I really thought I would have the time to do a whole series of articles on media miscues during Gulf War II. But April was busy. My kids are doing special homeschool projects; we went on a fishing trip where our catfish dinner came from Wal-Mart; and the fact is, this war, thank God, didn't last long enough for there to be a "whole series of articles".
Media miscues? There were several. First of all and worst of all, few in the US media reported on US troop attacks on journalists as actual attacks. As with Afghanistan, Al-Jazeera's offices were hit by US fire, probably on purpose, though the official version (duly reported in the US media, if the incident was reported at all)will never admit that. Then the US hit Baghdad's Palestine Hotel where many independent (non-embedded) journalists were holed up, under the pretext that "snipers" were hiding in the hotel. Two journalists were killed in that one. Conspiracy theorists claim that the US did that to punish journalists who refused to be "embedded". I don't believe that, but I do believe the attack on Al-Jazeera was deliberate.
Follow these links if you missed these stories:
http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/arti...
Dead correspondent was deliberately targeted by US troops
Al Jazeera in English, down for the count for the second two weeks of the Iraq war by US- based hackers, but not out--for that is the nature of truth--continues to report on the suffering of the Iraqi people. Whether you are lucky enough to get its English satellite TV broadcasts or whether you get your news over the Internet, Jazeera is back up after all. As for those who doubt the US is targeting them, don't forget that the US blew them up in Afghanistan as well as Basra; now, two al Jazeera people are dead from US attacks on its office in Baghdad. Also, Abu-Dhabi TV--another network that had independents (meaning non-embeds) working in Baghdad, almost lost people. Abu Dhabi TV is one of the networks that regularly transmit broadcasts over the Worldlink Channel (375 on DirecTV) show called "Mosaic: News Reports from the Middle East". Finally, two Rueters correspondents at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad were killed by US fire, the official lie being that the hotel housed "snipers".
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=2003...
Dark day for journalists in Iraq
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commen...
Robert Fisk: Is there some element in the US military that wants to take out journalists?
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=2003...
DOD says reporter deaths sad, unavoidable
