1000 Words from Iraq

Negative Press

Part of our job involves assisting civilian “embedded” reporters who come up to our area to cover the troops. Some people in my unit get upset when these reporters come here and we get them out with the troops, make their coffee, let them use our equipment and sleep in our beds only to have them produce negative stories about us.
They say we should send them home if they write these negative articles. You know, like, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. But wouldn’t we, in some way, be censoring?
I understand that, as someone who is paid by the Army, I can’t go around expecting to write negative articles about what is happening. But a civilian journalist, who works for an outside agency, has every right to write whatever they want… as long as it’s true.
Sure, I’ve read a lot of articles by civilian journalists that go beyond negative to downright absurd. I read a lot of things and laugh at the blatant lying and editorializing that is being published in mainstream media. Many journalists even sensationalize the facts to make their stories more exciting or to fit their own agenda.
But if a journalist tells the facts, even the not so nice ones, he’s in the right. It’s our responsibility to make sure the journalists get to see what’s going on- the good, the bad and the ugly- and to tell the people.
What about journalists who embed with the terrorists? Are they assisting them by telling their story? Or are they just doing their job and being objective, telling both sides of a story?
They say, if these journalists were right there with the enemy and didn’t attack them, didn’t tell anyone where they were, they are the enemy too. But isn’t this what we expect of them? We expect that journalists who are with us don’t attack us, don’t reveal our positions to the public.
It isn’t a journalist’s job to fight the war. Helping either side or showing favoritism to either side knocks them off the neutral ladder.
Can we expect that journalists should just write what we want them to? I think that’s a pretty hypocritical way of looking at things.
Fair and balanced reporting. What does that mean to you? Do you watch CNN or FOX and believe that they are fair and balanced? Is something only fair and balanced if you agree with it?
Journalism is supposed to be controversial. It is supposed to keep the public informed of things they can not be present to witness themselves.
Given all this, it is still my opinion that there is way too much negative press out there. But that is due to the nature of media. They jump on every negative story, leaving the positive ones to the space available. That’s show business (or news business I guess).
That’s why I’m okay with what I do. I think it’s important to get the good news out. There are already enough people out there who are more than willing to cover negative stories. My sense of journalistic ethics and duty to the public allows me to grant those people some slack. But someone needs to be out there going after the good ones as well. It’s important to have balance and for everyone to see both sides of what is happening here.

posted by Blair Heusdens @ 6:08 AM