Smarter Media Bombs

Several journalists pointed out targets to the soldiers they were traveling with. No sooner had the BBC’s Gavin Hewitt pointed out an enemy truck than it was shot to pieces and several Iraqis were killed. One CNN crew had an armed escort who shot some Iraqis. Once journalists start taking part in a war in this fashion their objectivity and purported neutrality is compromised, and they become legitimate targets too.

Some of the embeds reported from the field as if they were the main attraction of the story. ITN’s Juliet Bremner posed in front of the camera to report a story, and it seemed that her presence was more important than the scene behind her–often there was nothing else to report. She was copying the “I am the story” style of CNN’s Christian Ananpour. When the journalist becomes the story and not the one who puts images and stories into context, then again, journalism is diminished.