Originally Posted By JohnS1 Excuse me if this topic has been covered, but I haven't seen it anywhere. What do all of you think about CNN receiving a video filmed by terrorist snipers which shows them shooting US soldiers. And then CNN broadcasts the video, showing US soldiers beign struck by terrorist bullets. When I saw this, I coudn't help but think of the time that a CNN reporter interviewed a US general?? (sorry.. my memory is not exact) and started the interview by stating that he (the reporter) had recently interviewed a terrorist about the Iraq/Afghanistan wars and the general interrupted the reporter and asked, "Did you arrest him? Did you report his position to the US forces?" and the CNN reporter said, "No, that's not my job. I merely report the news." And at that time, as now, I couldn't help but wonder what WWII would have been like if American news people would have gone into Germany and interviewed Nazi officers as to their views on the war, or maybe put Hitler on 60-Minutes so we are sure to get his position on things. Doesn't CNN cross a line by actions such as these? Should reporters be reporters first and Americans next? Or is news all international now, and reporters no longer belong to, or should be expected to support the country in which their news organization is headquartered?
Originally Posted By jonvn People like that are flat out traitors. It's why people hate the press. Disgusting, really. But it's a snapshot of corporate attitude all across the country. No sense of right or wrong, or loyalty or patriotism. Just out for the buck and NOTHING ELSE.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut its not like these videos are new to the us or the world. They have been floating around for years. The terrorists produce them, send them out and than invite news agencies in. Of course they are going to go and interview them. For the same reason we show the Osama tapes. People will watch it. Good idea? Not really, but I am not surprised one bit.
Originally Posted By DlandJB Unless reporters are trained as soldiers and acting under orders, they should not take steps toward violence against the enemy on their own. They could end up as hostages and put our troops in greater harm. That isn't to say that they shouldn't report back everything they can about the location and surroundings and let the trained military take it from there. Most of the time these guys/women will be blindfolded before they are taken to the subject anyway. And the networks should be discerning about what they air. But reporters are their to report and not to be soldiers.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Doesn't CNN cross a line by actions such as these?<< They do. I don't want to see these images, and imagine the horror of the family members of these soldiers. That said.... I think with war in general, and this war in particular, we the people are very insulated and protected from seeing what war is actually like. We get lots of speeches and flag imagery and catch phrases, all of which may be correct. But there is a cost in going to war that we're shielded from. We've not even seen flag draped coffins as the body count rises. The last time a military funeral made the news is when the maniac Fred Phelps and his nutball 'church' decided to protest at military funerals with his hateful messages. I know these images are meant, by the terrorists anyway, to break America's spirit. It's immoral for CNN to play into their hands. And yet, there's something deeply immoral as well about the way war is so packaged and sanitized and talked about in similar terms as if it were just a football game that must be won. It frightens me how thick the rhetoric is, how easily many seem to be ready to instantly jump to a 'military solution' (and that's not just America -- that seems to be hard-wired into human beings). Being informed, making informed decisions, means truly understanding at least some of the true, blood & guts horrors that a decision to go to war entails, and not in some vague abstract way. When we commit our troops to battle, we must always keep asking 'is it worth it'? And if it is worth it, how about your own son or daughter, what if it were them? It has to be that personal.
