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Thanks, Uncle Sam: independent media & correspondents under fire

trouble at bill

21:42 / 12.03.03

I mean, I know journos are scum, but this is genuinely frightening.

Spatula Clarke

22:52 / 12.03.03

From the link:

The Pentagon has threatened to fire on the satellite uplink positions of independent journalists in Iraq, according to veteran BBC war correspondent, Kate Adie. In an interview with Irish radio, Ms. Adie said that questioned about the consequences of such potentially fatal actions, a senior Pentagon officer had said: "Who cares.. ..They've been warned."

According to Ms. Adie, who twelve years ago covered the last Gulf War, the Pentagon attitude is: "entirely hostile to the the free spread of information."

Ms. Adie made the startling revelations during a discussion of media freedom issues in the likely upcoming war in Iraq. She also warned that the Pentagon is vetting journalists according to their stance on the war, and intends to take control of US journalists' satellite equipment --in order to control access to the airwaves.

The Tower Always Falls

00:21 / 13.03.03

topic abstract?

sad... But this isn't surprising given that the recent press conference Bush gave was, by his own slip-up admission, "scripted. I actually saw him looking down at a piece of paper to read off the names of pre-aproved reporters. And all the questions were softballs...

http://www.nypress.com/16/11/news&columns/cage.cfm

for the details. Infact, we could probably change the topic heading to the current American media's tendency to fall over themselves for this administration. They already aren't allowing journalists in the field except if they are "imbedded" in a platoon... I have never seen an administration so antagonistic towards the media before...

Char Aina

00:42 / 13.03.03

i liked the subtle hint that reporters trying to get the iraqi side will be in the most danger, an 'unfortunate coincidence' possibly?

MJ-12

03:38 / 13.03.03

interesting. this

The Pentagon has threatened to fire on the satellite uplink positions of independent journalists in Iraq,

seems to suggest that they are intending to deliberatly target journalists. The article, however, state that they're going to fire on electronic signals in general, which is an entirely different spin.

bjacques

13:07 / 13.03.03

The first time that actually happens it will look bad for the US. TV journalists with uplinks to pan their cameras around at the beginning of their news feed to identify their area as civilian. The first time a journalist is bombed off the air, along with the surrounding civilians, it's going to look really bad. It'll look even worse if the journos are French, German, Chinese, Russian or Arab.

Maybe it's just WWF-style trash talk. US attack planes can automatically distinguish (e.g.) the radar of surface-to-air missile batteries from noise. If they were sloppy enough to fire at reporters' uplinks, they'd also hit mobile phone users and firefighters on walkie-talkies.

But the target list is broad enough that the only safe place for a journalist to be is with US troops (certainly not with Canadian ones...).

MJ-12

15:17 / 13.03.03

US attack planes can automatically distinguish (e.g.) the radar of surface-to-air missile batteries from noise.

But the question is, can they distinguish (on the spot) between a comm transmision of a journalist and a transmission of, for example, an artillery spotter or other part of the Iraqi c3i infrastructure?

gotham island fae

19:34 / 13.03.03

the target list is broad enough that the only safe place for a journalist to be is with US troops

Topic Related Tangent (hopefully not Rot):

The Safe Way to Journalize

New York Times (requires registration):

Hi-Tech Agit-Prop

from Yahoo News: "If a war breaks out in Iraq, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps plan to film soldiers on the front lines of battle and bring their stories to movie audiences in video spots similar to the old Movietone film reels made during World War II, people involved with the effort said on Wednesday. The idea, explained Marine Lt. Colonel James Kuhn, is to show people the real images of war and put a human face on the men and women fighting it."

...and take away from the human face of Iraqi citizens that I, for one, am certain will not be shown?

Char Aina

22:20 / 13.03.03

the only real reason this is a problem is the new and fairly cowwardly way in which war is now fought by developed countries.
if it werent so bomb heavy and casualty shy, the US would probably not risk injuring civilians and journalists.

(i forget the general who i first heard describing the current approach to war as cowardly, but i have to say i agree.)

if men and women were actually going into these areas, they would be able to quite quickly identuify combatants from non combatants, and although they themselves would most likely suffer slightly heavier casualties, the overall death toll of innocents+friendlies would be less.

MJ-12

13:54 / 14.03.03

Like in, say, Stalingrad?

Jack Rock-a-Pops

06:45 / 15.03.03

Can'ttell if it's the cuntass Chinese Net censorship or if the links been taken down, but either way it ain't working for me, and either way there goes your freedom of speech.

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