Anti-Journalist Journalism. It would be funny, were it not so vicious, that the New York Post's resident bloodthirsty psychopath, Ralph Peters, thinks it's fine for the U.S. to kill journalists — even tho he's a journalist himself and the forum in which this lunacy is published at least pretends to be part of journalism.
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In the instance Peters derides, a U.S. attack helicopter hovering over a U.S. tank that had been just been destroyed, fired upon people scrambling about in the vicinity, killing an al-Arabiya newsman in the process. Peters bitched about such newsmen not being journalists at all, but 'murderers' participating in 'murder', because they accompanied the 'murderers' and didn't warn the potential 'victims'. Hmm. Didn't the U.S. "embed" journalists in military units, carrying them along to record the carnage of the U.S. invasion? Doesn't that make them all 'murderers' too?
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We can't have two standards, one for Us and one for Them. If it's okay for Us to tell newsmen where We're going to attack and bring them along (and expect them to keep that secret rather than warn the victims and thus prevent their 'murder'), then it's okay for Them to tell newsmen in advance where They're going to attack and bring them along (and expect them to keep that secret rather than warn the victims and thus prevent their 'murder').
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So either NONE of the journalists who accompany military forces on their attacks is a journalist, or ALL the journalists who accompany military forces on their attacks are nonetheless to be considered journalists and entitled to the protections we give neutral observers so that we all get the truth that might enable us to make wise decisions. That, after all, is what journalism is for: for the public, not for multibillionaires and megabillion-dollar corporations to make a quick buck by pandering to jingoists.
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The New York Post is fully as partisan as al-Arabiya or al-Jazeera. If it is okay for the U.S. military to regard al-Arabiya's journalists as combatants and target them for death, then it would be fully proper for Iraqi patriots and their allies to regard Ralph Peters and the entire editorial staff of the New York Post as combatants and arrange to kill as many as they can reach, even if they have to launch mortar attacks upon their homes while they sleep. After all, we don't allow murderers to wander free and sleep safely, secure in the knowledge that because they are not actively committing murder at the moment, they are therefore entitled to be left alone.
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Maybe our Arab 'enemies' can find the addresses for the editors and columnists for the New York Post who poison readers' (and voters') minds with vicious, hypocritical bullshit and "take them out" for us, doing the United States a great favor. So to all you New York Post apologists for mass murder for Zionism — Pleasant dreams! (Responsive to "Terror's Pals in the Press", column by Ralph Peters, New York Post, September 15, 2004)
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Full disclosure: This blog entry started as a letter emailed to the Post on the 16th and was added to and uploaded on the 17th because I had a doctor's appointment on the 15th and overtime at work on the 16th. But since it relates to a column that appeared the 15th, I am dating it that date.
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 11:59 PM