Two German journalists working for Deutsche Welle were shot by unknown persons in northern Afghanistan while camping in a tent overnight. Afghanistan is still a war zone no matter how many times the Bush administration trots out puppet Hamid Karzai (as if that act makes Afghanistan a civilized democratic republic).
Because of the conditions in Afghanistan, it is understandable that reporters can die while covering the war there. But what is one to think when a veteran war reporter is killed on the streets of her home town?
Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent Russian journalist who worked for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was known as a fierce critic of the rights abuses commited by Russian troops in Chechnya. Ms. Politkovskaya was found shot dead in an elevator at her apartment block in Moscow. The murder weapon was found at her side - a sign of a professional hit.
At least in America, the reporter who covers the story of US Marines in Iraq who murdered an Iraqi man and tried to plant evidence that the shooting was justified won't get killed for this reportage - yet - but I wouldn't hold out much hope for the Navy Corpsman testifying against these Marines, even if the Navy has already transferred him to another base.
That is itself a topic for another post.
Here in America, reporters and other publishing staff still suffer consequences for their story reporting, even if death isn't likely to be on the list. For instance, Los Angeles Times Publisher Jeffrey Johnson has been forced to resign by the Tribune Co., owner of the Times, after publicly supporting a published protest by Times Editor Dean Baquet against the additional staff cuts demanded by Tribune.
Johnson stood up for what is right for his staff, and it cost him his job. He shows an integrity which is all too rare in American journalism today.
So does Jesus Diaz Jr., now ex-publisher of the Miami Herald, who resigned after three reporters (fired for conflict of interest after it was discovered that they were being paid by Radio Marti, a US government-run propaganda broadcasting entity) were to be rehired. He believes the journalists' acceptance of these payments "was a breach of widely accepted principles of journalistic ethics."
Article comments
1 - Donnie Marler
I wasn't aware the Marines had been tried yet, much less convicted.
2 - Bliffle
We can expect more suppression of news and dissent as government and media institutions get more concentrated and monopolistic. Government and media are becoming more intertwined and so we can expect even more pressure on reporters to conform to Administration policy. Whatever that administration might be, republican or democrat. It's alarming to me that this sovietization is coming from my republican party, which I always considered as Defenders Of Liberty.
3 - SFC SKI
Nice conflation of the acts of a few individuals against journalists with another intimidation campaign conspiracy. Word to the wise, if you are in a war zone, sitting on a rooftop pointing a set of binoculars at US personel while talking on a cellphone and having your partner lift a large object with a cylindrical protrusion on the front of it is a way to get killed.
As for the Marines, I'll wait until the courtmmartial ends, but why do you bring it up at all? I don't believe any journalists were present, nor were they intimidated regarding this case. For that matter, another journalist commented on the actions and statements of a servicemember accused in a different case, and he was allowed to speak on several national news shows.
All in all, I think you'll have to work a bit harder to make your assertions valid.
4 - scout
pess, this is a nice piece. You asked some great questions; and our cultural 'leaders' of the past 100 years have done just that: led us to pursue our depravity/collection of desires in an effort for profit and world hegemony.
What's amazing is just how fast a relatively OK country can fall apart. In just a few short years we have a country that out-strips Sodom, Gomorrha, to become a homosexual haven, torture standard, corporate dictatorship, deviant loving, torture lovers, a nation full of and controlled by anti-Christs.
For all you youngsters that love this mess that my generation capped, I am so very, very sorry. For it would have been far better to die a Christian hypocrite, than die a demon idolizer. I am so sick.
Pess, I know you touched upon this, but the problem is not with some made-up sanctity of the media front line players that we label, ‘journalists,’ but the very mind set of evil that they suppose as normal thinking. If journalists believe the following as normal, zero discipline and respect in education, females with authority over men, females with political power, divorce, marriage after divorce, unborn infanticide, homosexuality/pedophilia, the total destruction of true Christianity, zero border control while absolute airport control, zero immigration policy, 1000 military bases around the world, corporate manifest destiny, just to mention a few items, then how can we have unbiased reporting? It is impossible.
