Distributed Mind

An interesting timeline of deaths of journalists in Iraq caused by American military forces. I am not familiar in detail with all of these cases, but I read briefly a little while back about some of them, and I think the list is probably accurate. (Now that I knocked the quality of journalism a while ago, I am completely paranoid, and seem to be addicted to strong disclaimers, in case you hadn't noticed.) The point of this list is not that American troops have necessarily targeted any journalists, but rather that that interpretation of events is not a completely irrational one. In fact, it is a quite reasonable interpretation.

Personally, I don't know whether any journalists were killed deliberately or not. I think there was some very questionable things that happened, and even if there has not been maliciousness, there certainly seems that there has been some negligence. There is no question that the military and the government has taken a rather cavalier attitude about the journalists who have died (or in one case tortured). I roughly agree with the author, who writes,

You don't have to buy any theories about the military deliberately targetting journalists to recognize that there's been a clear pattern throughout this war of indifference to the deaths of reporters, mixed in with a good deal of harrassment. In a truly democratic country, with any interest in freedom of the press, that would call for investigations and a serious look at what could be done to make sure reporters aren't killed by soldiers who are stressed or who haven't been given information they need.

What is most ironic about all of this is that it strikes me that, given the evidence, to act the way some people did about Eason Jordan's remark is much less rational, I am inclined to think, than Jordan's remark itself.

I certainly hope he was entirely wrong, or more so that others who make similar claims are wrong (since Jordan seems to have not really thought about this fully). But I think we need to acknowledge the possibility he was right. More importantly, we need to acknowledge that the attitude displayed by the United States government and military regarding the incidents is unacceptable.