I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the CBS freelance reporter who was wounded during a gunfight between our soldiers and some terrorists. Plus the fact that he was detained. Now comes word the reason for his detainment:
A CBS stringer has been arrested as a suspected insurgent, U.S. military officials said Friday.
The video cameraman was wounded during a firefight in northeastern Mosul between U.S. troops and insurgents Tuesday.
U.S. military officials said the man’s camera held footage of a number of roadside bomb attacks against American troops, and they believe he was tipped off to those attacks?
..In a written statement, the network said the man was referred to the network by a “fixer” in Tikrit “who has had a trusted relationship with CBS News for two years.”
“It is common practice in Iraq for Western news organizations to hire local cameramen in places considered too dangerous for Westerners to work effectively,” the network said.
Although this might be common practice it also seems quite suspicious. Do they want to get the footage of another assassination of election workers so bad that they will hire terrorists themselves to do the photo taking?
As Greyhawk said today:
It seems likely that CBS and perhaps other organizations are paying those with close access to terrorists in Iraq to obtain video of terrorist activities.
Whats also very interesting is the fact that CNN not so long admitted that they kept certain stories under wraps for fear of showing Saddam and his fellow terrorists in a bad light. But now if they can show the terrorists killing American soldiers this is ok….
Getting back to this CBS terrorist, Mary over at Dean’s World brings up the fact that some important information about this incident hasn’t been getting much news:
Leaving out a fact that could be considered essential:
A US military statement said troops also shot and killed an insurgent who was waving an AK-47 assault rifle and inciting a crowd of civilians at the site of a suicide bombing in eastern Mosul.
That was left out of the CBS report too.
Kinda important don’t ya thing? And I couldn’t agree more with Robin over at Random Probabilities:
It?s beginning to look as if that means that the news networks may in fact not just be reporting the news but are also aligning themselves with one side in an armed conflict. And in this case, that side appears to be the side that is blowing up schools and shops, killing Iraqi police and attacking U.S. soldiers.
Is that any different from embedding reporters with multinational or Iraqi government troops? That depends, I guess, on whether you can assert, with a straight face, that there are no significant differences between the two sides. I know where I come down on that issue.
Check out Chrenkoff, Rathergate, The Baltimore Reporter, & Villainous Company for more info.
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