Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Who's Targeting Whom?
Thanks to Instapundit, I saw this:
A public statement by Newspaper Guild President Linda Foley is reviving questions about the intentional targeting of journalists in Iraq by the U.S. armed forces.Frankly, I find it grimly amusing to hear a journalist complain about "being targeted verbally or politically". Uh, isn't that what you and your colleagues do for a living, Ms. Foley?
At a May 13 meeting in St. Louis, Foley said: "Journalists, by the way, are not just being targeted verbally or politically. They are also being targeted for real in places like Iraq. What outrages me as a representative of journalists is that there's not more outrage about the number, and the brutality, and the cavalier nature of the U.S. military toward the killing of journalists in Iraq."
As to the serious (but unsubstantiated) charge of the American military deliberately targeting journalists, in Iraq or elsewhere, here's one response:
At the Communications Workers of America, Candice Johnson said she could not provide any evidence for Foley's revival of the Eason Jordan charges. Linda Foley refused requests for an interview.Bingo.
Retired Air Force General Thomas McInerney, a Fox News military consultant, was "frankly astonished."
"It may be legitimate to investigate whether there may or may not have been an incident in which U.S. troops have targeted journalists, but there is no question at this point that major media figures are targeting the men and women of the United States military in Iraq, repeatedly and with no evidence," he said.
By the way, care to guess what the headline of the article was? Right the first time: Newspaper union leader: U.S. military targets journalists. (Of course, the opposite headline would have been equally appropriate -- "Retired General: U.S. media targets the military". But that wouldn't have been quite as sensational, would it?)
