December 09, 2003
EMBEDDED OR ... ENTOMBED?
You a journalist? Hey, me too! We’d better stick together, because the US and Israeli governments are fixing to kill us all:
There is a growing fear that some governments - especially the most militarily sophisticated like the United States and Israel - are sanctioning the active targeting of journalists in war zones. The evidence is that they want to shut down what we are there to do - to bear witness and report.
The concern is that there is an apparent culture of impunity. This is already encouraging others to believe they can get away with targeting and eliminating journalists, or at least ignoring the issue. More than ever, we are inconvenient eyes and ears who monitor and report what some in power would much prefer we did not.
That’s the BBC’s Nik Gowing, returning to his favourite theme: "Governments are trying to shut us up, if necessary using lethal force."
(Via David Steven, who is somehow still alive.)
Posted by Tim Blair at December 9, 2003 01:27 AMyou're right in the illuminati's crosshairs, bucko
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at December 9, 2003 at 01:30 AMDon't want to be targeted by US military? Then stop going on joy rides with your Baathist buddies.
Posted by: iowahawk at December 9, 2003 at 01:42 AMBBC the mother of all lies
Showing us once again what happens when Government funds a news org. then removes restraint and accountability. phooe
Posted by: papertiger at December 9, 2003 at 01:59 AM> Governments are trying to shut us up, if necessary using lethal force.
Remind me - why is this bad?
Posted by: Andy Freeman at December 9, 2003 at 03:16 AMDana had already been hit 60 times by what he and witnesses always said was Israeli Defence Force, IDF, targeting in the West Bank.
Amazing. "Targeted" and "hit" by the IDF 60 times, and he still made it to Baghdad
Posted by: Ohad at December 9, 2003 at 03:20 AM"Amazing. 'Targeted' and 'hit' by the IDF 60 times, and he still made it to Baghdad."
I thought the only forces that shot this badly were movie Nazis and the Storm Troopers from "Star Wars."
Posted by: E.A. at December 9, 2003 at 04:37 AM"Governments are trying to shut us up, if necessary using lethal force."
At last, our tax dollars working for us.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at December 9, 2003 at 09:43 AMHmm no mention of the journalists that were killed by the Palestinians, or the ones that were threatened after filming Palestinians celebrating every time Israelis were blown up.
Posted by: Jono at December 9, 2003 at 10:36 AMThey ain't doing a very good job then, are they? What else can you expect from the government. Now, maybe they should contract out the job. I know the Ghurkas are looking for extra work.
Posted by: Razor at December 9, 2003 at 11:14 AMIf a journo barracks for the other side, he/she loses non-combatant status and is fair game IMO.
Posted by: os at December 9, 2003 at 12:01 PMBWHAHAHAH!
That's just TOO rich. Truly, the vast majority of the lamestream media have no conception of military capability. If the U.S. Armed forces wanted a bunch of clueless wussies like the media dead, the media would already BE dead.
Fucking dumbasses.
Posted by: Eichra Oren at December 9, 2003 at 12:19 PMYeah, just look how the US troops killed Danny Pearl and those journalists ambushed on a highway in Afghanistan. All that stuff about jihadis and Taliban doing it was just propaganda, and if they'd just loosen my straightjacket I'd show you the evidence I have stored in an eggplant. Millenium hand and shrimp I said...
Posted by: Michael Lonie at December 9, 2003 at 04:08 PME.A.,
Um, aren't you forgetting the Italians, circa 194-1945?
Posted by: Jerry at December 10, 2003 at 01:27 AMThey have treatments for paranoid schidzophrenia now, so why isn't Nick Gowing under treatment? Could it be a failure of socialized medicine?
Posted by: rabidfox at December 10, 2003 at 02:03 AMShot for incompetence. Can we spread this meme over to the political arena.
I have a little list.
Posted by: Fred at December 10, 2003 at 04:39 AMA self-important buffoon like Gowing isn't worth the price of a bullet.
Posted by: Polymath at December 10, 2003 at 09:02 AMNo, that can't be right. If they were really worried about "lethal threats" then they'd suddenly be our bestest friends in the world, burying stories to avoid any possible offense and snuggling up with secret-police minders like contented little puppies. I guess Gowing missed CNN's memo.
Posted by: Bryan C at December 10, 2003 at 10:14 AM