Stupid, Lazy Media

"do these soldiers shoot at every car that they see?"

Iraqi Information Deficit

Jeff Emanuel, a director of RedState,Com, while addressing CBS News' announcement that Perky was going to Iraq, made some intersting points in Iraqi Information Deficit   Here's a smatter. “ ... [T]he vast majority of reporters who come to Iraq take considerable precautions to keep them as much out of harm's way, often at the cost of eyewitness reporting and contextually accurate stories. Trips "outside the wire," as territory outside the safety of coalition bases and the IZ is called, are rare, and when they take place, their duration is brief. Whether in the interest of safety or of scheduling, hearsay is relied upon far more often than is eyewitness accounting when reporting events in Iraq's cities and at the battlefront. At a time when reporting that is both honest and accurate is more badly needed than ever, reporters are traveling all the way to Iraq and are, in the end, still settling for little more than the hearsay they could have access to at home. ” Here's the money shot. “ It is open to debate how much difference a firsthand view of events would make too many journalists' reports, given a fundamental lack of military experience. An example of this was recently given to me by an officer I spoke with at a previous embed site. While a reporter was riding along with his convoy, an improvised explosive device (IED) was discovered along the road by the officer's unit. Though the area around the IED was cordoned off to enable explosive ordnance disposal specialists to deal with the potentially deadly device, a vehicle persistently attempted to enter the secure area, ignoring verbal and signaled warnings, as well as flashing lights, all of which clearly indicated to stop. Finally, unwilling to take a chance in an area known for vehicle-borne IED attacks, the officer authorized a warning shot to be fired in the direction of the car, and the driver finally came to a stop. Not understanding what it was she was seeing -- or, worse, in an attempt to push an agenda -- the reporter openly wondered in her article the next day whether "these soldiers shoot at every car that they see." She had spent only one day in her embed. ” Quinn & Rose Hat Tip