Shooting Journalists Shooting the Shooting of Journalists

First they came for CBS, and as I did not really like Dan Rather and thought he really did screw up (or let himself get set up), I did not protest.

Then they came for CNN, and as I considered CNN to be largely a lapdog to the administration, I did not protest.

(to be continued)

Is it me, or does it appear to you that the disciplining of journalism has given way to open discrediting? Could it be that the politics of media consolidation also is beginning to increasingly include dirty tricks to consolidate audience? After Sept 11, we saw the first intermedia mudslinging between news segments. Fox and MSNBC were battling it out to prove which one was more "patriotic." Peter Arnett is a traitor, Geraldo Rivera is giving away strategic military secrets, etc.

As to the CNN news chief's exiting remarks, I think he is spot on. Many unilateral (unembedded) reporters were hit by U.S. fire. Many were killed. More in the short duration of the Iraq II than in Vietnam. They were a "pain in our rear" as one Pentagon media spokesperson at Centcom stated. We know that Al Jazeera headquartersand Abu Dabai TV were intentionally hit by U.S. bombs. As they say in trial law, the actus reus is not in dispute, only the mens rea. Were these killings intentional? The evidence would seem to suggest that it's not only possible but useful military strategy.

Intenational journalists seek war crimes investigation.