to burn out that blight on the world.

[narby]

Uday, told me in 1995 that he intended to assassinate two of his brothers-in-law who had defected and also the man giving them asylum, King Hussein of Jordan.

.......

A few months later Uday lured the brothers-in-law back to Baghdad; they were soon killed.

This jerk is complicit in a murder. I think these brothers-in-law were the ones who were talking about what Iraq was doing, and Uday, with CNN's prior knowledge, murdered them.

The First Amendment might give lots of protection for free speech. But it's not a license for murder.

I was discusted with CNN before. Now I'm beyond.

[Toskrin]

The writer seems to be saying that CNN was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either report the truth and get coworkers tortured and killed, or ignore the truth and become a mouthpiece for Saddam Hussein. What about the other option? Admit that CNN couldn't operate freely in Iraq and pull out. By staying, CNN put more and more people under Saddam's thumb and became an Iraqi state-supported propaganda outlet.

[Freedom2specul8]

Howlin, I am not sure what to write in response to this..

[AndyJackson]

I wish I could believe they would engage in some soul-searching about this

What soul? Really, what?