Looks like this has turned into a beat up the media day...but they they are such a target rich environment.
This story illustrates why embeds are a bad idea in a free-fire zone.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. military said Tuesday it is investigating the videotaped fatal shooting of a wounded man by a U.S. Marine in a mosque in Fallujah. Iraqis condemned the act as "cowardice" and "something forbidden in Islam."
Oh really, how about kidnapping, torture, imprisonment and sawing off the heads of innocent civilians? Forbidden? What about the kidnapping and murder of Margaret Hassan, a woman who lived and worked for the good of her adopted country for more than thirty years? How about the missing Polish woman, who may be the mutilated corpse found in the streets of Fallujah? Of course they are simply women thusly expendable. Or the use of a mosque to shelter terrorists, store weapons and as a firing platform? Forbidden? Cowardly?
Where was al-Jazeera and the Arab world's outrage as Saddam Hussein filled mass graves? I for one am really tired of the Arabic pity song and I do not want to hear it in our media. It's outrageous.
All I need to know about this story is summed up in one short sentence:
Sites reported that a Marine in the same unit had been killed a day earlier when he tended to the booby-trapped dead body of an insurgent.
It's a pity that our networks and MSM cannot see beyond getting a scoop...that what they film and write can be used to kill more of our military....the same young men who will willingly stand between the embeds and death.
We need to let SecDef Rumsfeld know that's it's time to pull the embeds. They are more of a liability than an aid.
Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
http://www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.html
Telephone 703-428-0711
UPDATE: Blackfive writes:
First, Kevin Sites, the embed reporter from NBC (who's video footage of the shooting has been broadcast around the world) is an blatant opportunist who had a responsibility to turn over the video footage to Marine Authorities, but, instead chose to broadcast it, give the entire tape to Al Jazeera, etc. It should not have been used for publicity, for television ratings, etc. Sites should have turned it over with the expectation that he would get it back. The video was broadcast (in full) on Al Jazeera - including the identities of the Marines.
Yeah, Matt, but that would require ethics.
Posted by feste at November 16, 2004 02:25 PM | TrackBack