My thoughts on life, relationships, and everything else!

Friday, March 04, 2005

why are reporters allowed in the line of fire?

Every night on the news, there is a reporter who is reporting from a warzone...and oftem alongside a unit of soldiers. Many people think this is a good idea, we get the real news this way, right? Not really.The news is still edited and semi-censored when we get it. And thats another issue i have with the reporters in Iraq...if we are telling people in the US we are looking for someone, we are telling the people we are looking for also, and if they know we are looking, they are goiong to hide. We watch Al Jazeera, they watch CNN.
Also, these reporters are not military trained, and even if they are prior service, they are not out there fighting, they do not carry a gun and protect themselves, and are drawing a few more soldiers into even more danger. By not only protecting themselves, but also an unarmed journalist, they are bound to be distracted. To me, i think we should have a new MOS(job) in the military, national journalist. yes i know they do have journalists, but i mean like an anchor to send reports to US tv, so we get the news we need, no more no less, and they are not compromised. Also, they wouldn't be in so much danger or as big of a burden to the unit bc they can hold their own and the military knows where it is ok to report from and where its not.Otherwise, i think journalism from the middle east should be held to a minimum. This isn't some sort of entertainment or a "let's free the polar bears" report, this is peoples lives at stake, it just seems unsafe to me.