considering Christie Blatchford, pro-war propaganda & "John McCain, Iraq, & the Eyewitness Fallacy"

I didn't want to be part of it because I didn't want to be dependent on the people I was reporting on for my security, my food, my transport - The BBC's John Simpson on "embedding"

I was thrilled to get a FUCK OFF email from Christie Blatchford for suggesting that her perspective of the Canadian NATO contingent in Afghanistan might have been... biased by the practised hand of US 'handling of embedded journalists'.

She was quick to infer that SHE had never heard of journalists being *handled* for propagandic purposes...
naaaah that happens to OTHER journalists, not CHRISTIE!! Apparently, she's exceptional.

The relationship between the military and the media has always been uneasy, due mainly to the fact that each has sharply differing aims. While the military sees propaganda as a weapon in itself, a journalist's role is to cut through the half-truths and report both sides of the story. ... the toughest critics though, who say the mere fact journalists are so enmeshed with the military makes it difficult for them to think objectively. If your safety is in the hands of soldiers, the argument goes, you will be unwilling to criticise them. ...

My question is... *that she trumpets the Beauty of the Effort & Sacrifice* but never questions WHY THE FUCK anyone is in Afghanistan...

But wait! it would seem CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD is making A PROFIT off her experience in Afghanistan. Fifteen WHOLE days... gee, that's deep.
I don't suggest she DIDN'T see genuine misery. I would NEVER infer the NATO soldiers work their asses off in horrible conditions & try really hard to do the Right Thing. My problem isn't that there is misery for a cause... my question is the REAL cause of the invasion.
Blackout of Winter Soldier Hearings Exposes Weakness of Indy Media
National Pentagon Radio?: When even public radio parrots the military's official line on the war in Iraq, what hope is there for unbiased, quality reporting?

But exactly WHY are NATO soldiers there? come ON, its about THE PIPELINES & energy.

" ...so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price... "

wake up Christie, you got SNOWED... this isn't a humanitarian mission... ITS GOTTEN WORSE & multinational corporations are getting obscenely rich off it...
& nobody but Canada seems to actually be DOING ANYTHING... of course, the Americans have their paws in the mess, BECAUSE THEY STARTED IT...
& don't get ME started on UBL... I mean, if they'd WANTED him, they'd have handled PAKISTAN'S porous border & maybe covered more than THREE SIDES of his hideout mountain in Tora Bora, right?

The War for Oil Subtext in Afghanistan

Fran Shor, Sunday, November 25, 2001

Hydrocarbons & a New Strategic Region: The Caspian Sea and Central Asia

Buy any RUGS in the market?? Up until now, I simply questioned whether Blatchford had an INQUIRING MIND about how she was being streamed to create a war-supportive perspective... but obviously, I missed the OBVIOUS...
Good on yah, Christie! nice to know you prefer profit to removing soldiers from Harm's Way... don't hide that light under a bushel, you whore that book!

Censoring Iraq: Why are there so few reporters with American troops in combat? Don't blame the media.

by Michael Yon, The Weekly Standard, 10/30/2006, Volume 012, Issue 07

Blatchford stumping her Fifteen Days book on The Hour
If you read the The Globe & Mail, you'll know columnist Christie Blatchford. Even if you don't you've probably heard her name.

'Blatch' has a way of writing that catches people's attention. Whether she's covering crime or politics, even her critics take notice.

She's just written her first book about Afghanistan called 'Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army.'

Arianna Huffington: John McCain, Iraq, and the Eyewitness Fallacy.

Posted March 27, 2008 | 12:44 PM (EST) John McCain's glowing post-visit assessment of conditions in Iraq, and Hillary Clinton's hyperbolically harrowing recollections of her 1996 trip to Bosnia both stand as shining examples of what the British writer Malcolm Muggeridge dubbed "the eyewitness fallacy."

In a brilliant essay, Muggeridge described public figures of strong conviction throughout history -- many of them greatly admired and well-meaning -- who, in eyewitness accounts, saw what they wanted to see, and became what they wanted to be.

"They must believe a lie who see with, not through, the eye," Blake wrote. Muggeridge took this one step further, saying that many eyewitnesses see things with the glass eye they have fixed into their skulls -- and then fervently believe what this glass eye registers.

Surely McCain was seeing the "surge is working" glass eye he has fixed in his skull when he told a town hall crowd this week, "We're succeeding. I don't care what anybody says." And McCain backed up his claims with what he clearly considers his trump card: "I've seen the facts on the ground." ...

THE ETHICS OF EMBEDDED JOURNALISTS

: Critical Analysis By Lisa Greeves, English & Journalism teacher Overview: Embedded journalists are reporters who accompany a specific military unit during their wartime assignment and report on what they see and observe while with that unit. This type of news reporting is an exciting change for war journalism, as it provides unprecedented access to actual battles, successes, failures, and soldiers and often, the enemy. But at the same time, the practice of embedding journalists in the troops spawns a new set of ethical problems and dilemmas that will plague reporters, editors, and networks. Students will explore these ethical dilemmas, debate the decisions made and the reasons behind them, then brainstorm other ethical situations that could plague high school reporters in their own schools.

Students will:
Review the fundamentals of the free press;
Review ethical and legal guidelines that govern journalists;
Identify several existing ethical situations in the media today;
Articulate both sides of the ethical debate for each situation
Offer solutions and support;
Apply their observations to ethical situations in their own school. ...

The Fog of War

Ross McDuffie, November 15, 2004
...
The term “embedded” might be a relatively new one, but the concept behind it is not. Previously mentioned WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle landed on Omaha Beach in June of 1944, one day after the first wave of the D-day assault. Once there, he stayed with the same group of soldiers for weeks, building a rapport with them and collecting their stories, whether triumph or tragedy, into eloquent letters to be published through the Associated Press. His letters, included with those of other correspondents proved to boost the American morale. Both American and British leaders recognized the impact of the favorable press during WWII. It succeeded in self-promoting them and their administration’s wartime efforts and also made propagandizing simple (McLaughlin, 71).

The military remained mostly open to the Fourth Estate, letting them in on some major military operations such as the D-Day landing (66). This openness led to an immediate conflict though, as a war correspondent simply trying to be objective could put American soldiers into harms way. The military had a need for secrecy; the journalists had a need for facts and information. The military’s objective for the embedded press corps is perhaps best reflected by William J. Nash, the general commanding the American sector in Bosnia during the early nineties conflict. He claimed the purpose of having correspondents present at points of conflict was “to demonstrate the transparency of our operations and the firmness of our purpose” (98).

Even Winston Churchill emphasized the importance of the propaganda returning from the embedded reporters, claiming that it was “more powerful than a fleet of destroyers” (Neuman, 134). An important point to consider though is just how good for the country this propagandizing was. These correspondents slept with the soldiers in the same cold mud, ate the same food, dodged the same bullets, and lost the same friends.

It’s hard to imagine anyone not having considerable difficulty maintaining a sense of objectivity as they grow to know these soldiers and watch them risk their life everyday.

This friendliness between embedded journalists and the military came to an abrupt halt a quarter century later though with a new era of wartime journalism, in Vietnam. ...

Comments

[Beve]

Cool blog! I like Canada, although I've only been to Quebec City. I'd love to go again.