Monday, March 24, 2008

Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back

Lehrer's news hour had a piece about press coverage of the Iraq war. Several newsie pundits appeared, and pontificated about the goodness and badness of the Iraq war coverage. Turns out, they were really talking about coverage of pro and anti war politics back here in the good old safe US of A. The coverage none of them did, or even wanted to do concerns American soldiers in the combat zone. The professional newsies find that too dangerous, too uncomfortable, and too pro American to cover.
I had a relative serving in Iraq last year. The newsies didn't do squat to keep me informed of how he and his unit were faring. The only decent info I got for the entire year my brother was serving, was from his emails. The newsies didn't tell me where our men were, what they are doing, how they are coping, what units are engaged, what battles they have fought, victories or defeats achieved, heroic actions performed, decorations awarded, nothing. It was like our soldiers stepped into a black hole from which nothing comes out.
To hear newsies discussing how great their coverage was, when there wasn't any coverage at all makes me angry with the whole tribe of them.

No comments: