When the Journalists Become the News

Here’s a news flash — a good number of them aren’t on our side, or even just neutrally out to get a story.

CBS Stringer Arrested in Iraq

A CBS stringer has been arrested as a suspected insurgent, U.S. military officials said Friday.

The video cameraman was wounded during a firefight in northeastern Mosul between U.S. troops and insurgents Tuesday.

U.S. military officials said the man’s camera held footage of a number of roadside bomb attacks against American troops, and they believe he was tipped off to those attacks.

A U.S. military statement said troops believe the man “poses an imperative threat to coalition forces” and that he “will be processed as any other security detainee.”

Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has been on this story since it first broke this afternoon, including a number of updates from several sources showing the morphing media coverage of the incident.

According to CBS when he was shot he was a “cameraman employed by CBS News” shot “while working” – when he was arrested he was “A cameraman carrying CBS press credentials.”

Wow.

Chad at In the Bullpen chimes in with his two cents.

While journalists have every right to roam the country-side of Iraq looking for stories, doing so without an extensive bodyguard escort or through embedding with the enemy who are firing upon U.S. soldiers has proven time and time again to be rather foolish.

Are the journalists actually embedding with the terrorists? Dr. Rusty Shackleford at the Jawa Report thinks a couple of the recently-named Pulitzer winners prove it.

Everyone Is Looking At the Wrong Pulitzer Prize Photos

The Washington Times does a half-ass job of questioning the Pulitzer Prize in this editorial. The article raises important questions, but like most of the blogosphere and those in conservative circles, they examine a single photo.

But there were 20 photos in the series. As we have been arguing from the beginning, what is troubling is the totality of the story those photos show. The story those photos tell is of an empowered insurgency, demoralized U.S. troops, and American brutality.

Several of the photos are disgusting, such as the one in question which shows the execution of Iraqi election officials and another which shows the residents of Fallujah celebrating the murder of American civilians as their charred bodies hang from a bridge, but it may be the case that these photos were taken by Iraqi photojournalists who were anonymously tipped off or who just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

We have also noted in the past that the photo in question is not nearly as damning as two others which clearly indicate something like ’embedding’ with the isurgency is (or was) going on with AP stringers in Iraq.

Go look — the photos make a pretty persuasive case that not only were the photogs with the insurgents but also were quite willing to try to capture those trying to kill Americans in a brave or noble light.

Perhaps, with all this, today wasn’t the best day for journalists to push their luck with the U.S. military. But they did anyway.

Journalists Seek Info on 2003 Iraq Deaths

The International Federation of Journalists on Friday urged U.S. officials to provide credible evidence American troops did not intentionally kill two television cameramen at a Baghdad hotel in 2003.

The two were killed April 8, 2003, when an American tank fired at the Palestine Hotel, where scores of journalists were based during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. U.S. officials insist the soldiers believed they were being shot at when they opened fire.

Jose Couso, cameraman for Spanish television network Telecinco, and Taras Protsyuk, Ukrainian TV cameraman for Reuters, were killed by the U.S. tank.

But critics say the journalists were targeted by U.S. troops moving in on Baghdad, and the IFJ said Friday a report on the killings was a “whitewash.”

In a letter to President Bush, IFJ General Secretary Aidan White wrote, “the United States stands accused of failing to meet its obligations to deliver justice and fair treatment to the victims of violence by its own soldiers.”

Following the Palestine incident, then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said American troops opened fire after drawing hostile fire from the hotel. He said a U.S. review of the incident found the of force was justified.

Here’s a little tip for y’all journalists in a warzone: weapon fire may be fairly easy to see through a tank’s thermal sights, but press credentials are not.