U.S. Troops’ Shooting of Cameraman Probed (washingtonpost.com)
Mazen Dana, a 43-year-old journalist, was killed by U.S. soldiers Sunday while working outside Abu Ghraib prison on Baghdad’s outskirts after they apparently mistook his camera for a rocket-propelled grenade. His colleague, Nael Shyoukhi, said that shortly before the shooting a U.S. soldier at the prison had granted them permission to film. At least a half-dozen other journalists — cameramen, photographers and reporters — were working nearby, along a barren expanse intersected by a busy highway.
Today’s news organizations are completely out of control. It seems that everyone is so busy trying to report anything, that what it is, and if the news is true seem to take a back seat. Newspapers are discovering in shock that their journalists are fictionalizing portions and in some cases the entire content of their stories.
I am reminded of this as I read reports of journalists dying in Iraq. All I can think of is “why are they there in the first place?”. What has happened to our society that people think it is okay to watch War live on CNN. I understand the desire to know what is going on and what is happening in the world, but what value is it to us when we are watching commentary where the reporter creates five different hypotheses in 10 minutes and reports them as fact.