Journalists Take Flak in Iraq

[DuctapeFatwa]

When US Central Command has good news to report in Iraq...it adores the media. But journalists say that when there's bad news--a helicopter crash, a mortar attack--they are increasingly being blocked from covering the story by US soldiers, who frequently confiscate and destroy their film disks and videotapes....

Detroit Free Press photographer David Gilkey...film disk was erased by a soldier from the 82nd Airborne...small boat in the Tigris River in Baghdad on December 9, when shots from a high-velocity rifle exploded in the water under the port bow of their twelve-foot craft....American in civilian clothing who was carrying a high-velocity rifle outfitted with a silencer and scope...some sort of Special Operations paramilitary or intelligence..attempted to destroy my press credentials..."After being shot at, I felt very threatened..."Yeah, John Walker made a lot of promises too," the American interrogator snapped..let Somodevilla go with the warning, "We're watching you."..shoved to the ground, pushed out of the way, told to leave the scene of explosions; we've had camera disks and videotapes confiscated, reporters detained,"...

QUOT-We are looking into these allegations, and we are aware of them," a Defense Department spokesman, who asked that his name not be used, told The Nation..they tend to get away with what they can get away with." ...Mark Benjamin wrote a series of reports on the plight of sick soldiers and reservists...made Benjamin the target of Pentagon stonewalling of his subsequent information requests...very deliberate decisions made by the White House and the Pentagon to restrict the media's ability to cover...restrictions on photography at Dover Air Force Base...Arlington National Cemetery...Pentagon officials say such policies are designed...to respect the privacy of fallen soldiers' families. ...

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20040112&s=rozen

[Dr Fate]

1. Poor babies- you guys wanted this war as much as Bush...

witnessed by the fact that you media guys REFUSED and still REFUSE to expose Bush's vast catalog of WMD Lies.

You "journalists" over at CNN, CBS, etc had your chance to report the truth. Now you moan because you have to sleep in the very bed you made?

That is what you get for covering for liers, you shameless whores.

As far as Nation Magazine in particular goes, werent they the ones who told us that Gore was "the same" as Bush and that DEMS are "corrupt"???

[FloridaPat]

2. Well said.

[thebigidea]

3. why, they should be HONORED to have their persons of the year destroy it

support the troops! USA USA USA! HOOOOOOOOOOo!