The above kinda reminds me of the American Indians that worked with the early anthropologists, then watched the anthropologists write crap about them. Where were these scientists when they needed a little publicity to help them against the American corp military? I’ll tell you: living their lives like any American middle class kook, and with the same total carelessness. I think you see my point.
Without accountability, there is no truth in media. The only standard of measurement is Biblical, for it is there where we have the only real existing mirror. And we ain’t going to like it one bit.
5 - ss
So who you voting for, Scout?
6 - Jay Drai
Nachshon Draiman Conviction for the death of a patient and abuse in his Mill View nursing homes in Niles, Illinois. R1
Nachshon Draiman - Multiut Corp. â€" Future Associates Fraud
You will note that State and Federal Court records in Illinois and elsewhere are replete with lawsuits, judgments and wrongdoing by Nachshon Draiman and his companies. Causing the death of patients in the Nursing homes and a lawsuit by the State of Illinois with civil and criminal conviction People v. Gurell, Nachshon Draiman (1983), 98 Ill.2d 194, 207, 74 Ill.Dec. 516, 456 N.E.2d 18.). Abusing nursing home patients see State of Illinois records.
See People of the State of Illinois vs. Gurell, Nachshon Draiman et al â€" 456 N.E.2d 18 there has been numerous patient abuse and deaths due to that abuse. In 127 Ill.App.3d 1165, 483 N.E.2d 731, 91 Ill.Dec. 385 Sonnenberg v. Mill View Associates, Nachshon Draiman where millions of dollars had to be paid as damages for abuse and death of a patient, not to mention numerous patients who died falling down an elevator shaft.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian W. Ellis Claims he has DNA forensic evidence that Nachshon Draiman - Multiut forged and modified documents presented to the Court in his lawsuit against his brother Yehuda J. Draiman
The Supposed 1991 IMA Agreement Put Into Evidence by Multiut â€" Nachshon Draiman Is a Fraud
The evidence overwhelmingly favors Yehuda Draimans' account of events. There are at least eight separate, independent indicators that Nachshon Draiman deceptively modified an IMA Agreement that Yehuda received and signed in 1989, added terms to which Yehuda never agreed, including the incorporation of an unsigned Employee Confidentiality Agreement, and inserted a false date of execution to create the document introduced as Plaintiff's Exhibit 10. First, Defendants' expert forensic ink analyst, Erich Speckin, testified that he found manufacturer date tags in the ink for the disputed writings on Plaintiff's Exhibit 10, and that the sequence of those date tags establishes without question that the ink was manufactured in 1993, two years after Nachshon Draiman said he made the writings. (8/14/02 Tr., at 2214-25) That testimony is undisputed.
It is a known fact that justice in Chicago can be swayed in your favor with proper incentives. The trial judge left the bench after this case when the court ignored overwhelming evidence against Multiut and Nachshon Draiman and other cases were investigated by the government.
Nachshon Draiman’s intimidation of witnesses, blackmail and other scare tactics will not work.
Nachshon Draiman defrauds Israel Discount Bank in Hotel financing to the tune of $45 million dollars.
Utilizing modified and fabricated sales contract of units in the Jerusalem Pearl purchased and totally paid for by 1. Nachshon Draiman, 2. Elitzur Draiman, 3. Irwin Katz a former Federal Judge and part owner of Multiut, 4. Barry Ray, 5. Danny Shabat, 6. Gershon Bassman, 7. Dr. Sam Lipschitz, 8. It seems presenting false and deceptive documents is a way of life for Nachshon Draiman
Nachshon Draiman presented a forged College Diploma to the Illinois Department of Registration in order to receive his Nursing Home Administrator’s license No. 44001323.
For More Information See: www.antidefamationusa.com.