Carr of 'NYT' Laments New Limits on Reporters in Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003590952

Carr of 'NYT' Laments New Limits on Reporters in Iraq

By E&P Staff

Published: May 27, 2007 10:30 PM ET

NEW YORK In a Memorial Day column for The New York Times, media writer David Carr examines new restrictions on American reporters in Iraq -- just as their numbers dwindle, making their jobs even more vital.

Carr observes that most military campaigns in Iraq "go on without notice, because while troop numbers are surging, the media that cover them are leaking away, worn out by the danger and expense of covering a war that refuses to end."

Then there's this: "Since last year, the military’s embedding rules require that journalists obtain a signed consent from a wounded soldier before the image can be published. Images that put a face on the dead, that make them identifiable, are simply prohibited."

An excerpt follows.

Working reporters say the soldiers in the field are not overly concerned with media coverage — they have more serious matters in their gunsights. The journalists also suggest that the current regulations have allowed the military to take concerns for the privacy of soldiers and their families and leverage them into broader constraints on information.

Ashley Gilbertson, a veteran freelance photographer who has been to Iraq seven times and has worked for The New York Times (along with Time and Newsweek among others), said the policy, as enforced, is coercive and unworkable.

more...

[KharmaTrain]

1. The Unseen Damage To American Journalism

Some thing Mr. Carr won't or can't say in this article...

First, is the downscaling of his paper and others...this led to virtually no reporting from inside Iraq prior to the invasion and few reporters in the region. The "costs just don't justify it". Then when the invasion occured, there was the land's rush of the corporate stenographers to hop a ride to Baghdad or have the latest "shock and awe" story...running around Iraq like they owned the place...rubbing the Arab world's nose in this humilitating invasion and plunder...and then they wonder why American journalists have huge targets on their backs?

In past wars, American journalists were able to manuever in and around war zones and were viewed, for the most part, as honest brokers...finders and reporters of fact. Now they're a subsidiary of the corporate elite who looks upon Iraq and the rest of the world...even many of us here in the U.S. as inferior.

[Solly Mack]

2. Pathetic.

Like they give a damn about our privacy (the military)

[Captain Hilts]

5. The military cares about the privacy of the folks who are dead and wounded...

and what their families might unexpectedly see.

I can kind of understand this.

[Solly Mack]

6. After living on army posts for damn near 2 decades - I don't

get the feeling they care about my privacy so much as they want to control what gets out. But that's just me.

I agree that my family's privacy trumps the publics demand to see my husband in a wounded state or even dead...however, I don't kid myself about what concerns the military the most.

[Captain Hilts]

7. There are so many different cultures within the military...

I grew up in the sub community where the generic announcement "a New London boat has gone down" threw a panic into thousands of people who knew folks on boats at sea.

My beau's father was in the marines - Khe Sanh - and because of him I feel a bit creeped out at seeing the photographs of wounded marines in that war.

If I knew someone in Iraq right now, I don't know what I'd do with the 24 instant news cycle. And I don't think the military knows how to deal with it either.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "All your truth are belong to us." - BushCo Big republicon Government

"We love Big Government, Nation Building, Spending, Propaganda, and censorship. We are chickenhawk republicon War Profiteers."

- Chickenhawk republicon War Profiteers

[liberal N proud]

4. Let's see, we are supposed to feel for a complacent media?

A media who helped the regime establish it's self in Washington.
A media who spread the propaganda following 9/11 helping establish the state of fear.
A media who helped the regime wage an illegal war.
A media who helped the regime steal not one but two elections.
A media who continues to smear the left while endorsing the right.
A media who made it possible for the regime to remove so many civil liberties from the people.


The list could go one where the media has failed democracy, They are just starting to feel the effects of enabling a tyrant.