In reference to the CNN story found at http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/23/us.iraq.newspaper.censorship/index.html
In a story on its Web site, the newspaper known as Stripes said the military violated a congressional mandate of editorial independence by rejecting a request to embed reporter Heath Druzin with the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, which is attempting to secure the city of Mosul.
Ok, sounds like censorship at first, yes, but…
The military cited various problems in Druzin’s reporting on previous embed assignments with units of the division, according to the story.
One example noted by the military was a March 8 story that said many Mosul residents would like the American soldiers to leave and hand over security tasks to Iraqi forces, the Stripes Web site said.
“Despite the opportunity to visit areas of the city where Iraqi Army leaders, soldiers, national police and Iraqi police displayed commitment to partnership, Mr. Druzin refused to highlight any of this news,” Maj. Ramona Bellard, a public affairs officer, wrote in denying Druzin’s embed request, according to the Stripes story.
The military since the Gulf War or so has been very, very good abut accommodating reporters with their embedded reporting program. Why? Because there’s no reason not to. With the exception of a few isolated incidents (like prisons and such), our military is a bunch of professionals doing a job well.
It’s is no secret that a lot of people want us out of their country. So moch so that I don’t see the point of reporting on it. And I have relatives and friends on the ground in Iraq who have witnessed horrible travesties of biased reporting.
An embedded reporter with a friends’ unit chose to do a “story” on the death toll and insurgent activity. There was nothing new in this story, nothing that took effort. It was numbers. He was typing this up, while the unit was doing repairs to a school building and handing our supplies to children. Why did he go with he story that he did? “Nobody wants to read that nice stuff”.
I’d beg to differ, but I don’t beg, so I’ll just differ. It brings a HUGE smile to my face when I see stories about the good things happening around the world, and especially with our troops.
So, the military didn’t “censor” this guy. The offered to have a different reporter even. I don’t blame them for a bit.