one step closer

[piranha]

to Big Brother, the new US government reality show, all day, every day: the US military will now broadcast its own news coverage. and here some of us thought embedding was bad enough.

no, i don't buy the idea that allowing independent reports from war zones endangers american security per se -- there is absolutely no reason why we would need all news immediately. we don't actually need to watch cruise missiles live from the camera crews at a baghdad hotel. we can wait a day. we can wait several days if operational security is really an issue, not just a trumped up bat with which to beat a military blogger. but we damn well deserve the news, the real thing, from people who are not beholden to the government.

via antiwarblog.

Comments

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

I guess I need a hint. Why is this worse than embedded journalists who have to get pentagon approval to release whatever story they wish to report? Seems like switching from a prostitute to a mistress.

Actually, I take that back. I can see two things that are good about this. The first is that the Pentagon Propaganda Network will be safely ensconced away on channel 7362 of the Dish Network and no one worth worrying about will go there expecting an unbiased news source. The second is that now the real journalists will be able to return to their roots of finding stories and reporting them freely instead of being in an unholy alliance with the source of the material.

Re: one step closer

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

journalists who are there can at least save up what they experience until they return if they're not allowed to report it at the time. journalists who are there can occasionally hold some fire under the feet of the higher-ups, and ask inconvenient questions. journalists who aren't allowed to be there at all don't get that chance.

why do you think that journalists will now miraculously be able to return to the old days? i instead expect that there will be fewer and fewer allowed into the theatre of operations.

no one worth worrying about will go there expecting an unbiased news source

whatever trust i had left in the general ability of americans to assess the amount of propaganda with which they are bombarded disappeared after the last election. 51% worth worrying about were buying the shrubwad bullshit then.