Was Eason right?

Comments about the Pentagon targeting journalists in Iraq -- coupled with a drumbeat of criticism from wingnut bloggers, brought down CNN chief Eason Jordan. Apparently, the network's board was more anxious about the off-chance of becoming the next CBS than investigating whether outspoken war reporters are in the crosshairs.

But some may revisit Jordan's remarks after G.I.s fired on a car carrying a recently-freed leftist Italian journalist, Giuliana Sgrena.

Sgrena made headlines in recent days as she pleaded for her life in videos broadcast worldwide. The American fusillade killed an intelligence agent who negotiated the journalist's release, and who threw himself in the line of fire to protect the reporter he'd just freed.

From The Independent:

Gabriele Polo, editor of Il Manifesto, the independent Communist daily for which Ms Sgrena worked, fought back tears as he said: "An Italian agent has been killed by an American bullet ­ A tragic demonstration ... that everything that's happening in Iraq is senseless and mad." The Next Hurrah points out that Italians are likely to think immediately back to the 1998 ski lift disaster caused by American hotdogging pilots.

Many posters on Kos are careful to note that they blame the "civilian leadership" (a kind euphemism for chickenhawks in Washington, D.C. like Cheney and Bush) for putting our soldiers in this position, not the soldiers themselves.

Atrios thinks it's a "mistake" to read too much into this. The problem with the Pentagon's version of events is that it requires one to believe that high-level Italian security, charged with extracting an extremely high-profile captive, would ignore repeated and obvious warnings to stop their car.

They surely knew the dangers of not obeying orders -- why on earth would these professionals miss or disregard warnings? It's just not credible.

Posted on March 4, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mar 03, 2005

Gray Lady meets Gray Man

Check out the hilariously prim correction on the editorial page of the March 3rd edition of The New York Times. The item reads in full:

Correction

An Editorial Observer column in The Times yesterday incorrectly cited lyrics from a Michael Jackson song. The phrase "mamase mamasa mamakosa" ends the song "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," not "Working Day and Night."

Other Jackson lyrics giving fits to copywriters, fact-checkers and decency censors everywhere as his trial gets underway:

♦ CLICK TO READ ENTIRE ITEM...

Posted on March 3, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack